Browsing by Subject "Pastor"

Local churches suffer from insufficient preparedness for intragroup conflict. Thisproblem may be addressed fruitfully by pastors and their local church leaders when they encounter Old Testament narratives of intragroup conflict with their theological imaginations. With the working metaphor of storm preparation, the author examines how imaginative theological speech gives a constructive shape to the local church’s conflict cycles. Drawing from John Paul Lederach’s work on the role of the imagination in conflict transformation and the work of Brent Strawn on the Old Testament’s theological language, the author developed a Bible study that trains participating local church leaders in four elements of conflict preparedness: imaginative theological fluency, Lederach’s conflict transformation skillset, empathic practical wisdom, and the capacity to rehumanize an enemy. The Old Testament is an essential theological resource for the local church cultivating intragroup conflict preparedness, because the Old Testament itself contains many narratives of intragroup conflict as well as rich intertextual theological conversations that illustrate the productive intragroup tensions abiding within God’s people. A pastor may tap into these narratives and conversations creatively in this Bible study to develop participating leaders’ imaginative theological speech about conflict in their own lives. The quantitative and qualitative outcomes of this Bible study’s first iteration in the local church are analyzed and interpreted theologically in order to reimagine the storm metaphor itself. By intervening with the Old Testament’s theological speech during low-intensity phases of a conflict cycle, the pastor weatherproofs their local church leaders before the next storm.

“Curating the Pastor’s Heart: A Prescription for Renewal Through the Contemplative Lens of Thomas Merton” argues that one of the most significant problems faced by parish pastors today is that they lead complex volunteer organizations that are shaped by the surrounding culture as much, if not more, than any New Testament paradigm. Pastors are pulled in various directions by the expectations of a culture and members that call for relevance, popularity, and power in ways similar to secular organizations and leaders. These expectations are rooted more in power and acquisitiveness than in the self-emptying Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can parish pastors remain rooted in their relationship with God while facing these demands? Drawing on the work of the philosopher James K.A. Smith, this thesis argues that parish pastors are desiring creatures whose love is formed by their habits, and that parish pastors to rise to the occasion of today’s leadership challenge must cultivate habits that draw them into deep relationship with God. The contemplative tradition explicitly seeks direct experience of God and provides rich resources for the parish pastor of the twenty-first century. “Curating the Pastor’s Heart” then draws on a limited selection from the corpus of the writings of Thomas Merton on contemplation to construct a thematic paradigm of discipleship practice as a resource of hope and renewal for parish ministry. The result is a paradigm that defines contemplation and calls the parish pastor to pursue a contemplative life of integrity, solitude, prayer, discipline and gratitude leading to hope and flourishing in challenging times.

The relationship between the senior pastor and the board of elders is critical to the flourishing of any congregation, but its importance is amplified by the size dynamics and collective governance polity of large Presbyterian churches. When the board of elders (session) either matches the pastor’s passivity or micromanages the congregation, or when the session either rubber-stamps or resents the pastor’s authoritarian leadership, the senior pastor’s tenure can become tenuous and the congregation will be hindered from carrying out its mission. It may even suffer significant harm. How can a congregation wisely order this relationship so that the senior pastor and the session can jointly pursue God’s vision in a way that enables empowered pastoral leadership, ensures pastoral accountability, and values corporate spiritual discernment? Rooted in real congregational dynamics, this thesis suggests a two-pronged solution to help large, Presbyterian churches better realize this ideal.

First, the Policy Governance model, which is widely utilized by corporate and non-profit boards, can clarify the roles of the senior pastor and the session to help them better lead together. In the words of John and Miriam Carver, who pioneered the model, it’s an approach to governance that “enables extensive empowerment to staff while preserving controls necessary for accountability.” When adapted to the uniqueness of Presbyterian polity, the Policy Governance model can create a framework in which the session truly governs and in which the senior pastor and the session discern and pursue God’s vision for the congregation together.

Second, in order for the elders confidently to discern God’s vision alongside the senior pastor within the framework that Policy Governance creates, a session must also commit themselves to spiritual shepherding. Samuel Miller, an early 19th century professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, provides a learned historical perspective from American Presbyterianism from which we can reimagine the role of the ruling elder not merely as an institutional administrator but as a spiritual shepherd. Miller envisions elders as men and women trained and ordained for an office that differs from the senior pastor’s in job description but not in divine sanction. He expects that an elder’s work of governing and guiding the sheep during session meetings will only be enhanced because of her work feeding the sheep between session meetings. Only if ruling elders possess the training and qualifications concomitant with their high spiritual calling, and only if elders engage in both governing and feeding shepherding, will they grow the spiritual muscles to lead competently and confidently alongside the senior pastor.

Each congregation must determine how best to apply these solutions in light of its own culture and current senior pastor-session dynamic. But the concluding examples of two congregations and one denominational program further illuminate how to put these solutions into practice. They can inspire congregations who also want to experience the benefits of Policy Governance and spiritual shepherding.

Pastoral succession is a necessary topic for non-denominational churches. According to the Barna research group, clergy are aging, candidate pools are shrinking and the North American Church as a whole is rapidly approaching a mass pastoral succession. One of the primary issues, however, is that there are not many models that are readily available for leaders to follow to transition well, meaning there is no plan in place before the actual transition occurs. Although transition may be difficult, it is in fact inevitable since one leader cannot stay in position forever. One of the more pressing issues facing our congregations is not the ability to address the what, but the failure to implement the how and when. The objective of this research is to convey the need for succession specifically in independent churches, encourage fellow pastors to think “with” the biblical narratives that highlight leadership transitions and consider what happens when these stories are read in light of contemporary questions about pastoral leadership and transitions. Finally, the goal is to help leaders and their congregations to see transition as an intentional, ongoing process instead of a one-time event and to provide the necessary tools to begin implementing the process of transition. The key ingredients of a healthy pastoral transition involve locating someone chosen by God and affirmed by the predecessor, who earns the trust of the congregation and leads with confidence.

Humans are becoming increasingly aware of the widespread destruction that modern, industrial society has brought upon the earth, as well as the need for a radical shift in human perception and action in order to avoid catastrophic consequences and to foster the healing of the earth. Instead of leading this shift by embodying God’s love for creation and bearing witness to God’s work of new creation in Jesus Christ, the Church has been mired in modern theological, philosophical, and ecclesial frameworks that prevent it from perceiving creation correctly and acting in creation redemptively. Pastors have played a key role in the Church’s modern captivity and must play a key role in its reform.

To that end, this thesis offers a new paradigm of pastoral ministry – the Ecological Pastor – that enables pastors to diagnose what has gone wrong, emboldens them to confront those errors, empowers them to change people’s perceptual framework, and encourages them to create new models of congregational ministry and mission. Chapter 1 establishes the need for a new paradigm by comparing the leadership of Moses in Israel’s journey out of Egypt with the call for pastors to guide their churches out of modernity’s destructive worldview and practices. Chapter 2 provides the paradigm’s foundation by bringing together the worldviews of arcadian ecology and contemporary agrarianism with an eco-agrarian reading of biblical leadership. Chapter 3 shows how pastors embody the paradigm through the perceptual practices of contemplative ecology and the emerging model of Watershed Discipleship. Chapter 4 explores how ecological pastors can lead their congregations through the requisite cultural change utilizing the philosophy of Adaptive Leadership and concludes with some provisional reflections on key practices ecological pastors can employ in each stage of the transformational process.

The thesis is intended as a starting point; more will need to be done to refine and expand what an ecological pastor looks like in theory and practice.

Over and over again, research has proven that good mentors are essential for the advancement of ministers-in-training. There is significant emerging research on the life-long impact that mentoring has on individuals who are preparing for vocational ministry. This work is written to mentors of ministers-in-training. In this dissertation, I will take a deep-dive into the emerging research. Particularly noteworthy is the work of Dr. Matthew Bloom at the University of Notre Dame study, Flourishing in Ministry. This research has shown that mentors are one of the most important factors in the well-being of a person in ministry (especially early on in the formation of a person in ministry). Role models and mentors shape an individual’s journey into ministry. In this work, I will closely examine four movements of transformational mentoring: selection, shepherding, sponsoring, and sending.

In the scriptures we are called into a new way of thinking about mentoring. I have leaned into the words of Romans 12:1-2 in this work. The Romans 12 model cautions us with “do not be conformed” and calls us instead to “be transformed.” Mentoring is not meant to be a model of duplication that leads to repetition of the same patterns. We are called to live outside of the predetermined mold and to live into transformation. Transformational Mentoring is the process of mentoring people to become that which we may not yet be able to see or know. They become more fully the person that God has created them to be, and in the process they learn to use their unique gifting in their ministry—they begin to flourish. Transformational mentoring allows an individual to fully be the person God has created them to be without the pressure of being duplicated into a particular expected mold. When a person is being transformed, they begin to live outside of the expectations imposed upon them, and they begin to see themselves through God’s lenses. For one to flourish in ministry, they must be invited into a process that allows for transformation to occur. Transformational mentoring allows God’s presence and power shape a person. Thus, creating something new and beautiful and healthy and flourishing.