Sustaining Pastoral Excellence

The external life of pastors, like all individuals, is deeply affected by his or her interior struggles, challenges, and discussions. Dr. W. Craig Gilliam, the director for The Center for Pastoral Effectiveness for the Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, has written an article published by the Duke University SPE Newsletter that examines five inner “voices” that pastors need to pay attention to. “Over the years, I have found five attitudes, or “voices,” that are symptoms of interior struggle, he writes.

“When these attitudes surface, when we hear these voices, we need to pay attention. If we do, we will almost always discover that something is going on not just around us, but deep within us. If we ignore these symptoms, however, we may find our congregations becoming more resistant, anxious and stuck—and find ourselves at a loss to understand why.”

Read the entire article here.

“Sabbath is a break from routine, a change of pace. In the midst of your busyness and achieving, God calls you to rest, to lay aside your to-do lists and let the sabbath be different than the rest of your days….”

Judith Schwanz from the Alban Institute asks some tough questions of pastors as they consider their own practice of keeping the Sabbath, as well as provides logical and thoughtful reasons for the importance of adhering to the practice. Read her article here.

This spring the Africa region gathering for Covenant World Mission brought individuals from all over the continent, serving as career, project, and short-term missionaries in a variety of capacities. SPE was excited to join the partnership with these individuals, as we have had the privilege to do in Southeast Asia and Europe, and will do this summer in Latin America. This gathering included a workshop that focused on the pastoral art of teaching, as the North American workshops have done this past year. “Teaching the Bible in Traditional Oral Cultures” was led by Rev. Reuben Ezemadu from Nigeria, who serves as African continent coordinator for Movement for African National Initiatives (MANI). Read the full story from the Covenant News Service here.

We are pleased to announce the beginnings of a network of resource persons within the Covenant to assist other pastors and laity in accessing the ministry of spiritual direction. This list, organized by Church Conferences, contains the names and email addresses of individuals who have volunteered their availability for this endeavor.

Follow this link to reach an in-progress bibliography of books and other resources for those interested in exploring Spiritual Direction.

Rev. David J. Wood has been serving as the Fund for Theological Education’s coordinator of the Transitions into Ministry program for the past 5 years. “TiM” is funded through the Lilly Endowment, and now includes more than 35 projects in congregational and denominational settings. Wood has written the article linked below which outlines some of the lessons TiM has learned about how to encourage and sustain ministers beginning with their very first calls.

http://www.divinity.duke.edu/programs/spe/articles/200804/transition.html

Christianity Today recently published an interesting article discussing the importance of those in ministry to nurture spiritual disciplines apart from their “church work.” Check it out here.

Religion in the News

A new report on the U.S. religious landscape from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life made headlines across the country. Below are two links for a series of demographic studies.

http://www.divinity.duke.edu/programs/spe/articles/200803/5.html

The Pew Forum: http://religions.pewforum.org/

The Pew Forum has some very valuable studies. There are good demographic breakdowns on a variety of topics of interest to pastoral leaders.

During 2006 and 2007 the Department of the Ordered Ministry undertook an extensive set of trips to listen to Covenant ministers from all over North America. The purpose of these trips was to tap into the wisdom embedded in our ministerial community. The hope was to discern the formation and developmental needs of clergy as we continue the journey of excellence into the future. Hundreds of conversations later we discovered a clear clustering around 6 major themes. (more…)

Below is a short listing of books that are excellent resources for anyone desiring to take a look at congregational systems.

  “Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading”, by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. Harvard Business School Press, 2002.

 “Leading Change in the Congregation: Spiritual and Organizational Tools for Leaders”, by Gil Rendle. An Alban Institute Publication, 1998.

 “Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous no Matter What”, by Peter L. Steinke. An Alban Institute Publication, 2006.

 This is a good”package” of books to read together.

The internet has produced a resource explosion.  It seems like the challenge is finding the time to sift and sort through a mountain of material for what might be most useful for a given focus.  When it comes to the emotional health and vitality of pastors and clergy couples Peter Scazzero, author of “The Emotionally Healthy Church” provides a web site with useful and user-friendly resources.  Below is the link.

http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/about/articles.asp

Peter was a well received Midwinter Conference workshop presenter a few years ago.