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SUSTAINING PASTORAL EXCELLENCE A Project of Triangle Pastoral Counseling, Inc. Funded by the Lilly Endowment Application for March 2004-March 2006
Richard L. Hester, Ph.D., Project Director Kelli Walker-Jones, M.Div., Project Associate Director Suzanne W. Luper, M.Div., Center Director
A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT The Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Project of Triangle Pastoral Counseling is now accepting applications for a group of nine pastors for its two-year, March 2004-March 2006, program. The deadline for applications is December 1, 2003. In 2002 the Lilly Endowment initiated the program Sustaining Pastoral Excellence that seeks “to focus attention and energy on maintaining the high caliber of many of the country’s pastoral leaders.” This grant program has established projects “to allow ministers . . . to create environments for ongoing biblical study, theological reflection and spiritual renewal, as well as the development of sustained friendships and mutual support opportunities.” The Endowment has invested $57.9 million to carry out this mission nationwide. In December 2002 Triangle Pastoral Counseling received Lilly Endowment funding of $685,393 and is one of 47 institutions in the U.S., out of more than 700 applicants, to receive a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence grant. Many organizations are trying to help pastors. Program after program comes across pastors’ desks offering to fix them. What makes this project different?
Four Theological and Spiritual Perspectives that Guide the Project
Objectives of the Project
Desired Outcomes for the Project When pastors complete the project our aim is for them to have been effectively supported to . . .
Project Method and Structure 1. Application. Prospective participants must make written application by December 1, 2003. (See the application on the last page of this document.) The staff will select persons for interviews based on these written applications, and participants will be chosen no later than January 15. 2. Duration of the project. Pastors will be engaged in the project for two years (March 2004-March 2006). After that time they will be invited to maintain contact with the project for periodic meetings and consultation. 3. Tuition. Participants will pay $650.00 each in tuition at the beginning of the project for the entire project. (Arrangements can be made for installment payments.) Grant funds will cover all other expenses. 4. Co-creation of the project. The project is designed to relieve pastors of administrative and leadership roles so they can participate without project duties being added to the many responsibilities they already have. However, the staff will include participants in the ongoing design and development of the program. 5. Covenants. Participants and staff will enter into a covenant that states the promises of the staff to participants and of participants to the staff. 6. Support group. The support group constitutes the backbone of project work. The support group will meet 8 hours per month either in two 4-hour blocks or in one 8-hour block. 7. Mentors. Participants will be assigned a mentor from the project staff who will meet with them at least twice a month for support and consultation. Mentors may be called on at other times when participants need immediate consultation on a congregational or personal issue. Meetings may be conducted by phone or face-to-face. 8. Covenants with congregations. Mentors will help participants explore the covenants that shape their relationship with their congregations. A part of this exploration will involve dialogue between pastors and a group in their congregation that can help them examine pastor-congregational covenants. 9. Annual retreat. The project will be launched with a two-day retreat that is scheduled for March 8-9 at Aqueduct Conference Center in Chapel Hill, NC, beginning in the morning of March 8 and ending in the afternoon of March 9. 10. Total contact time. Participants will be in group or individual consultation a total of 10 hours per month—eight hours in group meetings and one hour twice a month in consultation with individual mentors. They will also take part in annual retreats. 11. Group diversity. In selecting participants the project staff will seek diversity in such things as denominational affiliation, gender, ethnic background, and sexual orientation. Although the perspective of the project is Christian, the staff is open to participation by ministers of other faiths. 12. Extending the mission of the project. Pastors in the project will be equipped to establish a peer support group for themselves with other ministers. Another aim is that they will be able to mentor at least two other ministers following the project in order to extend the benefit of the project. 13. Research. The project is designed to give support, community, consultation, and guidance to pastors. It is also designed to learn as much as possible from the participants. Therefore, the staff will be collecting relevant information for research and publication during the project. Information about participants will carefully conceal their identity and the location and identity of their congregations. 14. Confidentiality. All communication from participants will be considered privileged and protected against disclosure to persons outside the project. The staff and participants will enter into a covenant of confidentiality.
COVENANTS AMONG PROJECT STAFF, PARTICIPANTS, AND CONGREGATIONS The biblical idea of covenant is the organizing theological metaphor for this project. Covenants are promises that parties make to each other about how they will interact. Strong covenants are based on mutuality, a commitment to stand by promises into the future, and an understanding that covenants are sustained by God and judged by their faithfulness to God’s dream for humankind. Covenants may be explicit and clearly understood, or they may be implicitly assumed and unclear to either party. We call these implicit promises assumptive covenants. We believe that assumptive covenants are at the root of many problems pastors face. These problems include pastors becoming overloaded with unspoken expectations of congregants; the pastor implicitly promising one thing and parishioner or congregation assuming quite another; and people constantly inviting pastors to inappropriately cross boundaries. In this project we want to be clear about the mutual promises we make to each other, and this has led us to develop the following covenant between the staff of the project and the participants. We understand that covenants are living organisms and cannot be confined to words on a page. However, written words are a beginning point. The Project Staff Makes this Covenant with Each Participant
Participants Make this Covenant with Staff and Other Participants
Congregations and the Covenant Congregations will become parties to this project covenant. We strongly advise participants to inform the official board of the congregation of their participation and to seek formal support for it. We hope that the congregation will provide partial or total financial support for the project tuition. We consider this money to be an investment in the welfare of the congregation. The project staff can assist in this process if needed. THE PROJECT STAFF Richard L. Hester, Ph.D., Director, served as Professor of Pastoral Theology at The Graduate Seminary of Phillips University, Enid, OK (1970-1975); and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC (1975-1991). At Phillips he chaired the committee that designed one of the first D.Min. programs in the country, the aim of which was to promote excellence in pastoral ministry. Prior to teaching, he was pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Gainesville, FL. He received the B.D. and Ph.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY (1964, 1967). Wayne E. Oates supervised his doctoral work. From 1991 to 1996 he was Executive Director of the Georgia Association for Pastoral Care in Atlanta, a pastoral counseling and training organization affiliated with Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Columbia Theological Seminary, and the Interdenominational Theological Center. Since 1975 he has had a pastoral counseling practice that includes supervision of pastoral counselors-in-training. Since 1994 he has maintained a consulting practice in which the majority of his clients are congregations in conflict. He is a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a Certified Fee-Based Practicing Pastoral Counselor in the State of North Carolina. Kelli Walker-Jones, M.Div., Associate Director, is an Elder in the North Carolina Annual Conference, United Methodist Church. From 1994-2002 she was Associate Pastor, Highland United Methodist Church, Raleigh, NC. Her Academic preparations include: B.A., Rhodes College, Memphis, TN (1979) and M.Div., The Divinity School, Duke University (1983). In 2001-2002 she participated in the Duke Divinity School Learned Clergy Seminar on "Two Churches: The Conflict between Medicine and Christianity," led by Dr. Stanley Hauerwas and sponsored by the Lilly Endowment. She served as pastor to the Clopton/Macedonia Charge in the Memphis Annual Conference, (1983-1985). She was the Associate Director of Field Education and Admissions at the Divinity School, Duke University (1985-1988). In her admissions role she interviewed prospective students, managed their acceptance process, and served on the financial aid committee. In her field placement role she interviewed students to discern placement, identified settings for students' congregational placements, and worked with the Duke Endowment on funding for field placements. She led training workshops to prepare pastors to supervise students and led group meetings with field placement students to address student issues and needs. For six months she was Interim Director of Field Education. She was Admissions and Development Representative, Southwest USA for the Divinity School, Duke University, based in Dallas, TX (1988-1992). Suzanne Ware Luper, M.Div., Director of Triangle Pastoral Counseling and Mentor, is a graduate of The Divinity School, Duke University (1990). She is a fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, a member of North Carolina Association of Grief Educators and Counselors, and a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has been a counselor at Triangle Pastoral Counseling since 1992, becoming director of the center in 2001. She oversees the center’s administration, its affiliation with the Samaritan Institute (an international network of pastoral counseling centers) and its affiliation with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. Barbara Mann, M.Div., Center Counselor and Mentor, is a minister in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. She received her M.Div. degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1987. For three years she served as the pastor of a local Methodist Church. In 1990 she joined the T.P.C. staff where she counsels with individuals, couples and families and is a consultant to area pastors. She serves on the Pastoral Care Committee of the North Carolina UMC Conference. In 1995 she completed an advanced training program at The Southeast Institute of Group and Family Therapy in Chapel Hill. She is a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and is a North Carolina Licensed Professional Counselor. David Verner, Ph.D., Center Counselor and Mentor, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia (M.Div.,1972), and Emory University (Ph.D. in New Testament, 1981). He is a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a North Carolina Fee-Based Practicing Pastoral Counselor. He served nine years in the pastorate (1972-75, 1979-85), and was associated with Pastoral Counseling Services, Jacksonville, Florida for fifteen years, first as a trainee (1985-88), and then as a counselor (1988-2000) and training faculty member (1992-2000). He has been on the counseling staff at Triangle Pastoral Counseling since moving to North Carolina three years ago. He is an authorized workshop presenter for Peter Steinke’s Healthy Congregations program. M. Mahan Siler,
S.T.D., Project Consultant, has served as pastor for 31 years concluding
his career as Senior Minister, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC
(1983-1998). He was on the staff of the School of Pastoral Care, NC Baptist
Hospital (1973-1983) and Director from 1976-1983. He received his B.D. degree
from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY. He received
his S.T.D. degree from Southern in 1968, under the supervision of Wayne E.
Oates. He currently directs a project for Clergy in Collegial Community funded
by the Lilly-affiliated Louisville Institute. APPLICATION FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE PROJECT SUSTAINING PASTORAL EXCELLENCE Please answer the following questions in 8 double-spaced pages or less. Send your application by email to Richard L. Hester at richardlhester@earthlink.net . We will notify you when we receive the application. If you cannot do this by email, submit the application by mail to Richard L. Hester, Director, Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, Triangle Pastoral Counseling, 316 W. Millbrook Rd., Ste. 217, Raleigh, NC 27609.
2. What are your reasons for applying to participate in this project? 3. What do you hope to get out of being in the project? 4. What has been stimulating your thinking lately? How have you pursued this? What three books have influenced your thinking this past year?
5. What are the top two or three most challenging things you are facing as a pastor? What makes them so?
6. What are the top two or three things that most sustain and nurture you in your ministry?
7. What is the effect of your role as pastor on your family?
8. How will you inform and get support from your congregation for participation in the project?
9. What questions do you have about the project or your participation in it?
Applications are due no later than December 1, 2003. Decisions about acceptance into the project will be made by January 15. (Be aware that the need for group diversity may eliminate pastors who are personally and professionally well qualified for the project.)
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