Give to For Such A Time As This Pastoral Residency Program
For Such A Time As This Pastoral Residency Program
"Yes, we are alive. Yes, we do have a future. Yes, God is still at work in our church. There is more we can do."
- Sara Bramlett, Elder, First Presbyterian Church, Pontotoc, Miss., For Such a Time as This residency site
In September 2010, when the General Assembly Mission Council boldly commissioned six recent seminary graduates to serve small congregations through the For Such a Time as This program, only God could have envisioned the lives that would be changed and the hope that would be renewed.
Watch our video
Watch a short video introduction to For Such a Time as This, featuring inspiring testimonials by members of both classes of pastoral residents as well as congregational and presbytery leaders.
“Our first Christmas together”
Pastoral residents in the For Such a Time as This program experience the many “firsts” of parish ministry
By Emily Enders Odom
The Rev. Noe Juarez celebrates his first Communion as pastor of Sunset Presbyterian Church. Photograph courtesy of Noe Juarez.
Louisville - Although the major greeting card manufacturers have yet to design a card for the occasion, first-call pastors everywhere will soon be celebrating with their congregations “our first Christmas together” along with other firsts that are unique to their respective communities.
“When I preached my first sermon written in English and Spanish on the same topic, I experienced the delivery in very different ways,” said the Rev. Noe Juarez, who serves the Sunset Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., through the For Such a Time as This program. “I find it fascinating that each Sunday the Holy Spirit seems to speak one language better than the other!”
Matches made in heaven
Recent seminary graduates are encountering the challenges and blessings of serving small congregations
By Emily Enders Odom
For Michaele Wood, small churches are the new frontier.
MAKING THE CHURCH MORE ACCESSIBLE:Michaele Wood, pastoral resident at First Presbyterian Church in Pontotoc, Miss., with a group of church members who made possible the installation of a ramp providing access for people with disabilities. Members say it took Wood’s initiative to finally get the job done. Photos by laura russell.
“If you really think you’ve got guts, have been called by God, and want to find out what you’re made of, the small church is the place you can find out,” she says.
Wood is one of six recent seminary graduates sent out to provide much-needed pastoral leadership to small congregations in 2010—the first year of an innovative program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) called For Such a Time as This: A Small Church Residency—Growing Leaders, Growing Churches. The program pairs congregations with seminary graduates in a two-year pastoral residency relationship. A unique aspect of the arrangement is that each pastoral resident receives the support and guidance of a network of pastor/mentors that includes presbytery and national church leaders.
The program’s name, For Such a Time as This, from the Old Testament book of Esther, draws a parallel between Esther’s unexpected rise to leadership in her own day and the PC(USA)’s call for leaders to serve in a rapidly changing and challenging 21st-century context. About 4,000 of the denomination’s more than 10,000 congregations average fewer than 50 people in attendance each Sunday.
The pied piper of Detroit
winning coach, teacher and leader is herself led to a new calling through for such a time as this pastoral residency program
The Rev. CC Armstrong
Louisville - In order to achieve domestic harmony and avoid family squabbles, the Rev. CC Armstrong’s mother and father — who were raised in the African Methodist Episcopal and Baptist traditions, respectively — decided in the late 1950s that they would walk to and then join the very first church that welcomed them.
Nearby Calvary Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Mich., where they lived, was the first to receive them with open arms.
Armstrong recalls her parents’ experience as African-American visitors in a largely European-American congregation.
Warren Wilson College hosts luncheon for Western North Carolina Presbytery’s For Such a Time as This pastoral residents
Courtesy of the Office of Church and Interfaith Relations, Warren Wilson College
Participants enjoyed a local food lunch overlooking Warren Wilson College's organic gardens. Photo by Julie Lehman.
Swannanoa, N.C. - On the porch of the garden cabin at Warren Wilson College on September 1, the Presbytery of Western North Carolina’s two new For Such a Time as This pastoral residents were welcomed by their Asheville-area peers.
Just back from their extensive training and orientation at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Ky., Melissa Upchurch and Esta Jarrett joined 16 local Presbyterian pastors to introduce themselves, answer questions and learn about ministry in the WNC Presbytery.
Launched by the General Assembly Mission Council in Fall 2009, For Such a Time as This: A Small Church Residency—Growing Leaders, Growing Churches is a timely and innovative program that pairs small, underserved congregations with recent seminary graduates in a two-year pastoral residency relationship. One of the program’s unique and essential features is that each pastoral resident receives the support and guidance of a network of pastor/mentors, presbytery, and national church leaders.
Alive with a new hope
Second class of pastoral residents in the For Such a Time as This small church residency program are commissioned for service
Members of the Classes of 2010 and 2011 gathered in the chapel following the commissioning service. Photo by Ken Meeks.
Since he became pastor of the 33-member Lavonia (Ga.) Presbyterian Church on July 15, Jason Clapper has been out every day knocking on doors.
“We had five new people come out to church this past weekend, which was really exciting for the congregation to see,” Clapper said. “I’m seeing it myself but I’m also being told by people in the congregation that everyone is just really coming alive with a new hope. There’s a new energy and a new vibrancy that everyone is feeling.”
Clapper is one of ten recent seminary graduates who have received their first calls to ministry in the second year of For Such a Time as This, a pastoral residency program designed to renew the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by equipping new pastors to grow small churches Deep and Wide in evangelism, discipleship, servanthood and diversity.