North Park Theological Seminary’s Thriving in Ministry grant is focusing on three main areas: Thriving Prophetically, Thriving Spiritually, and Thriving Vocationally. Our goal is to develop and implement programs and initiatives that will support our pastors in these key areas of their ministry. We intend to do this by: Developing peer-mentoring programs; Providing opportunities for pastors to explore the connection between their pastoral calling and social issues facing the church and world today, and; Creating continuing education opportunities for trained spiritual directors who are either themselves pastors or are providing spiritual direction to pastors, helping them enhance their interior life. To fulfill this goal we are committed to working with our pastors to determine how best we can serve them in reaching this goal and ensuring that the efforts we invest in through this grant will have a long lasting impact on the ability of our pastors to thrive in ministry.
The PLNU Center for Pastoral Leadership is excited about the potential to further its mission to resource pastors and partner with them in ministry through the Ministerial Coaching Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to provide professional developmental coaching to church-planting pastors, pastors serving small-membership churches and pastors serving congregations serving communities of color. Through a personal and cohort coaching model, encouraging peer-to-peer connection and resourcing between pastors, this initiative provides tailored training that addresses the specific leadership challenges these pastors encounter. We hope to help pastors navigate the unprecedented challenges they face today with congruence, authenticity and courage.
Located in Harlem, New York City, City Seminary of New York seeks in its five-year grant to support its Thriving in Ministry Initiative project. This is an effort to cultivate an expansive community of pastoral practice across often disconnected ministries and church traditions in the metropolitan area. Through collaborative inquiry and praxis reflection groups, spiritual direction retreats, portraiture, and annual gatherings, City Seminary hopes to connect pastors in similar and different seasons of ministry to a community of support and encouragement. The project proposes to nurture clergy faith and spirituality, invite clergy to listen to their congregational members, explore the importance of their family and intergenerational interactions, and make space for them to reflect on their congregation’s mission and purpose in a complex and ever-changing urban setting. City Seminary will incorporate project activities into its ongoing graduate and non-degree programs and its operating budget. The overarching vision is to make Thriving in Ministry part of the fabric of our seminary life now and into the future.
Project Name:
Enhancing Mission: Thriving Pastors and Beeson Divinity School
Description:
Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, an interdenominational theological school within a Christian university rooted in the Baptist tradition, seeks a five-year grant to support its Enhancing the Mission: Beeson Divinity School and Thriving Pastors program. The program aims to help pastors thrive in congregational leadership by improving the quality of mentoring and peer relationships for pastors, especially during seasons of transition in life and ministry. Led by a faculty director and associate director, the program will: 1) organize pastoral peer groups for Beeson alumni to meet monthly for fellowship, prayer, and vocational development; and 2) host conferences and workshops for pastors to address leadership challenges encountered in specific ministry settings and transitions. Such settings include church plants or revitalizations and bi-vocational settings. Initially the program leadership will focus on three ministry transitions: 1) new pastors in the first five years in ministry; 2) clergy making a transition from assistant/associate roles to lead/senior pastor roles; and 3) pastors enduring various kinds of trauma, tragedy, or other involuntary transitions. Through its established faculty and staff and growing alumni network, Beeson aims to serve churches by enriching and supporting their pastors. Program leadership and development officers will work with school and university administration to make the program sustainable in the coming years.
Project Name:
Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy
Description:
Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy is a two-year program for pastors who are serving small churches, churches in communities of color, and church plants and re-plants. Part of the Presbytery of Philadelphia’s Ministry and Leadership Incubator, this program is based upon the conviction that healthy leaders shape healthy congregations. The program uplifts a “theology of enough” both within the pastors and these contexts, which are often under-resourced and with their leaders facing burnout. Through cohorts of 10-12 pastors each, participants intentionally focus on “being enough, practicing enough, and offering enough” by being resourced through regular small group gatherings, retreats, deep rest, and one-on-one support. After completing the program, pastors are encouraged to be resources for incoming cohorts, spurning a larger culture of wellness within the named contexts of the presbytery by nurturing a connectional spirit alongside their peers of pastors. Inspiring pastors in these particular settings encourages health and vitality among these congregations in order to better transform their communities with the love and justice of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Project Name:
Pastoral Excellence Program: Thriving in Ministry
Description:
Columbia Theological Seminary seeks a five-year grant for its Thriving in Ministry Initiative project, an effort to support pastors in times of personal and professional transitions. Based in its Center for Lifelong Learning, Columbia will establish two new programs and enhance a third. First, Columbia will offer a series of colloquies for peer groups for black pastors, Latino/a clergy, clergy serving in rural ministry settings, and pastors serving particular populations. Peer groups will consist of 12 clergy each and will gather for two, three-day colloquies facilitated by two experienced clergy. Second, Columbia will create the Healthy Transitions program to provide support for clergy facing forced termination from their congregational ministries. Finally, Columbia will expand its Leadership in Ministry workshops, which provide pastors the opportunities to reflect on their ministries with peers and mentors. To sustain this project Columbia will charge modest program fees and seek support from donors.