Course Description

SUPERVISED MINISTRY OVERVIEW

The Supervised Ministry Series is designed to provide a practical internship in pastoral ministry over an eighteen-month progression.  The arc of this series begins with entering a new place of ministry and concludes with leaving a place of ministry. Along this arc, participants will explore issues of pastoral identity, ethics, and organizational dynamics.

A requirement for the Supervised Ministry Series is to be engaged in pastoral ministry with a site supervisor for approximately 6 to 8 hours each week.  It is assumed that participants will be involved in pastoral ministry between the scheduled courses and arrange appropriate time off with the site supervisor.  Participants are required to meet with site supervisors every two weeks and site supervisors are asked to complete reports on those meetings. The coursework does not substitute for supervision of actual experience in ministry.  Instead, it provides a focused learning experience to gain a greater understanding of what competent and ethical pastoral ministry requires.

Participants may serve in any established setting for authorized ministry.  The usual placement will be in a local church. Some participants may be serving in institutional chaplaincies or community outreach programs.  The requirements for the place of ministry are that it be established, that the participant’s role is clearly designated as a ministerial position, and that the site supervisor be an authorized minister approved by the PATHWAYS Director.  The site supervisor may be engaged in ministry elsewhere but needs to be able to see the participant in the ministry setting. (For example, the site supervisor may be the pastor of a neighboring church while the participant is serving in a congregation without an authorized minister on staff.)

During the eighteen-month period, the participant should serve in no more than two different settings.  An essential part of pastoral ministry is to build relationships with people, allow them to grow, and to appropriately end those relationships.  This process, which is at the heart of pastoral ministry, takes time to evolve.

The Director of PATHWAYS has authority to approve both the setting for ministry and the site supervisor.  To be enrolled in Supervised Ministry courses, a participant is required to be engaged in ministry in an approved setting and have a site supervisor.  Questions can be directed to the Director of PATHWAYS.

Course Description

Local churches are in the midst of change.  Some attempt to hold on to ways of “being the church” that are closely tied to their history.  Others attempt to reinvent themselves to be more inclusive, more progressive, or more….well, more something.  It may not be clear what that “something more” actually is. In either case, congregational members experience grief due to loss of members, diminishing status in the community, or the addition of new music or practices.  Staffing patterns and program offerings change due to finances or interest. Local churches are indeed in the midst of change. Change requires letting go of what was to accept what is becoming. Change is a bereavement process.

This segment of Supervised Ministry will examine grief, loss, and change in the local church.  This examination will invite you to consider what it means to be a pastoral leader in the midst of change.  Over the next nine weeks, you’ll consider dynamics of change and the role of leadership as you engage in day-to-day pastoral ministry.  Such a process reflects the experience of ministerial staff members who reflect on issues of leadership while they are actually leading.  In this way, you will gain a greater sense of the context of actual ministry while engaging in reflection on your role in ministry as a change-agent and leader.

Learning Objectives

• To appraise one’s own call to ministry.
• To evaluate how one’s own call to ministry can be embodied in the context of a particular community of faith.
• To identify ways in which congregational change can occur which is consonant with the congregation’s values and identity.
• To analyze how a congregation’s history, values, vision and leadership form the context for change.
• To examine a congregation’s current values, vision, and expectations of leadership as a context for change.
• To interpret the congregants’ experience of loss and grief in ways that empower the life of the community

Required Texts

• McFayden, Kenneth J. ( 2009) Strategic Leadership for a Change: Facing Our Losses, Finding
• Our Future. Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, Inc.