Part III: New Discoveries to Build Upon

Taken as a whole, the Transition into Ministry initiative yields a number of early discoveries that ought to be kept in mind by all parties involved in the ongoing work of preparing new pastors. The following are those we currently see.

1. The lone ranger can ride off into the sunset.
Participants in these programs express again and again the joy of joining others in exploring the nature and practice of ministry. Without them, many would feel overburdened with new expectations and isolated in how to respond to them. Congregations, judicatories, and, increasingly, seminaries want to avoid this “lone ranger” syndrome by increasing the resourcefulness, networks, and collegial contacts of new clergy, as accomplished by the TiM programs.

In each case, these programs refuse to leave entering clergy alone to sink or swim on their own. Young clergy are surrounded by peers, guided by mentors, and gathered by judicatories, denominations, seminaries, and foundations into communities where they can worship together, build bonds of friendship, and reflect on ministry as a shared practice. In essence, each of the TiM programs seeks to locate young clergy in relational ecologies that are generative and paradigmatic for the remainder of a vocation—a shared one.

2. These programs recover collaborative agency and commitment.
The TiM programs provide a new pattern of collaboration and commitment to the formation of new clergy in their first call. Instead of referring ministry preparation to “someone else”—a seminary, a judicatory committee, or the “school of hard knocks”—a new sense of shared agency and possibility has arisen from the multitude of players in the TiM programs. The programs provide vivid examples of the various ways congregations, judicatories, seminaries, and other communities of practice take on this important task. This recovery of shared agency and responsibility for the formation of new pastors is foundational for the church’s flourishing in the new millennium.

3. New communities of practice are forming.
Various communities of practice centered around new pastor formation have been created by the TiM programs. Each of the peer-based programs puts a special emphasis on creating strong, well-resourced groups that regularly convene new clergy to reflect on their practice. Each of the residency programs creates a new, more intentional local community of practice that supports regular, if not daily, opportunities for the new clergy and the existing pastoral staff to reflect on the practice of ministry going on in that particular congregation. Pastoral institutes, denominations, and seminaries create long-distance processes for mentoring new clergy between convened meetings. Additional communities of practice are emerging as the program directors meet to reflect on the programs they lead and as Lilly Endowment convenes larger gatherings of all participants for special moments of reflection, challenge, and celebration. Each of these communities is bringing its own “practice of the faith” to bear on the specialized practices of pastoral formation in ways that allow one set of practices to enrich others.

Another important dynamic in the life of these communities of practice is ongoing ecumenical exchange. Young clergy are becoming peers to people within and beyond their denominational systems. The same reality takes place as the program teams work across denominational lines to share resources and learn together. As new clergy complete their TiM programs and move into the next phase of their pastoral careers, they do so with strong expectations and motivations to build similar peer groups, opportunities for reflection, and networks into the basic structure of their pastoral lives.

4. Churches can become teaching congregations.
The residency programs provide the clearest examples of how churches can come to play new roles as teaching congregations. The multi-staff congregations that have participated in the program made significant changes to their organizational structures so that they could better live out their calling to teach a new generation of pastors. Senior pastors and other staff members revised their roles, new program directors were hired, staff meetings and agendas were adjusted, and new lay committees and groups were created to provide the optimum learning environment for the residents.

Interestingly, as various congregations become more fully engaged with teaching new residents, they discover that the residents are not the only ones who are learning. As every part of a congregation’s life and practice is reflected upon, the clergy, staff, and congregation members discover just how much they have to teach and learn together. They begin to live into a larger understanding of their work and life as one of continuous teaching and learning. In essence, as the congregations work with their new pastors, a new, local ecclesial imagination develops about what the church is and what ministry can be.

Not every congregation in America will be capable of mounting the ambitious residency programs described in these programs. But alternatives exist: a residentiallearning component can be built into a new assistant or associate position, or multiple congregations can join together to share the joys of (and resources for) mentoring new pastors. Here it is important to remember that many of the congregations in the TiM initiative have not made major staff additions or introduced cohorts of residents into their lives. The majority of congregations—those in the peer-based programs—are, in fact, smaller congregations with single-pastor staffs. But these congregations, too, can become teaching congregations as they welcome new clergy into their lives.

5. Seasoned pastors are recovering their indispensable role in the apprenticeship of future clergy.
In these programs we see evidence of experienced parish clergy playing larger and different roles in the shaping of future pastors. As recent studies of the history of theological education remind us, one of the early ways that new clergy were shaped in America was by “reading divinity” with seasoned clergy. Throughout the history of the church, learning by shadowing, imitating, and understudying with a practicing pastor—which some would call apprenticeship—was a primary means for preparing for pastoral ministry.

The TiM programs are deliberate attempts to create a new space for a fuller encounter with the practical dimensions of learning with experienced practitioners in the actual situation of pastoral action. Beyond shortterm immersion or exposure, these encounters provide long-term, side-by-side encounters with seasoned pastors. These programs demonstrate that those who do can also teach in numerous ways: by modeling, by critical reflection, by exploring new paradigms of ministry and leadership, and more. Testimony from both the “apprenticing” clergy and from those who are supervising and mentoring them reveals that new wisdom and confidence about pastoral practice are being generated.

6. New clergy bring the gifts of a new generation.
By focusing special attention on a sizable cohort of new pastors, these programs bring the gifts and lifegiving possibilities of new clergy into view. These new seminary graduates bring commitment, energy, experience, passion, freshness, and sometimes irreverence to those who work with them. As mentors and supervising pastors have been interrupted by a question, as congregations have witnessed a new way of doing things, as institutions used to doing things a certain way stopped for a moment of reflection on practice, space has opened up for the ministry to be examined, adjusted, improved upon. In the surprising encounter with a new generation that wants to step into leadership, even naiveté and mistakenness become occasions for the church to learn and to teach about ministry. New clergy elevate the calling and mission of the churches to join in the task of forming a new generation of leadership.

In addition, the TiM programs highlight the distinctive gifts of this particular generation of new clergy. Many in this generation think beyond the box of congregational systems and custom. They exhibit an entrepreneurial capacity to reframe traditions in ways that redefine denominations beyond established customs or hierarchies. They also invite new forms of networking and connecting with others through a deft use of media and the Internet that is second nature to them. In many ways, the TiM programs mentor this generation of clergy to take on the charge of leading the local congregation and denominations into the future.

If we dare to break out of shortterm thinking, there is a potential gift in this way of preparing new clergy that reaches into generations that are just coming on the church’s stage—generations that most congregations and denominations are finding difficult to reach. As congregations experience the new energy and imagination that these clergy bring, and as they go deeper into the adventure of pastoral ministry by helping launch them, their children and young people are given new reasons to consider pastoral ministry as a vocation and different opportunities to consider whether this kind of calling speaks to them. By sharing in the work of teaching these new pastors, these rising generations may learn about a way of life that answers their deepest yearnings.

7. Forming pastoral identity today requires innovative communities of practice.
The TiM programs recognize the abiding dynamics and tasks of forming pastoral identity: integrating multiple roles into one’s own ministry practice, identifying one’s own leadership style and how it relates to others’, making a religious tradition one’s own, and moving from basic competency to the improvisational quality of “thinking on one’s feet.” What is new here is the importance of placing the pastor in the context of a community of practice—one that is focused, healthy, and open to new ideas.

The most generative programs in this initiative have been in congregations that both trust and challenge their leaders, that exhibit resiliency amidst conflict, that know and believe in their mission, and that have confidence that God has new things in store for them. Strong teaching congregations and judicatories become true “communities of practice” that generate new practices and paradigms of ministry in and through their formative practices with new clergy. While drawing on paradigms and traditions of the past, they realize that the calling to raise up new leaders is a call to raise up new patterns of mission and Christian practice.

8. Flexibility and improvisation open up possibilities.
The range and diversity of programs undertaken in this initiative are a testimony to the creativity, flexibility, and improvisation of people working together. Congregations put their residency programs together in ways that reflect their differences in staffing, structure, and educational approach and that take advantage of their character, tradition, location, community partners, and people. These programs provide evidence of the possibilities present in congregations, waiting to be unleashed.

The peer-based programs also demonstrate diversity, flexibility, and creativity. Their meeting rhythms and content vary; some place more emphasis on theological study, others on spiritual disciplines, and still others on ministry skills and practice. Some organize their cohorts on the basis of alumni groupings of seminaries; others use existing denominational or regional patterns. One judicatory uses the transition program as an opportunity to develop a regional strategy for congregational renewal. Again the various organizations draw upon the resources they have and then color outside of existing lines, old assumptions, and conventional wisdom to create programs with fresh energy and possibility.

9. Resources are being found.
The programs we report on here are the result of a major commitment by one of America’s largest foundations, Lilly Endowment Inc. The congregation-based residency programs have been supported by grants of around $800,000 each over five years. The peerbased programs have had similar-sized grants over the same time frames. This significant commitment of resources and energy was essential to launching this new pattern of pastoral formation. While some might consider this a one-time effort, we have been amazed by something more. We think it is important to notice how this initiative, like the miracle of the loaves and fishes, has multiplied resources.

Clearly, external funding created an environment of possibility and generated momentum. But now congregations like Wilshire Baptist Church and Christ Church, Alexandria, are well on their way to raising the funds needed to continue their programs when support from the Endowment ends. Because they have seen the response of clergy to peer-learning programs, several denominations are considering allocating funds to support them. Some local congregations are experimenting with new ways to add pastoral staff by linking a position to a “residency period” of learning and apprenticeship in the life and ministry of that particular church. And some judicatories—beyond these programs—are exploring ways to strengthen the collaborative nature and network of resources that enable their first-call and transition programs to flourish, including attempts to “cluster” together participating congregations in a given area to facilitate connections among the new clergy serving there or to share their resources to support one new clergyperson.

A half century of cutbacks and downsizing in mainline Protestantism have created a scarcity mindset about resources that can blind congregations, denominations, and seminaries to the new sources of abundance that these groups are learning how to tap. Further, it is important to recognize that while money really matters, this program has also been rich in other resources, including time, talent, energy, and gifted people. In fact, as these program have unfolded, they have very carefully drawn on existing resources of past wisdom and experience in their own traditions and mobilized them in fresh ways. Many of the core ideas of this initiative—especially mentoring and peer learning—have been deployed in the past. Here they have been reinvigorated and mixed with other resources—ideas, people, money—in such a way that new possibilities are emerging.

Conclusion

The challenge of shaping a new generation of pastoral leaders is as old as the church itself, and indeed has its parallels in other religious traditions and histories. For a number of reasons, this work is especially difficult today.³¹ However, we believe the transition into ministry presents a significant opportunity for the church in the current age. Helping new generations of pastors make their way into leadership is one of the ways that the church perpetuates and reinvents itself. This work is one key way by which the faith tradition crosses the threshold from generation to generation. In this view, the challenge of the transition into ministry is not a problem but a key ingredient of the work of the whole church. As close observation of these programs reveals, the transition into ministry can become a shared opportunity for congregations, denominations, seminaries, clergy, laity, and new pastors to work together to project the church and its ministry ahead into a new generation. The day-to-day struggle involved in that work is the arena in which the heritage of the Christian faith adjusts itself to the ever-changing realities of human history.

Because each generation faces fresh challenges, the work of helping pastors make the transition into ministry will always be incomplete, unfinished. But it will also provide occasions for the church to refresh itself, to correct itself, and to discover new dimensions of its giftedness. At this point in these programs, several challenges call us to go further and deeper:

• We have learned that inviting groups of people to engage with the challenges of raising up pastors releases energy in both the new clergy and in the people who seek to support them. How can more groups be invited into this work and supported with the appropriate resources?
   
• We have learned that new resources create energy. The great surprise in this initiative is that there were more resources available to take on the challenge of transition into ministry than most expected. In an age of unprecedented wealth, how do we find new sources of support and invite them into this important work?
   
• We have learned that the task of shaping pastoral identity and pastoral imagination cannot be relegated to just a few but must be the work of all. We have also learned that such shaping takes place in a variety of ways and with a much larger “faculty” than our seminaries can provide. How do we create new patterns of partnership and new divisions of labor in the shaping of our clergy?
   
• We have learned that seasoned pastors have something important to teach new clergy. Further, when they are given opportunities to teach new pastors, a profoundly valuable kind of knowledge becomes available to the church. How can we effectively call forth this contribution and help experienced pastors make their maximum contribution to the overall formation of new pastors?
   
• We have learned that people are formed for ministry not just in classrooms but by practicing the work—and reflecting on it—with others. We have much still to discover about how to create optimal learning environments, about how to relate different kinds of formation, how to create better peer groups, and how to develop stronger patterns of mentoring and supervision. How can we keep working intentionally to create the learning environments that the church most needs?
   
• We have learned that the church and its ministry is always a work in progress. Amazingly, despite all of its shortcomings and failures, it keeps rising to its calling one generation at a time. How can we discern what is coming to life and give it maximum room to flourish?