So long . . . and hello again
This Advent marks a time of transition for all of us at the SPE Grant Coordination Office. With this issue, we bring to a close the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence website and newsletter. While we will continue to maintain the website, we will no longer be adding new content. This will not, however, be the end of our communication efforts. Indeed, we will return again early next year with a new website -- Faith & Leadership -- that will provide you and a much wider audience with a deeper and richer array of articles and other resources.
It was more than three years ago, in May 2005, that we launched the SPE newsletter and website. Since then, we have published 41 issues, with more than 175 articles about various SPE programs and the subject of pastoral excellence. More than a third of those articles, 66 in all, were submitted by SPE programs, either reprinted from their newsletters or denominational publications or written for the SPE site. To all of you who wrote for the site, sent articles or took time from your busy schedules to be interviewed for an “SPE Spotlight” or other article, we thank you for your participation, your help and your support.
When we launched the site, our goal was to foster communication with and among the SPE programs. We wanted to provide a forum where people throughout the SPE community could share what they are learning about pastoral excellence. We hope we have accomplished that goal and that the site has been useful for you. But after three years, we believe that this site has accomplished about all it can.
Consequently, we have been working for the past several months to prepare an entirely new website. As you know, the SPE grant coordination program is now part of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, a new initiative to teach, connect and provide resources to Christian leaders throughout the church and church-related institutions. As part of that effort, we plan to launch the Faith & Leadership website early next year. Aimed at pastors, denominational officials, seminary leaders and more, this new site will have capabilities and content far exceeding those available on the SPE site. In addition to articles and essays on various leadership topics, Faith & Leadership will have video interviews with a variety of church leaders, regular columnists, a blog and daily updates about interesting news from the world of religion and ideas.
In many ways, you and others in the SPE community will be our test audience for Faith & Leadership. You don’t need to do anything to subscribe to the new site and newsletter. We will send the new email newsletter to everyone on the SPE email list when the site is launched, tentatively scheduled for the end of January. We hope you will visit the site, give it a good workout, and let us know what you think. Many of you have told us before that you wanted a site that gives you the ability to engage in dialogue with other leaders, so here’s your chance -- be sure to post your comments on the blog. With your help, we can make Faith & Leadership a valuable resource not only for you and your ministry but also for other leaders throughout the church. So, please join us as we continue learning together about excellence . . . and about leadership.
Finally, while Christians always know we live “in the between times,” we never know that fact more deeply than in Advent. In this quiet season of reflection and preparation, of hope and longing, we clearly and inescapably dwell in the space between past and future. As we look back at all that has been accomplished in the past three years and ahead at the work that remains to be done, we are deeply grateful for your friendship and for the excellence that you have made real. May the seasons of Advent and Christmas be filled with hope and with joy for you and yours.
Peace.
Janice Virtue is an executive director and Bill Lamar, a managing director, of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.
