The Company of New Pastors
Providing Vocational
Nurture for Ministry Candidates and New Pastors
Purpose and Overview of Company of New Pastors
Being a good pastor is more than what one does. Good ministry cannot be defined by a list of actions in a particular call. What one does as a pastor must flow from who one is as a person called by God. This sense of vocation infuses the actions of the individual, transcends any job description and grants the freedom and resources necessary to fulfill the promise to serve “with energy, intelligence, imagination and love” as proscribed in the Book of Order (W-4l4003h).
Company of New Pastors is designed to be a pastoral formation program that both deepens and sustains the theological vocation of participants. Company of New Pastors focuses on the critical period of vocational formation beginning in seminary and continuing into the first years of ministry, helping to establish and nurture habits of theological reflection and spiritual formation beyond the seminary years. This reflection and formation richly funds the energy and wisdom necessary for sound, creative engagement with pastoral ministry’s many-faceted challenges, expectations and opportunities.
Company of New Pastors invites those just beginning ordained ministry into the program and practices of The Company of Pastors. The program covenant seeks to engage pastors in a rhythm of sustained study and disciplined prayer, in the regular company of colleagues. Company of New Pastors participants covenant to read scripture daily, to study the confessions of the church and to pray daily for the church and for each other.
Experience tells us it is not easy for pastors who have already established patterns of pastoral practice to change deeply entrenched habits midstream. Slowly but surely, a pastor’s life of study can taper down to little more than the necessary minimum for preparing sermons and lessons, and a pastor’s life of prayer can devolve into a tool mainly used for pastoral care. Pastors often struggle in vain to pull themselves out of well worn ruts to embrace new commitments to study and prayer.
The Company of New Pastors seeks to make daily scripture reading and prayer an essential part of pastoral formation, beginning during seminary training. Drawing on the covenant of the Company of Pastors, there are four sources for daily readings: the Daily Lectionary (BCW 2-year cycle), the Psalms, The Book of Confessions (including selections from the Book of Order and the Study Catechism) and the Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study.
The basis of the Company of New Pastors program are mentored peer covenant groups. Group gatherings are framed by common prayer and seasoned by table and social fellowship. Participants prepare for covenant group meetings by completing assigned reading and ordered reflection (usually some kind of writing assignment). Leaders frame agendas for gatherings, assuring that all group members share equally in leadership. Leaders also ensure that meetings stay “on task.”
The program begins during the middle year of seminary at many of the Presbyterian seminaries and Fuller Theological Seminary. Faculty mentors lead monthly gatherings with groups of of eight to 12 students who are inquirers or candidates within the PC(USA) ordination process. Each seminary campus group journeys together to study the ordination vows, join in table fellowship and begin incorporating the practice of daily prayer and Scripture reading. Participants are automatically joined to the Company of Pastors. All the seminary groups converge at the denomination’s headquarters during the fall of their senior year for a weekend gathering. All initial expenses for Company of New Pastors materials and gatherings are paid from grant funds provided by Lilly Endowment.
After seminary graduation, Company of New Pastors regional groups are formed and meet approximately every eight months (three times every two years). Typically the groups will meet for an initial 48-hour gathering the spring after graduation for group-formation purposes, then meet for a full 72 hours in subsequent gatherings. Remaining meetings last 72 hours, usually spread over four days and three nights.
After the first post-graduation year, participants are expected to purchase books for group study and to pay their own Company of Pastors membership dues. Beginning in the second post-graduation year and increasing incrementally, participants also contribute toward a socialized travel and lodging/meals budget that spreads costs of travel evenly to the entire group. Since many of these costs are paid from participants’ continuing education allowances, these contributions are considered joint participant/congregation contributions.
Seminary groups examine theologically, in detail, the ordination questions participants will be answering when they enter pastoral ministry. Post-graduation groups grapple with the theological foundations of the successive rubrics in the service for the Lord’s Day.
Intentional mentoring and accountability are features of both seminary groups and regional covenant groups. Respective mentors are responsible to establish and maintain this dimension, which shapes group gatherings and also includes facilitating contact among group members and leaders in between gatherings.
Participants in the Company of New Pastors covenant to meet together regularly for study and corporate prayer. Between meetings they practice daily disciplines of Bible reading, prayer and study of the church’s confessional resources. These practices begin during the seminary years and continue through the end of the program (four years beyond graduation).
The Company of New Pastors covenant is consistent across the entire program, and the themes, frequency and durations of gatherings will be similar for all groups. Specific choices of readings, the shape of group discussions, specific paper assignments, dates of gathering and ongoing intragroup contact are left to the discretion of each group’s leaders. The Office of Theology and Worship provides meeting models and recommended reading lists, but these are suggestive rather than prescriptive.
Administrative program staff at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville coordinate Company of New Pastors hospitality contracts, reimbursements, supplies, travel arrangements and the like.
Particular Company of New Pastors groups determine much of their gatherings’ particular patterns and agendas. However, the essential core of the program — that it be a place where pastors in company with one another nurture their theological vocation under the guidance of wise mentors — remains consistent for all groups.
The Office of Theology and Worship has found that having pairs of leaders for regional covenant groups is crucial to its value. In the way they work together, co-leaders model what it means to walk with colleagues in accountability and encouragement around shared disciplines that nurture a common vocation. For this reason seminarian groups are led by two PC(USA)-ordained professors or by one PC(USA)-ordained professor together with a seminary administrator (or at times a nearby pastor). Their leadership in Company of New Pastors is rooted in their identity as ordained Presbyterian ministers rather than as academicians. The Office of Theology and Worship recruits Company of New Pastors seminary leaders in consultation with local seminary officials.
Connecting with one another nationally, and with national church leadership, is a critical component for building a sense of the collegial character of pastoral ministry.
All seminarian groups gather together each fall for a national consultation in Louisville. Each fall, spring graduates participate in a national gathering that precedes their assignment into regional groups.
Contact information
Office fax
(502) 569-8060
Quinn Fox, program director
(888) 728-7228 x5310
Karen Russell, program assistant
(888) 728-7228 x5401
Catherine Reuning, administrative assistant
(888) 728-7228 x5732
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