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[January 2007]

Pastoral Residency Program:
   New $850,000 Lilly grant

By James Gertmenian

The Eli Lilly Endowment has renewed Plymouth’s participation in the Pastoral Residency Program (PRP) with a new grant of $850,000. First Congregational Church of Minnesota (UCC) will continue to be our partner, and beginning in Fall 2007, we’ll be joined by Mayflower Community Congregational Church as well.

Each church will have one resident on staff for two years at a time. Our expectation is that the grant will enable us to continue the program for six more years. The program’s new administrator is the Rev. Martha Postelthwaite who’s on the faculty of United Theological Seminary in New Brighton.

Plymouth’s PRP began six years ago, underwritten by a $750,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment. The Endowment has funded similar programs – aimed at helping seminary graduates make positive transitions to their ministerial careers – in about 25 churches around the country.

The idea has been to give beginning ministers two years of residency with strong congregations and experienced mentors, much in the same way that new doctors spend post-graduate time practicing in “teaching” hospitals. Plymouth’s version of the Pastoral Residency Program has been undertaken in partnership with First Church. For the past several years, each of our congregations has had a resident on staff, and in addition to routine ministerial duties and supervision by the Senior Minister, the residents have met regularly (together with the Senior Ministers and other clergy) for book discussions, presentations by visiting experts in various fields and conversation about issues in theology and pastoral work.

Through this program – until recently administered by Plymouth member Ralph Colby – our church has nurtured the ministerial gifts of Alan Leach, Hilary Martin-Himan, Sarah Griffith and Malcolm Himschoot. It goes without saying, of course, that in addition to nurturing these gifts, we’ve also been a recipient of them.

Over the past six years, the PRP churches around the country have learned a lot about how best to equip new ministers as they set out on their careers. More will be learned in the next six years. It’s a privilege for Plymouth to participate in this work, and the expectation is that at the end of this renewed grant period, Plymouth (and churches like it) will have developed ways to continue the work without the support of the Lilly Endowment. Obviously new models for the program – including new funding models – will have to be developed. And wider partnerships will be formed to offer this important experience to larger numbers of seminary graduates as they begin their ministerial careers.

Over the next few months, I look forward to working with Plymouth members to enlarge our sense of what it means to be a “teaching church” and to further develop our ability to assist new ministers as they get started. Existing clergy staff, of course, have an important role in this, but the real “teachers” of new ministers are church members. By responding to the residents’ work, encouraging them along the way, providing opportunities for professional experience and caring for them as they form their pastoral identities, members of teaching churches like Plymouth can have a significant impact on the work these ministers will do throughout their careers. I’m pleased and excited that we’ll be able to continue to play a part not only in their future work but also in the development of new national models for preparing individuals as they undertake this challenging and wonderful profession.