Losing Our Adjectives and Finding Our Dreams: How One Man’s Faith Transformed Nebraska Clergy
Describing western Nebraska requires a mastery of adjectives. So too, because of their uniqueness or iconic status, do Los Angeles, Beijing, London, and even places as remote but dramatic as Antarctica . But the challenge—or joy—in describing western Nebraska is its unrelenting vastness, at once ubiquitous and seemingly ordinary. Though barren and wind-swept, western Nebraska is not a desert; neither is it green farmland as in the central portion of the state. In general, western Nebraska is known for the sandhills, which are not especially sandy or hilly, and for vast grasslands interrupted by the occasional windmill, gravel road, or dilapidated barn. Though the area is beautiful, most people are hard pressed to explain precisely how this immense swath of earth awakens the soul.
But it does, especially for those who minister in this isolated yet evocative territory in the American Midwest.
Churches of nearly all Christian denominations are here; so, too, are the independent, creative clergy called to serve in this part of the world. Not surprisingly, only a few United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastors serve in this sparsely populated area. Five UCC and three DOC churches interrupt the landscape with their distinctive buildings and enriching messages of acceptance and hope. Just as adjectives fail to describe the majesty of the sandhills, so too are they insufficient in depicting the DOC and UCC clergy who serve these eight churches. Though distinctive individuals, they share a common epistemology that comes from living and ministering in such a vast and remote region. Of necessity, they are self-reliant and autonomous, but they also have a deep appreciation and thirst for education and innovation, consistent with the entire ministry of UCC and DOC churches throughout Nebraska .
Yet, until recently, these eight pastors had few opportunities to interact spiritually with each other or to otherwise learn, connect, and grow outside their own congregations. While pastors everywhere experience isolation, few know it as well and in all its dimensions—socially, spiritually and physically—as do these pastors in western Nebraska .
But all that changed in 2003 when the Rev. Russ Seger, a Disciples minister serving as pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Cadron, Neb., approached his UCC Conference Minister, George Worcester, and the DOC Regional Minister, Ken Moore, with a proposal. He had a plan for the two denominations to apply for a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence grant to facilitate collaborative ministry and continuing education throughout the state.
It was a vision that would change the lives of ministers in western Nebraska and beyond, now and for decades to come.
Transferring Place, Transforming Lives
Before being called to the church at Chadron, Seger had never lived in Nebraska and had only briefly lived in a rural area. A psychologist with a master’s degree in pastoral leadership from Drake University and a D.Min. from the University of Iowa at Dubuque, he had a successful practice in Des Moines, Iowa . There, he and his wife, Linda—a school teacher—enjoyed the benefits of urban life: a thriving intellectual community, cultural opportunities, educational outlets for their children and themselves, and a well-established enclave of Disciples of Christ churches and colleagues.
Yet Linda Seger had a goal that she had set aside for years as she took care of children, career, and family obligations: She wanted to teach Native American children.
“This was a dream Linda had held in her heart for many years,” says Seger. “The time was just never right until our children had left home.”
Linda felt called to teach in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the far southwestern corner of South Dakota . Eventually, though it meant leaving Des Moines, she answered it with her husband’s support. Initially, Seger served as an interim pastor at First Congregational Church in Chadron, not far from the reservation, just across the state line in northwest Nebraska . A year later, when the church formally called him, he quit his psychology practice in Des Moines and moved permanently to western Nebraska .
The move meant two things for Seger. First, he was answering God’s call to serve a population that needed his ministry, especially his ability to explore the link between the spiritual and psychological needs of his congregation members. Second, with his transferred life, he faced a transformative ministry that would require enormous adjustment, especially for someone used to city life.
Soon, Seger experienced one of the key challenges of rural ministry: how to mesh a high level of training and expertise with surroundings that often lack the cultural amenities of city life. The biggest difficulty he faced in Chadron wasn't its size (population 5,400), but its remoteness. He felt cut off from ministerial colleagues and the intellectual and spiritual stimulation they can offer. He was disheartened to learn that most of his peers in the region served churches that were too small to provide a budget for continuing education. Not only were the eight UCC and disciples pastors deprived of important contact with one another, they were also limited in their ability to seek and engage in new learning opportunities that could enhance their ministry and their churches.
Seger recognized that for his ministry to thrive he had to create a mechanism to connect with other UCC and DOC clergy in western Nebraska . For his soul to be fed, he had to facilitate relationships with other pastors serving similar populations. For his mind to be stimulated, he had to explore learning opportunities outside the church and discuss these experiences with other professionals.
If he and other pastors were going to generate, explore, and sustain excellence in ministry, Seger knew they had to connect, collaborate, and explore their calling together. And the only way to do that was to create an opportunity where none previously existed.
“I knew that among us there are many talented and gifted people,” says Seger. “I knew that if we could just give them the opportunity and the funding, wonderful things would result.”
The opportunity—and the funding—came with the SPE grant. Under it, the two denominations forged a new covenant among otherwise loosely connected clergy throughout the state, a transforming covenant that changed the face of ministry in Nebraska .
Shared Stories of Renewal, Growth, and Change
Under the SPE grant—Transforming Covenants—141 congregations in two denominations joined together to form small peer groups that would end isolation, promote healthy dialogue, and generate excitement and individual learning plans for all participating clergy.
Since the program began, countless stories have emerged of pastoral renewal, growth and change.
Three pastors serving churches in rural Nebraska, for example, used scholarship funds from Transforming Covenants to participate in a multi-year program offered through the Rural Pastors' Institute, another SPE project sponsored by the Center for New Community. These clergy have spoken so passionately about their experience, and have had such success applying what they have learned that other ministers in Nebraska are now also pursing training through RPI. The impact of those programs is spreading, as the RPI clergy are now launching grassroots training programs for ministers through the state.
In addition to reshaping and reenergizing church culture broadly, Transforming Covenants is also having a huge impact on the lives of individual pastors. One UCC pastor, in fact, credits the program with literally saving his life. Serving a struggling church in central Nebraska, the pastor became enmeshed in the chronic disagreements that divided his congregation. Amidst the constant feuding, the Church Council denied him adequate vacation and cut off his continuing education funds. Dismayed by the church’s dysfunction and already depressed, he contemplated suicide before he heard about and joined a Covenantal Learning Group.
His particular learning group, which operates according to a Quaker Clearness Committee model, holds two-day retreats several times a year at a Benedictine monastery in Schuyler, Neb. The retreats, he says, and the connections they helped him foster with others, helped save his life. Now, rather than give in to the pain caused by some in his congregation, he pursues life-affirming learning projects through Transforming Covenants. Because of Seger’s vision, he has found the strength to embrace life—and sustain his ministry.
But one of the biggest success stories is the story of two denominations building upon 40 years of shared history to change the “culture of the church” and promote innovative ministry throughout a Region and a Conference. Indeed, the impact of Seger’s vision is reaching even far beyond Nebraska and the Midwest . Members of the Transforming Covenants leadership team last year co-hosted a mini-conference on small-church ministry with a sister SPE peer group, the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. Under that program, clergy in two peer groups were able to meet and talk about their common concerns and joys with colleagues from far across the United States, forging bonds that are loving and challenging, adamant and kind.
The stories abound. Several Clergy Leadership Groups collect money to travel, study, or work together. A group of women clergy hosts a conference on women in church leadership. Tele-courses connect clergy across the state with first-rate scholars and speakers from around the world. Pastors are feeling their call to ministry resound once again in their hearts, thanks to a variety of learning projects that have taught them new things, taken them to new places, and given them new dreams.
But all these stories flow from one story. Seger’s story is the first story of Transforming Covenants. It is a story that reminds us that miracles are indeed mustard seeds, unnoticed and simple, delicate and yet imbued with life. It is a story of one pastor’s vision of new life for clergy that has taken hold and is producing fruit. It is a story that reminds us that ministry is a gift that stems from giving.
Above all, Seger’s story shows us that we need only a few adjectives to describe our work together.
Beautiful.
Meaningful.
Excellent.
Those three work just fine.
Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, Ph.D., is project director of “Transforming Covenants—A Pastoral Excellence Project,” a joint project of The Nebraska Conference, United Church of Christ, and The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Nebraska
