Sustaining Pastoral Excellence

The Louisville Institute, a Lilly Endowment-funded program based at Louisville Seminary, has announced the availability of a new round of Sabbatical Grants for Pastoral Leaders.

These awards, either $10,000 or $15,000 for extended sabbatical periods, offer pastoral leaders “a chance to step out and step back from the pace and pressures of ministry.”

For more information about eligibility requirements and applications visit their web site:

http://www.louisville-institute.org/Grants/programs/sgpldetail.aspx

The Louisville Institute is a Lilly Endowment-funded program based at Louisville Seminary supporting those who lead and study American religious institutions. The fundamental mission of the Louisville Institute is to enrich the religious life of American Christians and to encourage the revitalization of their institutions, by bringing together those who lead religious institutions with those who study them, so that the work of each might inform and strengthen the other.

“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.

By Bob Wells
SPE Spotlight

Though 1300-miles apart, the Revs. Tim Bukowski and Greg Du Bois had much in common a year and a half ago. Ministers in the Evangelical Covenant Church, they both pastored small congregations, Bukowski in Machesney Park, Ill., and Du Bois in Glenburn, Maine. They were both married, with families to support. And in mid-career, after 20 years as a pastor for Bukowski and 11 and a half for Du Bois, they were both discouraged and increasingly questioning their call to ministry.

“I was feeling stuck,” recalls Bukowski. “Things were becoming routine and mechanical. I was looking for something to help me come out of that and to help me go into deeper water. I felt like I was thirsty for something, but I just wasn’t able to name it.”

“I was at a time in my ministry when I had become uncertain about whether or not I was cut out to be a pastor,” says Du Bois. “Although I could see spiritual growth in a few individuals in my church, overall the congregation was reluctant to reach out and share the gospel. I wondered if the church just closed its doors, would anyone in town even notice?”

In May 2006, however, Bukowski and Du Bois spent a life-changing week on a “Revisioning Retreat” with eight other pastors at Pilgrim Pines, an Evangelical Covenant camp and conference center in Swanzey, N.H. Part of a much broader Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program sponsored by the Evangelical Covenant Church, the revisioning retreats are designed to give pastors a chance to examine deeply their sense of call in a safe and supportive environment, according to the Rev. Dan Pietrzyk, SPE director for the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Read more

Pastors need to be healthy - in every way. Not perfect. Not saintly. Not complete. But, yet, committed to experience holistic health which includes ‘physical’ or ‘medical health.’ This article from the Pulpit & Pew (Research on Pastoral Leadereship) speaks to the issue of importance of health in pastoral ministry:

Although data is limited, research indicates that some of the most critical issues facing clergy appear to be in the areas of weight, mental health, heart disease and stress:

• A national survey of more than 2,500 religious leaders conducted last year by Pulpit and Pew, a research project on pastoral leadership based at Duke Divinity School, found that 76 per cent of clergy were either overweight or obese, compared to 61 per cent of the general population.

• The same study also found that 10 percent of those surveyed reported being depressed - about the same as the general population - while 40 percent said they were depressed at times, or worn out “some or most of the time.”

• A survey of Lutheran ministers found that 68 percent were overweight or obese, while 16 percent of male pastors and 24 percent of female pastors complained of problems with depression.

To access the entire article, click here.