Company of Pastors: a Model for Renewing and Sustaining Pastoral Passion
Core Convictions about Nurturing Pastoral Ministry
The Company of Pastors is founded upon several key convictions about practices that shape and sustain faithful, fruitful, and fulfilling pastoral ministry. These convictions have been developed and sharpened since the mid-1990s as the Office of Theology and Worship has been gathering pastors from across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to study, pray, break bread, encourage, and admonish one another. This pattern of nurturing the Christian vocation goes back to the very origins of the Christian community; from the day of Pentecost forward, it is said of the apostolic community, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (Acts 2:42)
1. Pastoral ministry is essentially a corporate, rather than an individual calling. This conviction lies at the core of Reformed pastoral identity, and was exhibited in Calvin's Genevan Venerable Company of Pastors, a direct antecedent to our presbyteries. Calvin convened the pastors of Geneva weekly to study an assigned biblical text, hear a paper from one of the pastors, pray together, consider together the obstacles and opportunities facing the witness of the Gospel in their region, and to determine how best to address the pastoral challenges presented by those obstacles and opportunities. In our time, presbyteries are so often consumed with the urgency of putting out pastoral wildfires and with the constitutional mandates of regulating pastoral ministry that careful, intentional nurture of good ministry gets short shrift.
2. While good pastoral work requires a broad variety of skills and aptitudes in areas of management, communications techniques, leadership, self-understanding, social awareness, and community relations, the pastoral vocation is singularly set apart from all other vocations by its theological character. When the theological core of pastoral identity is robust, a pastor will usually seek out all necessary resources to strengthen those critical skills and aptitudes; passion for ministry motivates the pastor to do whatever it takes to be most effective in the cause of advancing the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16-23). The task around which pastors will continue to gather regularly and from which they will continually profit over a lifetime of ministry, is sustained attention to the Christian faith through disciplined study and prayer. We have discovered that pastor gatherings focusing on peer support as the primary agenda run out of steam quickly; sustainability requires that the components of prayer and study be front and center. Of course, peer support and friendship will quickly emerge as a crucial component and benefit of these gatherings, leading to what we call “Communities of Theological Friendship.”
3. Pastors are already, by virtue of their calling, theologians in their own right. Their vocation is best cultivated as they do primary theological work, when they work as theologians together, rather than simply relying on the guidance of theological experts.
4. The pastoral vocation must continually be nourished at levels that both antecede and extend beyond the scope of a pastor's current job description. Fruitful vocational nurture always digs deeper and stretches broader than the development of particular skills related to a pastor's current call. Thus, pastors' practices of prayer and study ought to go beyond the concerns of lesson preparation and pastoral care. The ministry locale rarely encourages, let alone rewards such work; covenant with pastoral colleagues to practice such disciplines together is crucial for sustaining such commitments.
5. Pastors who gather with colleagues to think and pray the faith in disciplined ways renew the wells of passion and substance that fund faithful, fruitful, and fulfilling ministry. But as welcome as such events may be, episodic gatherings offer only episodic benefits. Enduring benefits are realized only as these practices are woven into the very warp and woof of one's ministry.
II. Company of Pastors Engagement
Local or Regional Groups
Whenever possible, we encourage members of the Company to form a local or regional group that can meet together on a regular basis – at least annually – and stay engaged in other ways between gatherings. This “face to face” engagement, with plenty of opportunities for conversation and table fellowship, is valuable in the formation of the community of theological friendship that can nurture and enhance theological reflection. For more information on forming local groups, contact Karen Russell at (502) 569-5401.
Companies of Pastors meetings and retreats can take a variety of forms, but one suggestion is to observe a rhythm of gathering that alternates between annual or semiannual full consultations, and weekly or biweekly meetings of local peer groups of two to four pastors.
The Consultation Paradigm
1. Full Company Consultations
Each Company selects a convener who assures that the Company will in fact be convened regularly. The convener, in consultation with the whole Company, selects study materials, assigns leadership responsibilities, arranges for a meeting venue, and establishes a general agenda for the gathering. Often, study will focus on a recent Company book selection, but other good books or essays may be chosen.
Once or twice a year, all members of the Company within a particular geographic area (ordinarily one or more presbyteries) gather for extended fellowship, study, and prayer. Theological study is the core focus around which all Company consultations convene.
Ideally, the full Company will number no more than 20. Full Company gatherings may be two-day, one-night events, or a single full day together. A member of the Theology and Worship staff may be able to assist in leading a particular Company launch or as a special speaker at a meeting.
Each Company will find its own preferred rhythm for study, prayer, meals, and informal fellowship. All four are important components. The convener assures that the pace follows the agenda, so all who have prepared papers have a chance to lead the group in discussing their papers. Study sessions are interspersed with informal fellowship breaks, meals, and observation of the offices of morning, noon, and evening prayer.
2. Peer Groups
Company members who participate in large group gatherings are urged to meet between those gatherings in peer groups of two to four on a weekly or biweekly basis. Members select their own peer group partners, and are urged to establish a meeting covenant that is suitable for them.
Peer group meetings usually last one to two hours. Company book selections or other readings are discussed on a chapter-by-chapter basis. A time of prayer for and with one another is central.
Peer groups typically follow a "check in, check up, check out" pattern.
Check in — Discuss the readings of the past week or two, with special attention to their possible significance for our spheres of ministry.
Check up — How are things going in our pastoral and personal spheres? How are we doing with our Company disciplines? For what joys and concerns in community, church, family, and personal life do we wish our friends to join us in prayer?
Check out — For what commitments will we hold one another accountable next time we meet? What readings will we read in preparation for discussion at our next gathering? When and where will we next gather?
Follow-Through
Before the meeting concludes, set the date, place, and time for the next meeting. Ordinarily, meetings will follow a set schedule (e.g., a peer group may choose to meet every other Wednesday at 10:00 at Starbucks; or the whole Company might agree to meet the Thursday and Friday after Easter each year).
Full Company consultations close with a clear understanding of how peer groups will be constituted, and who will take responsibility for the peer group calendar.
III. Local Adaptations
1. Formal links to Committees on Ministry
Some presbyteries or groups of contiguous presbyteries may wish to lodge responsibility for convening the Company with their Committees on Ministry, or with a sub-committee charged with vocational nurture for pastors. If the Company model can assist such committees in framing their work, God be praised!
In other situations, formal links to presbytery structures may not be preferable. Current committee chairs may find their plates too full to take this on. Some Committees on Ministry may find another model more appropriate to their particular task. In any case, most presbyteries already have pastors who are enrolled in Theology and Worship's Company of Pastors, and they may be willing to take responsibility for gathering a Company within their bounds quite apart from formal presbytery sponsorship. In such cases, we encourage that clear lines of communication with Committee on Ministry be established and maintained.
2. Ecumenical partners
While the Company of Pastors is supported by and intended to serve the PC(USA), we are glad to welcome ecumenical partners as part of the Company. This can be a most appropriate and fruitful way to live into the communion we seek with sisters and brothers in other denominations, especially our Formula of Agreement partners. Some pastors will find that cross-denominational peer groups work best in their particular localities. The Company of Pastors counts a number of pastors from other denominations on its rolls, and welcomes the opportunity to serve the larger Gospel ministry in this manner.