So Much Better

How Thousands of Pastors Help Each Other Thrive

Brenda K. Harewood, D Bruce Roberts, James Bowers, Janet Maykus

• Publisher: TCP Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780827235250
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Meant to both inspire and inform pastoral leaders, So Much Better examines the impact of peer group participation on pastoral leaders, their families, and ministries.

This book goes beyond numbers and data by breathing life into the statistical bones. At this book's heart are seven peer group models including stories and examples from participants, families, and church members. Also featured is information about peer group recruitment, leadership, content, and structure, and practical advice about the cost, sustainability, and evaluation of peer groups.

So Much Better can change the way you think about and perform your ministry and lead you to a life that is— well, so much better.

Authors:
Penny Long Marler
James Bowers
Larry Dill
Brenda K. Harewood
Richard Hester
Sheila Kirton-Robbins
Marianne LaBarre
Janet Maykus
D. Bruce Roberts
Lis Van Harten
Kelli Walker-Jones

From The Columbia Partnership (TCP) Leadership Series

CHAPTER 1

Taking Charge of Our Learning

Case Scenario

I remember an evening at Altar, Mexico, a dusty cow town that sits in the middle of the Sonora Desert. For the past decade or so, Altar has become a major staging point for migrants heading into the United States illegally. Thousands arrive and leave for the border each day. We were talking with families who were literally about to risk their lives to go out into the desert and cross the border. One of our group leaned over to a father and asked him why he was risking his life to do that, and his answer was, “Could you watch your family starve?”

I will never forget that evening. We ate for $3.70 one night because we wanted to eat on what an average worker family had available. The next night we got back to the United States. We went to a steak house in Tucson and, without even thinking, dropped a hundred times that amount on what we would consider a sufficient meal for us. It was like “Oh …” —Gary, pastor, Longview Presbyterian Church

The Birmingham Faith and Money Peer Group formed out of the conviction that pastoral leaders are uncomfortable with money. Both laity and judicatory leaders recognize the tension between faith and money and affirm the need for more competent leadership. This peer group projected a three-year travel and study project that included work in the following areas:

Personal: my money. How do pastoral leaders become more comfortable, intentional, and realistic in their handling of personal money and possessions? First, the group examined the ideas and preconceptions that influence the use of money in their own households.

Church: the congregation’s money. What is the church’s theological understanding of its use of property and possessions? How do pastors help their congregations move from a theology of scarcity to one of joyous generosity? How does a congregation invest its funds with integrity?

World: people’s money. How do pastors nurture and inspire generous giving? How do they help people move from transactional giving to passionate and transformative giving? Here the concern was to discover the potential for giving that is resident in all households.

The subject hooked me. I was fascinated by it because I was one of these ministers who had never paid any attention to finance or money. After having children, I started paying attention to how little money I was making and asking myself if I was going to be able to survive in this profession. I would describe myself as having been naive about finance, and I was beginning to be curious about it. The timing of this peer group was just perfect for me. —Jane, associate pastor, Green Valley Episcopal Church

Their own money, the church’s money, and the world’s money: these pastoral leaders sought to explore together how to be more comfortable in these areas. Through the radical agency method of the Institute for Clergy Excellence, the group was invited to invent a new way to study this subject.

Almost immediately they realized, “We do not even know how to begin.” With encouragement from their facilitator and help from consultants, the group spent some of its educational grant money on an immersion experience in the financial district of lower Manhattan. They spent one day at the New York Stock Exchange to get a feel for the free enterprise system and the world of money. They spent another day at the New York Federal Reserve Bank exploring the role of government in the world of money and then a day at Ground Zero.

In the immersion module we focused on the three sectors of the economy: government, business, and individuals. So we wound up on the floor of the stock exchange as a part business/part consumer kind of thing. We went to the gold vaults at the New York Fed. We saw enormous amounts of gold: a gazillion dollars down there. We spent time at Ground Zero and in St. Paul’s Chapel of the Trinity Wall Street Church to understand the 9/11 attack as a cataclysmic collision between faith and money. —Albert, senior pastor, Green Acres Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Everywhere the group went that week, they asked this question: “If you were given the opportunity we have been given to study faith and money, how would you proceed?” Leaders in the world of money and the church were stumped. Beyond some mention of charitable giving, there was no answer. It was a profound learning experience for the group.

After the group got home, they planned conversations with several experts to help them explore a very basic question; “What do we believe about money?” One conversation centered on the human tendency to compartmentalize (or separate) some things from others, especially when they do not seem to be compatible.

Dr. John Schuster talked to us about compartmentalization, a psychological phenomenon that causes people to separate their faith life from their secular pursuits. We had assumed we wanted to help people overcome that separation. We came to learn, however, that it could be dangerous to remove the separation if, for example, someone’s faith ideas are violently extremist. —Phyllis, associate pastor, St. John’s United Methodist Church

The group also learned that compartmentalization can be problematic. Some people, especially young adults, do not make crucial connections between their commitments and desires and get trapped by crushing debt. “I used this teaching as the basis for my Ash Wednesday sermon,” Phyllis shared.

With amazing timing, the group found itself in Washington, DC, a year later.

This module was held in Washington, DC, the week after the $700 billion bailout/rescue plan was passed by the US Congress. This followed the nationalization of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, and the fight over Wachovia by Citigroup and Wells Fargo. These actions effectively shifted the financial focus of the world from Wall Street, where we had begun our work last year, to Washington as our government intervened to save our economy. —Ken, rector, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church

One pastor reported that his congregational leaders were impressed that he had traveled to DC during this critical week to study the implications for the local community. “I never got around to telling them that the trip had been planned more than six months,” he quipped.

We were visiting DC during a news-breaking week, and this module provided me with the language of leadership—nonanxious, ego surrendering, even joyful in the midst of uncertainty. —Victor, senior pastor, Pilgrim Congregational Church

In the project design phase, one group member said, “I’m going to insist we not only deal with the up-and-out but also the down-and-out.” As a result, the group planned one of its modules on the US-Mexican border studying with an organization called BorderLinks.

Over a period of days as we listened to real people’s stories, this often-politicized issue of immigration took on human face and form, outstretched hand and warm embrace. As we sat in Mexico looking north, we couldn’t help but ask ourselves about the incarnation of our own families’ stories and how our people came to call the US home. –Jeanie, copastor, Church on the Rock

Timing continued to impinge on the group’s final module to the United Kingdom.

The timing of our visit to the UK was important (without our having planned for it) because the pope had been in England and Scotland just one week before. His presence surfaced conversations around the intersection of our religious faith and current world realities, including the economic situation. We heard mention of the pope’s comments about the economy from a religious perspective both in London and Edinburgh. —Andy, pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

In a final evaluation at the end of the project, the group was asked, “How has your participation in this group and its study changed your ministry, your sense of call, and your faith?” Looking back over three-plus years of rather profound experiences together, members gave the following answers:

I believe this module has impacted my ministry and personal life beyond anything I could have imagined. —Tom, pastor, First Presbyterian Church

I just accepted a call to a church in large part based on my participation in this group. They are struggling financially and were calling a pastor who could help them look at issues of finance head-on. When I was interviewing I told them, “If it were before my experience with the Faith and Money group, I would have said, ‘No, I don’t know if I want to enter this search.’” —Jane, associate pastor, Green Valley Episcopal Church

As a minister living and working in a community listed in more than one publication as “most affected” by this time of economic downturn, I was given both language and ideas to respond pastorally to the crisis and to help lead my parish into the future. —Andy, pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

We started wanting to be more intelligent about finance, and I think we are more intelligent about finance, but we have been better pastors to our people through this economic crisis because of our engagement with this topic. —Victor, senior pastor, Pilgrim Congregational Church

It is clear that the total experience enabled the group to meet its primary original goal: “To study our own attitudes about money and how to talk to others about money and how it relates to faith.”

Radical Agency Groups at the
Institute for clergy Excellence

Peer learning is energized by radical agency. In this kind of learning, individuals are empowered to think and act freely and independently. Within broad administrative guidelines, peer groups are encouraged to take charge of their own learning. Adult learners are trusted to plan transformational learning experiences that will lead them out of their comfort zones, enable them to take risks, and hold them accountable for results. Given this freedom, radical agency peer groups invent exciting new ways of studying the subject. Energized by the method, change for the better is dramatic, quick, and observable by congregations, spouses, and clergy themselves.

Self-Selection

Self-selection is the first sign of radical agency. Adult learners are not likely to enter into the sort of covenant relationship essential for agency without a strong sense of collegiality and compatibility with others. Every group is expected to embody diversity, but quotas are not imposed. Experience demonstrates that diversity comes in all guises. The burden is on each group to explain how they address this issue.

When asked in an evaluation session about self-selection, one group member gave the following responses:

Evaluator: Your group came together by self-selection. Do you think that has made a difference in the dynamic of the group?

Peer Group Member: Yes, certainly.

Evaluator: Can you comment on that?

Peer Group Member: If we hadn’t chosen one another, we might not be able to put up with each other. Let me say this as a Baptist from the South. If I’d been selected by someone else to be in a group, I probably would have been stereotyped and put in the wrong group. I could have been stereotyped as a very conservative person, which I’m not, and that would have been an utter failure for me.

At the outset, self-selection can appear unkempt. One or two early adopters decide to form a group and begin reaching out to colleagues. Individuals come and go as they explore the depth of co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Editor’s Foreword
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Introduction: The Power and Promise of Pastoral Peer Learning
• Chapter 1: Taking Charge of Our Learning
• Chapter 2: Celebrating Holy Friendships
• Chapter 3: Making Covenant Together
• Chapter 4: Finding Ubuntu
• Chapter 5: Cultivating Green Spaces
• Chapter 6: Transforming Community
• Chapter 7: Tilling Our Stories
• Chapter 8: The Peer Learning Paradigm Shift
• Appendix: Peer Group Resources
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index