Pastoral Excellence

Communities of Practice are offered to gather authorized ministers into small groups of care, spiritual nurture and professional development.

Communities of Practice are:

• Led by trained Facilitators, usually colleagues who receive training and financial support in their role as they are charged with keeping the groups calendar, lifting up the mutually created covenant, providing hospitality and worship for the group, and facilitating conversation.
• Gathering monthly for 2 hours according to a schedule determined by the group. The group also determines whether it will gather in person or electronically.
• Ranging from five to ten participants
• Focusing on support and mutually identified topics of interest

Join a Community of Practice to:

• Be fed spiritually and learn from colleagues
• Share information and insight around case studies or situations in your own setting
• Explore ideas and feflect on common issues in ministry
• Develop a sense of connection, collegiality and covenant
• Ponder new practices and approaches to ministry and congregational life
• Provide spiritual discernment and prayerful support to one another

 The annual fee is $200. Participants will receive an invoice. Scholarships are available upon request. Please speak to Michelle Taylor, ACM for COM and clergy care.

To register, please read the Community of Practice policy and complete the form below.

Participation fee is $200 per program year. Participants will receive an invoice. Scholarships are available.

The Communities of Practice in our Pastoral Excellence Program provide opportunities that meet the following expectations as stated in the Manual on Ministry: “to provide support for the authorized minister, to encourage ministers’ personal and vocational development, and to provide an occasion for reflection and feedback on the practice of ministry.”

There are three necessary dimensions to a Community of Practice:

• The focus is ministry
• The community is essential
• Knowledge is practice based

Communities of Practice are about:

• Promoting peer learning to sustain pastors in every season of ministry
• Gathering and sharing the wisdom and the practices of The Marks for Faithful and Effective Authorized Ministers in the UCC
• Facilitating connections between pastoral excellence efforts for mutual learning
• Convening leaders to engage the pressing challenges and emerging opportunities in the church and the world
• Developing relationships with colleagues
• Spiritual nurture and theological discourse

Issues that may be addressed in Communities of Practice include but are not limited to: The Growth and Fulfilment of the Person, The Ministry Setting, The Sense of Call, Covenantal Relationships, Participation in the Wider Church; The Functions of the Ministry; The Ministerial Codes and the Church’s Expectations; and The Ethics of the Person.

Each Community of Practice group gathering includes the opportunity for sharing and reflection on one’s life and ministry setting as well as time for professional development and growth in ministerial skills and understanding.

Participants in Communities of Practice are required to adhere to the covenant agreement each group creates and accepts, and to make a commitment to attend regularly.

Please Register here: