For Such a Time as This
A Small Church Pastoral Residency Program
Important information for presbyteries seeking to serve as potential residency site partners
This program seeks to pair small, underserved congregations with recent seminary graduates in a two-year pastoral residency relationship during which the pastoral residents will be supported and guided by a network of pastor/mentors, presbytery, seminary and national church leaders. Because isolation is frequently cited as a concern for pastors in such settings, residents will be placed in clusters of three to four residents for peer learning and support. The residents will be Presbyterian candidates for ministry who have completed their M.Div. degree and have been “certified ready to receive a call”.
At this time, processes and applications have yet to be formalized. Right now we are looking for potential partner presbyteries which are underserved and have difficulty attracting first call candidates, but have three to four small churches (100 or fewer in worship attendance) that could be good learning settings for first call residents. Because residents will meet monthly with a pastor/mentor, they will be placed in clusters that would allow for that. This would mean that two contiguous presbyteries might work together to form a cluster of three to four residency churches.
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Staff time of our part-time residency coordinator who will visit to work with you in developing the residency sites and visit residents in place.
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Partnership in identifying pastor/mentors to work with residents.
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Support and special skills training for your residency pastor/mentor(s).
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Resource persons (at no cost to you) for presbytery learning events based on the needs of the residents and their congregations.
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Participation in wider “community of practice in small church ministry” network, sharing and receiving resources and learnings with other members.
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Small residency site grants to supplement funds available from the church, presbytery and synod for resident compensation.
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All expense paid national orientation, mid-point and closure events for your residents and key presbytery residency leaders.
We will recruit potential residents and screen them to get a pool of candidates with good chance of success and offer them to residency presbyteries. We recommend that presbyteries and churches work together to create designated pastor positions. This would allow residents to stay beyond the two-year period when desirable and it would qualify residents to be considered for seminary debt assistance through the Board of Pensions.
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Select small churches that are underserved or hard-to-call, yet have qualities to be good teaching churches for residents.
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Work with congregations to provide an adequate first call compensation package for the two-year residency (using congregational, presbytery and synod funding). Small grants may be available through the residency program. Seminary Debt Assistance may be available through the Board of Pensions.
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Work with national residency staff team to identify and covenant with good pastor/mentors for the residents who will meet with them at least monthly.
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Provide a presbytery residency team to work with national staff team throughout the residency.
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Provide orientation, support and other learning opportunities to help residents understand your ministry context and potential for growing the ministry of Christ in their residency settings, requesting appropriate resources and consultants from the program network through the national residency coordinator.
Applications from partner presbyteries are due February 1, 2010. We will finalize partner presbyteries and small churches in February with the goal of placing our first 12-16 residents in four clusters in the summer of 2010. A second group would be placed in four other presbyteries in the summer of 2011 (with application deadline of February 1, 2011).
Full participation
Partner presbyteries and congregations receive and support “For Such a Time as This” residents and engage with them in the community of practice through reflection learning experiences in the presbytery and nationally. National events and consultants will be fully funded and small grants may be available to supplement local program costs. Other leaders within the presbytery may also participate in and benefit from the local community of practice at the discretion of the presbytery.
Non-residency affiliation
Presbyteries and congregations seeking to provide communities of practice for persons in small church positions, but not receiving “For Such a Time as This” residents may participate in the wider community of practice in small church ministry network, sharing and receiving resources and learnings with other members (without financial support).
We will have more information out over the next few months. We look forward to working with you on this! Email us or call (888)728-7288, x5753.