Sustaining Pastoral Excellence

Pastors are faced with a difficult task in connecting with church members of all ages. Many churches hire children’s and youth pastors to take on the special needs of those age groups. But within the adult population there is also a wide spectrum of ages, ideas, and stages of life. A book published last year by the Alban Institute examines this phenomenon, and how to thoughtfully and productively reach the younger adult population in churches often geared toward those in the mid-to-late stages of life.

Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation
by Carol Howard Merritt
2007

We often disregard the important assets that adults under forty can offer us. In the denominational church, leadership positions are given to people who prove themselves in some way. Usually they’re people who have a great deal of influence, time, or money. This makes sense. As a church builds its leadership, as pastors and committees search congregations for elders and deacons, they look for the strongest possible links to make up that leadership chain, and if that person has established themselves in a community by gaining power, donating time, or giving money, then it’s likely that they will be a solid leader in the church. They will use their influence positively, put in the valuable hours, and devote their resources to the work and mission of the church. Every congregation needs these important commodities to minister effectively.

The problem is that young people usually do not have power, time, or money. But they have other things: potential, creativity, imagination, vision, and ideas. As the modern philosopher Hannah Arendt explains in The Life of the Mind, if we look at a person’s lifespan in a linear fashion, we can see that a person at the beginning of the line looks forward, while a person at the end of the line looks backward. Younger people have a natural orientation toward planning while older people have an inclination to reminisce. …

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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.

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.

There are a growing number of books being written about “invisible” leadership - some backed by research. I have not yet worked may way through enough of these materials to have created a firm personal opinion. But I was intrigued that Duke University’s Sustaining Pastoral Excellence newsletter included an article on this topic for church leaders. Although there is much to challenge in this article, there is also much to consider. So the link is below if you would like to take a look!

http://www.divinity.duke.edu/programs/spe/articles/200802/1.html

Reflections On Excellence In Ministry

Faithful To The Call

A report on consultations by the Fund for Theological Education named 10 attributes of an excellent minister. These attributes highlight what was heard from ministers participating in the FTE consultations on Excellence in Ministry. The list is not intended to be exhaustive nor exclusive, but it does highlight attributes of excellence worth reflecting on.

1. Excellence ministers believe what they are proclaiming. Excellent ministers remain captivated by the story of the Gospel and cannot leave it alone.
2. Excellent ministers love their communities.
3. Excellent ministers display agility, flexibility and grace under pressure.
4. Excellent ministers know how to ask the right questions.
5. Excellent ministers are courageous.
6. Excellent ministers lead with strength and humility. Excellent ministers . . . are compelling people with a remarkabl capacity to turn attention away from themselves and lift up the work of Christ.
7. Excellent ministers know their limits. To be persuasive in their Christian witness, ministers must cultivate a strong sense of self-awareness.
8. Excellent ministers have thriving imagination.
9. Excellent ministers embrace lifelong learning.
10. Excellent ministers mentor.

This list did not provide precise definition for each of these attributes. However, the list does add to the dialog of excellence.

Eugene Cho, pastor of Quest Church in Seattle, is blogging on pastoral health.