Sustaining Pastoral Excellence identifies leadership as a key issue.

"A little over two years into the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence initiative of the Brethren Academy, exciting things are happening!" said director Jonathan Shively in a recent report. The initiative of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership is funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The academy is a joint program of Bethany Theological Seminary and the Church of the Brethren General Board.

While "pastors are being renewed and enlivened in their ministries," Shively said, the initiative also has discovered an issue with leadership among Church of the Brethren pastors.

Overall, however, the initiative is having success, Shively said. "Congregations are being enriched by enhanced pastoral leadership," he said. "New gifts are being discovered and exercised. Confidence is rising. A sense of purposefulness is emerging. God's Spirit is leading in new and exciting ways."

The new initiative, which offers continuing education events and support groups for experienced pastors, is also making new discoveries, Shively said. "One particularly surprising discovery has been an ambivalence around the inclusion of 'leadership' as part of the core identity of our pastors," he said. "In our work with 18 pastors through Advanced Foundations of Church Leadership, we were caught off guard by the `dis-ease' expressed toward the role of leader. Most of these pastors did not identify themselves as a leader per se, and held limited views on the extent to which the pastoral role could and/or should influence the vision, mission, and ministry of a congregation."

The Advanced Foundations project, also a part of the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence initiative, has become a process of not only enhancing the leadership capacity of pastors, as originally designed, but also a process of self-discovery and identity formation for these pastors, Shively said. "The identity that is being discovered is an identity as leader, someone who can, through the appropriate exercise of influence, make a difference in the life and witness of the congregation with which they serve."

Through the grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the academy has been able to offer the two-year Advanced Foundations study process virtually free of charge for pastors who participate. Eight four-day retreats over a two-year period structure this process of spiritual formation and leadership development.

Enrollment is currently open for the last Lilly-funded "cohort" group of pastors to begin work in Jan. 2007 and conclude in Nov. 2008. Pastors are encouraged to consider this opportunity. Brochures are available from the Brethren Academy or go to www.bethanyseminary.edu or e-mail pastoralexcellence@bethanyseminary.edu for more information.

Source: 3/1/2006 Newsline
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