Building Up the Body of Christ

Sustaining and Improving the Professional Ministerial Leadership

 

You receive…

• Professional Recognition
• Joining colleagues in a Covenant Relationship of mutual support and accountability.
• Joining colleagues in the acceptance of high personal standards by concurring in the Covenant Code of Ethics.
• When active on a local level, the Ministers Council can also become a vehicle through which members obtain opportunities for personal and professional growth.
• Glean the benefits of the Ministers Council Senate’s work on behalf of local clergy: for example, the recent video for the promotion, instrumentation and administration of creating the training for Pastoral Relations Committees.
• Personal knowledge that you are never alone...professional colleagues are always at your side.

Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other. Proverbs 27:17 CEV

Ministers Council…

• Represents you and is your voice on various denominational bodies: the General Board and its Executive Committee, the General Executive Council, the Ministerial Leadership Commission (national and sectionals), the Committee on Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors, the Small Church Team, the American Baptist Quarterly Advisory council, and numerous planning committees such as the Living Worship Convocation, Orientation to ABC Life Conferences, the regional and national staff gathering on Sabbath in 2000, and the interim funding campaign for New Christians, New Churches, New Century.
• Has been involved in the creation of ordination standards, Personnel Services, and Ministry Opportunities Listing.
• Publishes MINISTER magazine for all ministerial leaders.
• Convenes regional conversations with clergy presidents of the ABC.
• Produces various resources, such as a pastoral relations committee training video and a booklet on bivocational ministry.

Who Are We?

The Ministers Council is comprised of colleagues who seek to be an "environment" where you can make and build lasting, lifelong relationships with your peers and colleagues. This "environment" is intended to provide a secure, safe context in which all members may grow and further build talents and skills to strengthen their work of ministry.

Within the formal network of relationships that is the Ministers Council, you are encouraged to build and nourish your own informal network of support, fellowship, and professional growth.

Regional and local Ministers Councils are formed to support and encourage your ministry within the unique context that is your own local ministerial setting. You and your colleagues "down the street" and "across your Region" form the Regional Ministers Council which provides you the opportunity to address issues collegially, plan events, and build programs and ministries close to home.

As members of the Ministers Council, we support and pray for each other; advocate for each other; work, worship, and play together as peers and colleagues. We are, after all, the people who know best the issues, rewards, trials, and satisfactions of the vocation to which we are called.

Who then are the people with whom we can join to share our fears, our hopes, our dreams, as we seek – individually and together – to be found "faithful stewards" of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

Our brothers and sisters in Christ who share the sacred call!

Mission Statement

The Ministers Council is an autonomous, professional, multi-cultural organization of ordained, commissioned and lay Christian leaders within the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.  We are women and men who advocate for and covenant with each other to deepen our spiritual journey and to increase our effectiveness, as persons who are accepting the call of God and church for the advancement of the Gospel mission of the church of Jesus Christ and to proclaim His truth in a prophetic voice as led by the Holy Spirit.

Building the Body

To achieve our purpose of Building Up the Body of Jesus Christ by Sustaining and Improving the Ministerial Leadership, we shall…

1. Establish and maintain professional and ethical standards of the Christian ministry;
2. Give support to the members of this body and be an advocate for them in their professional associations;
3. Interpret the appropriate roles of professional ministerial leadership to the constituent parts of our denomination and to the local American Baptist Churches;
4. Encourage the recruitment and nurture of candidates for the various church vocations;
5. Provide a means for expression and debate by members of this body on issues that affect the professional ministerial leadership of the American Baptist Churches in the USA;

Cooperate with the appropriate units of the American Baptist Churches in the USA in matters of mutual interest and concern, including: recruitment, placement, compensation, continuing education, and counseling.

Membership

You are eligible for membership if you are ordained, commissioned, lay professional, or a student in seminary who is eligible for inclusion in the Directory of Professional Church Leaders of the American Baptist Churches, USA, serving an American Baptist Church or auxiliary organization, and when you pay dues through a constituent council or to the national office of the Ministers Council.

How to Connect…

If you would like to suggest a project, discuss a concern, or discover how to become a member of your regional and national Ministers Council, please contact the office through one of the following means of communication:

The Ministers Council
PO Box 851
Valley Forge PA 19482-0851

Kate Harvey
1-800-ABC-3USA, extension 2333
kate.harvey@abc-usa.org

Sue Sechrist
1-800-ABC-3USA, extension 2334
sue.sechrist@abc-usa.org

FAX: 610/768-2066
ABCUSA Web Site
www.abc-usa.org