THE MINISTERS COUNCIL AS A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE Dr. Joe Kutter is Acting Executive Director, Ministers Council, American Baptist Churches USA

The Ministers Council - What is it, and what can it be? Or, from the perspective of a member, what can the Ministers Council do for me? I believe that we are, in part, “A Community of Practice.”

As we talked with the Lilly Endowment about the second Together in Ministry grant, the most pressing question from Lilly was, how will you sustain the TIM program? Our answer was, in order to sustain the TIM culture, we must have stronger and more effective constituent councils. If we want to intensify the expectation that the ministerial leaders served by the Ministers Council will participate in collegial covenant groups, then the constituent councils must be the stewards of that expectation.

It was with a focus on our constituent council leadership that Lilly introduced us to “Communities of Practice” and to one of the primary leaders in its development , Dr. Etienne Wenger. The core concepts of Communities of Practice are these: 1. Community, 2. Practice, and 3. Domain.

Community: The Communities of Practice concept begins with the assertion that all knowledge is social in nature and that the community is fundamentally necessary for the development and application of knowledge. We learn as we interact together.

Imagine this: Several colleagues in ministry choose to test out a new restaurant together. What will almost certainly happen? There will be conversation about the menu, about the service and ambience, about family and politics. And then, because the group has ministry in common, the conversation will turn to issues of ministry. Perhaps there will be a discussion about the season of worship, or Christian Education, or the congregant who is difficult, or church growth or shrinkage.
Sooner or later the sharing will start and, without clear intention, the participants in this group that chose to test out a new restaurant will be talking and listening and learning ministry interpersonally. Each will be teacher and learner with the others.

The Communities of Practice process takes this fundamental insight and gives it a new dimension of intentionality. Conversational arenas are created for the express purpose of shared conversation, with the objective of doing it better. In our case, the purpose is to do ministry better through the application of knowledge.

The Ministers Council is, at times, a Community of Practice at work. Intentionality will make us more effective in our shared goal of doing ministry better. Our Mission Statement says that “we covenant together. . . .” That implies community.

Practice: The primary participants in Communities of Practice are, not surprisingly, practitioners. The practitioner is a person who engages in both the development and the practical application of knowledge. It is in practice that the dividing wall between doing and knowing is broken down. The knower and the doer are the same person; the practitioner is in a constant quest to know more and to do it better.

The practitioner is one who sees the world through the lens of the practice. Just as the attorney is always aware of legal ramifications and the physician can’t help but see medical consequences, the minister always sees others through ministerial eyes.

We in the Ministers Council are practitioners. In our practice, homiletics becomes sermons preached, theology becomes a way of engaging the persons and community that God has entrusted into our care, and ecclesiology becomes the practice of congregational leadership. The Bible provides the lens through which we engage the world. To be a ministerial leader is to be a practitioner.

Domain: This may be the least intuitive of the three core concepts, but it is indispensable to the Communities of Practice process. The domain is the cluster of core issues and concerns that shape the community. It is the sun, the center of gravity, which keeps all things in their places.

Our domain, our core issues and concerns, have been defined for us in the Ministers Council Mission Statement. To paraphrase, we are focused on deepening our spiritual journeys and increasing our effectiveness as leaders in Christ’s church.

Our core concern is, in the words of the song, “Just a closer walk with thee.” We want to discern the Spirit among us and be faithful to that Holy guidance. We know that this is a deeply personal and individual quest. At the same time it is a communal undertaking. Why else did God create the church? So together we engage the issues and concerns that relate to our spiritual journeys.

Our second core concern is that we will be more effective leaders in Christ’s church. Our call to ministerial leadership demands the development of a set of skills and abilities that will allow us to be both fruitful and faithful in the practice of ministry. Learning to preach, teach, lead, and discern the culture within which we serve are all necessary skills that must be honed if we are to faithfully and effectively respond to God’s invitation to ministerial leadership.

Our domain then has two foci, spirituality and effective church leadership. How do we nurture ourselves as a Community of Practice? That is a question beyond the scope of this short essay. And yet nurturing is the focus of most of the literature on Communities of Practice. So let me offer the following resources.

Go to Etienne Wenger’s website, www.ewenger.com and begin there.

Read Cultivating Communities of Practice by Wenger, Snyder and McDermott, published by Harvard Business Press.

Google “Communities of Practice” and see what you find. I was astounded at the massive amount of literature on the subject.

Finally, using Lilly Endowment Grant money, the Ministers Council is offering Community of Practice Workshops that are designed to strengthen our constituent councils. We can make something happen.

Grace and Peace,