Courage to Serve

Courage to Serve is an eighteen-month program of quarterly retreats designed for the personal and professional renewal of ministers. The Duke Endowment has made it possible for the Divinity School to offer this unique new program to honor the work of rural pastors.

Courage to Serve, part of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, has been carefully designed to help ministers get beyond the “what” and “how” questions of ministry to the “who” questions. It is rooted in the belief that effective service, leadership, and ministry flow from the identity and integrity of the individual. Formation work is framed by questions such as:

“How can I engage in my leadership and ministerial roles and be true to myself and my calling?”
“How can I make sure that my inner life and outer work are connected?”
“What are the forces that nourish and/or constrain my soul?”

While there are many kinds of retreats, Courage to Serve has been designed with the following hopes and purposes in mind:

• to gift ourselves with a real break from the routines and demands of daily life – allowing opportunity to slow down and enjoy a time of renewal and regeneration
• to make it possible to “surrender to the gift of doing one thing”
• to provide needed time for silence and solitude, as well as for time in a circle of trust
• to provide a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of soul and role
• to focus on nurturing our identity and integrity, identifying and honoring our gifts, and to discerning our own authentic responses to the pressures and projections of others
• to explore, again, questions of meaning, purpose and calling

The formation process is not therapy or skill-based training. Instead, the formation process involves the creation of an intellectual, emotional and spiritual space in which leadership and life questions are explored. In large group, small group, and solitary settings, a quiet, focused, disciplined space is created so that the noise within us and around us subsides allowing the voice of God to be heard. We will share our inner journeys via personal story-telling, poetry and teaching tales from various wisdom traditions. Guided by skilled facilitators, participants will be invited to speak honestly about their lives and work and to listen and respond to each other — and to themselves — with encouragement and compassion. Each Courage to Serve retreat follows a seasonal theme, using the rich metaphor of the seasons as a way into reflection discussion.

Additional Information

For additional information please feel free to contact leadership@div.duke.edu.

If you are a clergyperson or congregational leader that does not qualify for Courage to Serve, please consider similar formation opportunities with the Center for Courage and Renewal.