ZeroToHeroDate: June 29, 2023
This system is increasing to coach extra mentor-coaches and monks after securing a $500,000 five-year sustainability grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.
ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 28, 2023 – Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) has hosted 68 clergy and lay leaders from throughout The Episcopal Church for per week of intensive mentor-coach coaching as a part of its Thriving in Ministry (TiM) initiative.
This system is being expanded after securing a $500,000 five-year sustainability grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. With the extra funding, which builds on a $375,000 three-year grant from Trinity Wall Road, TiM has set the objective of working with 10% of all lively monks in The Episcopal Church by the tip of 2027.
TiM promotes steady studying via grouping monks serving in comparable sorts of ministries in peer communities led by mentor-coaches with expertise in the identical ministry context. The net program spans two years, throughout which contributors participate in 18 month-to-month peer periods and 18 month-to-month one-on-one periods with a mentor-coach.
The extra funding has enabled TiM to coach a bigger variety of mentor-coaches, that means this system could be provided to extra monks, working in a wider vary of contexts. TiM will work with a complete of round 270 monks in its 2024 – 2025 cohort, practically double the full of 140 monks who’ve taken half in this system because it was first launched 5 years in the past.
The current five-day coaching program for mentor-coaches is being adopted with six months of group and one-on-one on-line apply periods, after which they are going to be break up into pairs to guide 34 peer studying teams of eight monks and different church leaders, beginning in January 2024.
Earlier peer studying teams have included church planters, faculty chaplains, Korean and Filipino monks, Black monks serving white congregations, Black monks in historic African-American congregations, and girls in govt management roles.
TiM workers have labored intently with diocesan and churchwide community companions, in addition to its newly skilled mentor-coaches, to supply a wider vary of centered peer teams. The 2024 cohort will develop its providing to incorporate teams akin to diocesan workers, rectors, vicars, Latino missioners, bivocational monks, associates, nonprofit leaders, regional ministry crew leaders, and leaders whose focus is in city, suburban, or rural settings.
The Rev. David T. Gortner, Ph.D., program principal of TiM, stated: “Ideally, monks will proceed to develop all through their lives, honing clearer insights, talents, abilities, and habits. However in addition they run the danger of plateauing, stagnating and resorting to autopilot. Typical persevering with teaching programs could encourage with short-term bursts of latest studying, however they don’t yield long-term progress. Monks want house to deal with their distinct challenges and develop new abilities. Not annually, however repeatedly. Not usually, however with particular focus. Not alone, however with mentors and friends sharing dedication to enduring progress.”
TiM is certainly one of numerous steady teaching programs that function out of Lifelong Studying at VTS. It was launched in 2018, with the intention of strengthening monks’ habits of steady progress and capability growth all through their ministry, via offering continuity, specificity, shared dedication, and deliberate apply.
The newest funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. comes after TiM beforehand benefited from a $750,000 three-year grant from Trinity Wall Road, which was awarded to VTS and break up equally between TiM and a management growth program for Anglican clergy, lay-leaders, and bishops worldwide, headed by the Heart for Anglican Communion Research.
Enrollment for the following cohort of TiM will open in August 2023. Additional particulars shall be revealed on TiM’s web site at www.thrivinginministry.church.
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Notes to editors:
For media enquiries, please contact: editor@vts.edu.
About Thriving in Ministry:
TiM was launched in 2018 with the intention of making vibrant peer studying teams for clergy in distinct settings, and advancing the continual training of clergy via the help of skilled mentors. Between 2018 and 2022, TiM skilled 140 monks in peer teams of as much as 9 individuals, together with 40 monks via a particular mission with Episcopal AsiAmerica Ministries.
About Lifelong Studying at VTS:
Lifelong Studying at VTS gives steady theological training alternatives for people and lay and ordained leaders. Its multi-faceted program, which is grounded in theology and research-based practices, affords revolutionary approaches to present ministry challenges, and entry to ministry assets, significantly for historically underserved populations.
About Virginia Theological Seminary:
Virginia Theological Seminary was based in 1823 by St. Paul’s Church in Alexandria, Virginia. It’s the strongest seminary within the Anglican Communion and has a protracted custom of shaping trustworthy ladies and men, lay and ordained, for management in The Episcopal Church and past. Visited by three Presidents, the seminary gives greater than 25 p.c of the clergy of The Episcopal Church.
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