SPE Program Spotlight:
Mass. UCC’s New Clergy Program Gets Pastors off to a Good Start
Only recently ordained, the associate pastor had been at the church just three weeks when she stepped into the pulpit one Sunday two years ago to deliver a pastoral prayer. It was an exciting time in her life. After a long period of discernment, she was at long last in local church ministry.
Like most new clergy, she wondered what it was really going to be like to be a pastor. After all the years of hard work, study and sacrifice, was this going to work out? Could she be the person and the pastor she believed God was calling her to be?
As her prayer poured out upon the congregation, she tried to remind them of the hurting world outside their walls: “We come before you, God, with the New York Times in one hand and the Bible in the other, fully aware of all the troubles and burdens of the world.”
The next day she was stunned to receive an angry e-mail from a parishioner. Apparently of a conservative bent, he had misunderstood her Times reference as an endorsement of the newspaper's editorial opinions. Though the two had never met, the parishioner blasted her up and down, calling her a litany of insulting names.
A few days later, another church member stormed into her office and dressed her down for saying “yeah” instead of “yes” during the children's moment in Sunday worship. It was unprofessional, the woman insisted.
Nothing in seminary had ever prepared her for such run-ins, but the associate pastor soon understood what was really going on. She didn't find the answers from a professor or a denominational official or even her senior pastor, but from four other new clergy, just as green and inexperienced as she. Talking it over with a small peer support group of other new clergy, she realized that she had done nothing wrong.
“They helped me realize that just by having an office and a title in the church, you can be a lightning rod for a lot of things,” says the pastor, who asked that her name not be used. “People project onto you all kinds of things simply because you are a pastor. I realized that enormous power dynamics are at play in a congregation and you step into the middle of them and have to figure them out.”
Chalk up another victory --and maybe even one more clergy career saved--for the New Clergy Program of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ. A major initiative of the conference's Pastoral Excellence Program--a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project funded by Lilly Endowment Inc.-- the New Clergy Program was created to help clergy through the difficult transition from seminary to local church ministry.
Nationwide, numerous studies have found that the first five years after seminary are a critical time in ministry, a period in which a significant number of clergy decide to drop out. The situation was no different in UCC churches in Massachusetts , says the Rev. Christina Braudaway-Bauman, who directs the New Clergy Program.
“We had a number of new pastors who were going into their first call and not doing well,” she says. “Some were leaving pastoral ministry altogether, some even in the first year, and we realized we needed to do more to support them in the transition between seminary and pastoral ministry.”
The New Clergy Program, says Braudaway-Bauman, is basically about helping new clergy figure out what it means to be a pastor and to use those first few years to establish habits and practices that will sustain them in ministry for a lifetime. Under the program, small groups of four to five clergy, all in their first three years of ministry, covenant with one another to meet monthly for three years to share concerns, learn practical ministry skills, and explore together the meaning of pastoral identity. Experienced pastors from throughout the conference serve as group facilitators. Although they offer a sympathetic ear and an occasional piece of hard-earned wisdom, the facilitators mostly work to create a safe and supportive environment where the new clergy can learn from one another.
The results so far have been dramatic, says Susan Dickerman, director of the conference's Pastoral Excellence Program. Of the 77 new clergy in the conference, 74 are in a New Clergy Group or other mentoring relationship arranged by the program.
“That is an amazing 96 percent participation rate,” says Dickerman. “These new pastors testify regularly and publicly that their New Clergy Group is essential to their sense of confidence and competence in ministry.” Indeed, several clergy have told program officials that, but for their New Clergy Group, they would have left church ministry.
The monthly meetings typically follow a standard format. Members update each other about recent events in their ministry and help each other figure out solutions to any problems that might have arisen. They worship and pray together and discuss a previously selected topic regarding some aspect of pastoral ministry.
A lot of time is spent talking about such issues as pastoral identity and authority and congregational dynamics, says Braudaway-Bauman. Many new clergy don't understand, at least initially, that much of their authority has to be earned and that clergy must in a real sense “join” the congregation if they are to become its leader. Learning how to “read” a congregation and understand its diverse perspectives is an essential skill the groups try to impart to new clergy.
”Ministering to an entire congregation is different from ministering to an individual,” she says. “Clergy need to see the whole picture and be able to move an entire congregation forward. They need to be attentive to the things and the traditions that a congregation holds dear, the things that define its identity, and the places where they are willing to grow.”
The Rev. Dr. Karin Case, associate pastor at Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord, Mass., says her new clergy group has been “absolutely sanity maintaining.”
“That's not putting it too strongly,” she says. “It really has been.”
With a social worker, a psychologist, a city councilman, and a hospital chaplain among her friends and relatives, Case says she already had a network of people with whom she can talk about various aspects of her job. But while each of those individuals shares some aspect of the pastor's job, none has it all.
“There is nothing like talking to your peers, to other parish ministers,” she says. “There is no other group of people who are so well situated to be so insightful and helpful.”
In addition to being a source of support, her New Clergy Group has also been a fabulous learning community, says Case. With each meeting, the members have set their own agenda, with sessions ranging from the most “pie-in-the-sky” idealistic discussions about their visions for church and the world to the most mundane, nuts-and-bolts skills such as how to conduct a funeral and how to hold a baby during a baptism.
“It's been a great place to be able to articulate our deepest hopes and visions for the church, while also addressing the real nitty-gritty day-to-day stuff,” says Case. “This group has supplied the resources and the training that were not supplied in seminary at all, at all, at all.”
The Rev. Daniel Spacek, associate pastor at First Church of Christ in Sandwich , Mass. , says his New Ministry Group has helped him to understand better the public nature of pastoral life—of life in the spotlight— and the importance of establishing boundaries. Being in the public eye and being on-call around the clock, can take a toll on personal relationships, with the result that family and other loved ones can easily become a secondary priority, says Spacek.
With hospital and home visits, worship, Bible studies, youth groups and confirmation classes to attend to, the day-to-day of parish ministry can easily become overwhelming, says Spacek. Amidst the busyness, pastors can lose sight of the broader aims of ministry and the vision that called them into ministry in the first place.
“This group keeps the flame and the vision burning,” he says. “Without it, I would have felt less sure of myself and less confident in my foundation. I would have felt more alone and isolated in my ministry.”
One of the keys to the program's success has been the group facilitators, says Braudaway-Bauman. Some of the most talented and experienced pastors in the conference, they too are gaining much from the small group gatherings, she says.
“They love this work,” she says. “They love pastoral ministry and they're extremely generous people who want to pass on their wisdom. They love being with the new pastors and sharing their energy. They tell us this is giving them new hope for the future.”
The Rev. Philip Joseph Mayher, pastor of the Congregational Church of Weston, says he has benefited tremendously from his work as a group facilitator.
“It's been really healthy for me,” he says. “When you help someone else to reflect on their ministry, you're more inclined to reflect on your own.” Ordained 32 years ago, Mayher says that working with the new clergy has helped him to remember some advice another pastor once game him: “Ministry happens best with one foot in the door and one foot out.”
That doesn't mean the pastor is on the way out the door, constantly ready to leave, Mayher explains, but that he or she needs to have just enough distance to help keep things in perspective.
Even with his years of experience, Mayher's primary role is not to serve as a Yoda-like “wise elder,” offering sage counsel and advice—though that does happen. Instead, he's there to listen more than he speaks and work to create a safe environment where conversation can take place among the new clergy. Basically, he says, he is an “enabler of conversation,” working to create the conditions where they can support each other.
Mayher is convinced the program is having a real impact on the conference's clergy and wishes such groups had been available when he entered ministry.
“I'm more than positive it's helping folks flourish,” he says. “The five people in my group are really competent in ministry, but this has given them the courage of their own convictions. It helps people to launch into ministry and flourish sooner.”
No matter how excellent the seminary education, no matter how rich the field education experience, new pastors clearly need support if they are to make the transition into local church ministry in the best way possible, says Braudaway-Bauman.
“Even in the best field education settings, it's still just splashing around in the shallow end of the pool,” she says. “It's not until you're actually a pastor that it all becomes real. Being a pastor is immersion in the deep end.”
Yes, some — perhaps even most — will make it even without help. But many won't.
“Our hope and our evidence is that these new pastors are still immersed in the deep end, but now they have swimming coaches and life guards and a lot of other supports to help them swim,” she says.
