Because the American Baptist Churches national system has no denominational office or program to call, develop, resource or support pastoral leaders, the work of the professional association of clergy known as the Ministers Council through the Together in Ministry project has been embraced as filling a noticeable void. Participants in 2006 state their valuing of their TIM groups according to original project goals:
Stories are told repeatedly of shared laughter and tears, often around shared meals that seem Eucharistic because God is so powerfully present in the interactions. The tone of one covenant group member’s words is echoed endlessly in countless evaluation responses to the question posed to collegial covenant group participants and facilitators about outcomes: “We have no record of special results and nothing printed or on the web, but the impact of our discussions is internally evident in the life of each participant. We continue to meet because we make a difference in the lives of one other. This group offers the chance to be challenged not just by peers but by giants in the ministry.”
Another participant succinctly stated accomplishment of the desired outcome: “It has made me more sensitive to the opinions and wisdom of others in doing ministry. ‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’” One group indicated that their level of commitment is so high that they all attend every group meeting even when on vacation unless out of town.
Two extended quotations present stories of Together in Ministry impact on participants.
From a collegial covenant group facilitator in Illinois: “Our peer group of pastors has made a difference in the lives of its members in the areas of accountability, self confidence, the assurance of call, and collaboration. In terms of collaboration an interesting if not predictable evolution has taken place within the group. In the early stages of the group individual members would bring to the discussion challenging events that were taking place within their congregations. It would be easy for the group to talk around the personal issues that these events would surface in the life of the story teller. In other words we found ourselves talking around ourselves. The church ‘stories’ were actually metaphors of what was happening in us. But we didn’t know that and therefore could not address the deeper issues of our selves and our ministry callings.
“Now, after over three years of being together on a monthly basis, we discuss the issues of our lives and illustrate those issues from our church experiences. We know that our calling is about us primarily and not about what happens in the institutional setting of the local church. This has freed us immensely. We can weep when we need to weep, laugh when we need to take our positions lightly, and judge things as vain and meaningless when they in fact are that to the big picture of God’s Kingdom.
“This impacts everything about ministry and the minister. It creates a greater confidence in facing conflict, opens the passage ways so that the breath of the Spirit is more readily accessible, allows our members to be real with family issues (confronting their own weaknesses as well as other family members), and generally makes life feel more in tune with the rhythms of the Spirit and their individual responsibilities.
“I hesitate to give physical and institutional evidence for the difference this group has made in the lives of its members because I believe that cheapens what I think TIM is all about. It is my view that if (when) we are making strong and response-able pastors, congregations cannot help being impacted. Furthermore, such spiritual formation in the lives of pastors does not always yield physical fruit. I will say, however, that our discussions have tended to be less about the things we cannot change, less about denominational weaknesses and more on the things which bring us together for a hope-filled future.”
Second, from a collegial covenant group participant in New York State: “I have seen and felt the impact of the TIM group I am a part of through Ministers Council. Our focus these past three years have been Leadership and Spiritual Direction. Over the past three years, I have become more skilled in my personal leadership and discipline. I have also acquired many new tools for facilitating groups and one-to-one conversation. Perhaps most helpful of all has been the radical change in my personal focus. I have learned to check my personal level of communication (level one, two or three) and increased my awareness that different people function from a different personality style. Over these past years, the group I am a part of (Maverick Ministers) has grown in personal awareness and collegial skill and support. We are eager to be present for each other, in both good times and bad. The difficult journey of self-awareness does not happen in a vacuum, but in the context of our ministry and our support network. We have challenged each other to be more positive, in language and mind-set; and also to be more authentic and more true to who we are as ministers of integrity. The impact of the work in our TIM group has been seen as a ripple in the communities where we work. I have seen my own confidence level go up, and have witnessed the transformation in my friends too.”
The Together in Ministry project has abundantly confirmed that pastoral excellence is most effectively sustained through participation in collegial covenant groups. In order for pastoral leaders to sustain ministry over the long haul, they need a trusted group of peers for their own healing, reconciliation and restoration, as well as opportunities for theological reflection, learning and faith practices. All of this leads to whole and strong ministers who are free to respond to God’s call in their lives. In the words of one participant, “Collegial covenant groups are needed not to keep us from doing wrong but to help us do our best.”
New learnings about excellence in the ministry and how it is sustained continue to arise. A primary learning is that excellent requires commitment and the commitment must be to a well defined purpose rather than simply to a group experience. There are several characteristics of the purpose. First, the purpose must include education. Pastoral leaders prefer to feel as if they are learning something beneficial to ministry as the basis for their entry into a group. Second, the purpose must be practical. If it cannot be applied to current circumstances, there is little motivation. Third, the purpose must deal with personal issues. Pastors know what they need. They simply have so few places in which to get these needs addressed. Fourth, the purpose must include their immediate ministry context. Pastors care deeply for their congregants. They want to know how to do their ministry more effectively but they also want to be affirmed even as they are being informed.
Along with purpose, the best groups have a long-term track record. Trust, especially among pastors, does not come easily. The temptation is simply too strong to look past each other into the perceived successes and/or failures of their ministries within their congregations. Pastoral leaders have to get to know each other in a deep way, for which there is no substitute for time. The meetings of collegial covenant groups, especially when enhanced by retreats, add a deep dimension to life together and allow precious time for relationships and trust to develop.
An important element in collegial covenant groups is the role of a facilitator. This role may filled by a member of the group or by a contracted facilitator, but a capable person who will bear have the concerns of the group must be designated to fill the role of the group leader. He/she has to be a listener so as to see/know/hear the ebbs and flows of the group and offer subtle nuanced changes that can either direct the group or allow the group to hear itself. This does not mean the group is therapeutic in nature. Rather it is the group finding itself and owning its identity based on the particular mix of personalities, ministries and spiritual sensitivity.
Finally, undergirding everything, prayer has an impact on collegial covenant group participants. Prayer during time together and for one another throughout the weeks between sessions cannot possibly be overvalued: eighty-eight percent of participants identify as key the Together in Ministry goal of having a supportive network of peers who will pray for one another.
While Together in Ministry values the specific learnings that pastoral leaders glean from their collegial covenant group sessions, the primary emphasis of the project is on the shaping of the self and who participants become through their experiences, and then what they are thus able to do back home in their ministry contexts. The ways that ministers themselves have changed through participation in covenant groups have been the results that most profoundly affect their ministries.
Hear their testimonies directly:
“My congregation is now served by a pastoral leader who is less anxious and more thoughtful, considerate and wise… I am better able to be present to the congregation”
“By granting their senior minister a time and place of renewal, the group has allowed me to stay on as their pastor, when at times I did not know if I could continue.”
“As the result of my deepening relationship with God I see others more through God’s eyes. There seems to be more quietness and listening in dealing with others.”
“It is good to have a place to unload the burdens and be able to pray with our colleagues.”
“They have a better pastor.”
“I have a renewed purpose in ministry.”
Many group participants attribute changed or expanded ministry practices to covenant group participation. Examples follow:
A deeper prayer life begins with the pastor’s own spiritual disciplines and emphasis on prayer, reaches out to include teaching and practice within the congregation, and encompasses the act of churches holding one another in prayer. “It has reignited my passion and enthusiasm for prayer, which have spilled over into the congregation.”
Leadership is enhanced through renewed courage and confidence “to be a bold witness for Christ” and to lead a congregation to discern God’s will for it and act. Family systems study allows a leader to become a more non-anxious presence so the congregation as a system can become healthier and grow, and together pastor and people “have better understanding and tools to deal with conflict.” “Subtle changes in leadership style have occurred, from management to participatory. Our congregation’s organizational structures are becoming more futurisitic/visionary rather than retrospective.”
Shared conversations with colleagues lead to wider horizons on the ministry and a pooling of insights from colleagues “so in a sense our church has eight or nine pastors.” A group that functions like a sounding board allows venting of frustrations in a safe context rather than in the congregation, and a testing of ideas before trying them at home. A result of group theological reflection is “the congregation has a more confident and theologically grounded pastor than they had a year ago.” Another result is leading one’s congregation to interact with other local congregations.
Ministry skills are sharpened when group work opens “a broader perspective of options for vitality and growth.” Preaching improves through a bolder capacity to speak the truth, the courage to risk different styles after practice in the group setting, and a deeper awareness of biblical contexts. “An improved sense of humor leads to better sermons, I think,” said one group member. “I preach better, shorter sermons with a more free spirit,” said another.
Worship comes alive through more creativity and a use of performing arts. The establishment of a congregational creative worship team both enriches worship and involves the people of God in its design.
Where pastoral care and visitation have been the subjects for study, greater intentionality, sensitivity and knowledge strengthen those pastoral dimensions of a congregational leader’s role. Where pastors have especially valued the group dynamics of support and accountability that model is replicated at home: “The congregation has a more together pastor who is encouraging the start of small accountability groups in the congregation.” Where lay leadership has been the focus one pastor developed a lay leadership team, another started a lay leadership class, yet another began to teach lay leadership skills to the entire congregation, and still another began with lay leaders a process of rethinking how the church gets things done and how they might be more effective. One pastor stated, “There is more confidence on the part of lay leadership in their power to make constructive changes and try out some new ways of doing/being church.”
Congregational structures and processes have been re-examined with various consequences: some have initiated work on new congregational structures, some have re-organized congregational structures around gifts for ministry, some have developed more focused congregational planning processes, some have embraced a church business model that is more worshipful.
Pastoral leaders have found new ways to deal with conflict, “talking and praying together through congregational crises.” One said, “My leadership skills have been sharpened so I am more competent in leading the congregation through tense and difficult issues.” Another said, “My TIM group has helped lead me through a conflict – or at least mostly through!” Other growing edges in congregational life that have been addressed by various groups impact pastoral practice: less stress in the thicket of staff relationships that are not always cordial; entry into the world of technology through computerization of the church office and staff; the establishment of pastoral relations committees to optimize the pastor-people relationship.
In and through the demands of the pastoral life, a number of groups have found ways to address the pace of life that is out of control and bring to it a Sabbath rhythm. They describe the quality of life participation in covenant groups brings to their work: lower stress levels, relaxed, focused, rejuvenated. “It is not helpful for a congregation to be led by an over-functioning, burned out minister,” said one. Another said, “To help others I have to understand the importance of taking time for myself; in doing so I am able to be of better service to others.” A third commented, “It has extended the benefits of a sabbatical I took two years ago by, in part, freeing me from narrowly defining day to day tasks merely be reacting to the urgent.”