Urban Pastoral Excellence
In 2002, when Boston University School of Theology began to consider how it could contribute to a large national project on pastoral excellence, I and others at the school naturally and immediately focused on the unique particularities of urban life. Snaking through the city of Boston, our campus lies with the Charles River at our backs and the hustle and bustle of Commonwealth Avenue and a busy subway and trolley line right out our front doors. Just a few blocks away, sharing this same urban environment, is Fenway Park, one of the few remaining “urban” ball parks in major league baseball, with all the charm and challenges that status entails.
Although more than 80 percent of New England—the region from which we draw most of our students—is rural, 80 percent of the population lives in non-rural areas (much like the entire United States, where 79 percent of the population is urban). Thanks to urban sprawl and the “commuter culture” spawned by the advent of high-speed, limited-access highways in the 1950’s, however, the continuum between “urban,” “suburban,” “exurban,” and “rural” has become increasingly difficult to parse. No wonder that the U.S. Census Bureau now speaks of “urbanized areas” rather than simply using the term “urban.” Certainly, Boston, Dallas and Atlanta still have identifiable city limits, and for the most part, people know instinctively when they pass from urban into suburban or rural terrain. But we must now also talk about the “Boston-ization,” “Dallas-ization,” or “Atlanta-ization” of vast regions beyond city limits. For increasing numbers of people, “urban” is a way of life or an alternate value system, and is increasingly difficult to define narrowly with reference to the geographical center, or “core” of a city.
Over the last five years, in an effort to identify the components of pastoral excellence, we have listened to and learned from nearly 100 pastors who participated in our Sustaining Urban Pastoral Excellence project. We have also visited and talked with dozens of other urban pastors and ministry professionals throughout the nation. As these pastors shared with us their understanding of excellence, they told us that, whatever the marks of excellence, many are not unique to urban ministry but instead apply to a variety of contexts. Even so, they said, the complexity and intensity of urban life press them in ways that present enormous challenges and opportunities, which in turn shape the unique patterns of “excellence” that characterize their lives and ministries.
Reflecting on what we learned from these pastors, we reached at least three conclusions about “excellent” urban pastors:
- They love their cities;
- They know how to minister with their cities; and,
- They have found ways to sustain an urban spirituality.
First, not every person who enters pastoral ministry is “wired” for city life. Cities are characterized by overcrowding, violence, pollution, noise, diversity, anonymity, a rapid pace of life, high concentrations of poverty and need, powerlessness in the face of impersonal systems, and lots of concrete. No wonder some pastors in urban areas see themselves as “doing time” until they can land that nice, beautiful church out in the “‘burbs.” But in our project we almost always found that pastors who have a faithful and effective witness in the city also have a passionate love for their city and a delight in being there. They talk about it and show it off to visitors. They see the city not primarily as something to be fixed or as a problem to be solved, but as a “gift” and as a living entity that possesses something like a “soul” that, by its very nature, can magnify both creativity and deviance.
Thanks largely to this love for their cities, excellent urban pastors learn how to minister with their cities, rather than merely in their cities or to their cities (here I am indebted to Robert Linthicum’s way of putting the matter in Empowering the Poor, 1991). As Jeremiah 29:7 suggests, they understand that their own shalom is bound up with the shalom of the cities where God has sent them, and in this way, their lives and ministries have been thoroughly contextualized by urban life. Ministering with the city means tapping into the city’s vast resources—a complicated task requiring a distinct set of instincts, skills, and imagination. Typically, this means an incarnational commitment to living in the city, enjoying the opportunities and accepting the risks of urban life. Excellent urban pastors know how to collaborate. They know that in any city they can find potential ministry partners not only in other churches, but also in governmental and social agencies as well as cultural, business, and artistic communities. Because of scarce means, they understand they must pool resources and create a climate of mutual support in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Because of the complexity of urban life, excellent urban pastors know that their ministry with the city must occur on multiple levels—immediate relief, empowerment, community building, and the work of doing justice and seeking peace. To do that, urban pastors must learn how various urban systems “work” and how to “work” the systems. Complex sets of interrelated forces, these systems shape communities and the physical, cultural, economic, political, educational, and religious life of entire cities. For that and other reasons, networking is an essential skill for excellent urban pastors. The pastor who networks effectively can discern where God’s Spirit is already at work and has already planted vision. She or he can see signposts of God’s reign wherever they might be. Such networking is not only about exchanging information and ideas—though that is vital—but also about developing relationships of sharing and solidarity. Building such relationships is not always easy nor does it come naturally. Many of our urban pastors find themselves trying to minister in the midst of long-standing disagreements and divides, even and especially among clergy who have been unable to form united vision or partnership when working, for example, with municipal governments and agencies.
Lastly, excellent urban pastors have learned how to find God in the city. In the rich but rocky soil of city life, they have developed for themselves an “urban spirituality” that is attuned to discovering and creating necessary rhythms, patterns, and practices that nourish their spirits and the spirits of their parishioners. More art than science, urban spirituality is a distinctive style of living and of integrating the experience and knowledge of God with the complexities of the urban world. While much of classic Western Christian spirituality is premised on rural and even desert models that emphasize quiet and tranquility, these pastors have learned the disciplines of finding God and of seeing the city as a place of hope and growth. Even in the midst of frenetic city life, excellent pastors find places and times for prayer, sabbath, meditation, journaling, the Ignatian Examen, walking, reading, and exploring the vast cultural life of the city. And, yes, at times, this urban spirituality requires time away from the city. Many of our pastors tell us that, without a solid core of faith sustained by spiritual practice, they are easily tempted to be too invested in solving the problems of others, leaving themselves ripe for burnout and manipulation.
Friendship is one of the most important spiritual practices we have seen in our pastors. Yet oddly, it is a practice that many pastors seem to quit practicing soon after entering ministry. Clearly, pastoring can be lonely. Even in the midst of tens of thousands of people, pastors can become isolated and alienated unless they have the close companionship of peers. Often a spouse or a close loved one can serve as that friend and agent of hope and support. But we have found that there is no substitute for the friendship of other pastors—fellow travelers who can share vulnerabilities, insights, and experiences while foregoing the posturing and competition that often characterize clergy associations and denominational gatherings. Too many pastors lack these close, collegial relationships.
Not all the qualities of excellent urban pastors are unique to city life. Many are transferable and are probably true of pastoral excellence in just about any situation. But city life has an extraordinary intensity, pace, and complexity. As Jackson Carroll noted in God’s Potters (2006), urban pastors report spending more time than their rural counterparts in all areas of pastoral ministry and twice as much in administrative tasks. They also work 20 percent longer on weekends than rural pastors (113-14). Whether or not urban ministry requires a distinctive set of competencies, virtues, relationships, and imagination, it is a distinctive vocation, both intensely demanding and equally rewarding. May God never stop calling urban pastors, gifting them, and giving them vision, and may the church ever increase its support and encouragement of their work.
Bryan P. Stone is the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism and co-director of the Sustaining Urban Pastoral Excellence program at Boston University School of Theology.
