All Can Teach

Any congregation can create the conditions that provide the foundations for success and spiritual leadership among new pastors—a safe learning environment, mentoring, and peer learning.

Small congregations can call a newly ordained pastor and create a life-giving ministry for all, knowing they will soon send this pastor forth to serve the wider church. Larger congregations may call one new pastor to assist the senior pastor, knowing that part of their ministry is to serve as a teaching congregation. And the largest congregations may call several new pastors at once to learn from more senior clergypersons, knowing their ministry is to set the standards of leadership and shape these new leaders for the future.

Neither the size of the church nor the number of new pastors called determines the conditions for success. Instead, success can be created by any new pastor in partnership with any community of faith that is committed to the ministry of being a teaching congregation. The realization of this vision is life-giving and life-sustaining both to new pastors and to the congregations they are called to serve.