Learning with Peers

In addition to support from a more experienced mentor, the third condition for success is peer learning. Again, ministry is based on relationships. Supportive relationships with mentoring clergy and with the teaching congregation are vital. However, without peers, without conversation with those who are at a similar stage in their journey, ministry can feel isolating. Peers share strategies for navigating the learning curve. Peers add perspective on ministry. They add a dimension of community and of self-understanding in the context of that community.

Not every congregation will have more than one new pastor at a time. At a multiple-staff church a cohort of two or three new pastors can create a peer learning group. Across a judicatory or seminary alumni network new pastors can form colleague groups. Facilitated peer colleague groups can be a particularly effective way of providing meaningful connections with others whose experience most closely reflects their own.

In the flurry of the first two years of ministry, new pastors will often forgo these groups in favor of the many other things they want to say yes to in ministry. Creating a structure where peer support can occur and designating that time as important to vocational formation often gives the new pastor permission to deeply engage in these groups. Just like mentoring relationships, peer groups cannot be forced. They can, however, be designed to go beyond casual lunch conversations to reflect on deeper questions: What particular gifts does our generation bring to ministry? What do we want to do differently? When we consider our call to ministry, how does it contrast and compare to that of our mentors? Where is there a disconnect between our generation’s seminary experience and parish life? How do we creatively bridge that gap? Where are the places of celebration? What do we need to learn?