Pastoral Seasons As Life & Ministry
An Initiative to Promote and Sustain Pastoral Excellence

I. INTRODUCTION
Asbury Seminary’s Pastoral Seasons as Life and Ministry (PSALM) is an initiative to promote and sustain pastoral excellence. It addresses seminarians’ and pastoral leaders’ needs to be connected to networks of spiritual friends, as well as to be replenished and sustained by continuing engagement with classic practices of the Christian life. PSALM purposes to be a comprehensive, holistic, lifelong approach to nurturing effective habits of individual and corporate spirituality and theologically grounded ministry practices.

II. OUR VISION
The rapidly growing shortage and quality of clergy are frequently cited as major factors in the current crisis about established religious institutions. Loneliness, isolation and increasing and unrealistic expectations rank high among reasons for growing attrition among clergy. Pastors frequently lament that seminaries did not adequately prepare them for ministry.

By undertaking this project, Asbury Seminary expects to accelerate its commitment “to assist students to grow intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually in their lifetime quest of becoming and doing all that God intends.” Networks will join individuals together as spiritual friends and thereby provide ongoing support for them. Current students will be coached in ways that help them develop rhythms of being and doing that are essential to living an integrated life and ministering “from the inside out.” By more sustained interaction in theological reflection with pastoral leaders, faculty will be challenged continuously to interface between their disciplines and pastoral ministry and thus contribute to sustaining excellence in ministry through more formative teaching. Pastoral leaders will deepen their understanding of theory and its application to their ministry contexts.

III. THE PSALM INITIATIVE
PSALM has five major components preceded by a Formation Summit that will bring together practitioners (pastoral leaders), laity, and formation professionals to evaluate, shape, and assist in the development of the programmatic components of PSALM. The PSALM Initiative contains the following:

1 | Seminarius (during the years of seminary)
Beginning with the seminary years, students will have opportunities through Seminarius (formal curriculum and co-curriculum) to engage in classroom activities, small groups, and retreats that contribute to their developing sustainable habits in classic Christian practices and to their building networks of supportive relationships. These will take place on all three Asbury Seminary campuses, helping more than 500 students receive specific training and practical experiences in the formative development of sustainable habits around classic Christian practices.

2 | Spiritual Friends Seminars
Through four-day, regionally based Spiritual Friends Seminars, pastoral leaders and their spouses will experience a time of developing, renewing, and deepening of formative commitments made in the early stages of ministry; of strengthening the spousal relationship through growing together in these formative commitments; and, of reconnecting and expanding their networks of supportive relationships. These seminars will occur across the United States, helping approximately 500 clergy and spouses become more deeply immersed in classic Christian practices, be networked with other colleagues who can support them in their formative commitments, and be equipped to nurture professional excellence in their professional relationships.

3 | Spiritual Leaders Academy
The Spiritual Leaders Academy equips pastoral leaders as spiritual guides of their congregations and trains key laypersons to be spiritual leaders and partners in ministry by emphasizing in-depth spiritual formation, equipping laity for ministry, and ministry team leadership. The Academy meets twice each year for three years on the Seminary's Kentucky and Dunnam (Florida) campuses where up to 75 pastoral leaders and 75 key laity will be trained.

4 | Theological Reflection Weeks
Theological Reflection Weeks extend the work undertaken in seminary of wedding theory and practice. As pointed out in the U.S. Catholic Bishops study, “[a] good seminary program will have launched them into the process of linking theory and practice, but now they need to do so more intensively.… It entails learning from and in the experience of ministry in order to grow in a prudential wisdom that can apply book knowledge in practical and effective ways.” Pastoral leaders will spend five days on campus with four pastoral colleagues and a faculty person. They will engage in six to eight hours of group discussions around readings they identified in collaboration with one another, participate in the faculty member’s classes around the intersection of theory and practice, and jointly write a paper that focuses on a ministry issue reflected upon theologically. Reflection weeks will occur on either the Kentucky or Dunnam campus. Up to 100 pastoral leaders will have participated in Theological Reflection Weeks working collaboratively with pastoral peers and faculty and producing brief papers that address the intersection of theory and practice in ministry. These papers will be published on a PSALM Web site.

5 | Research Collaboratory
Finally, acknowledging that much yet needs to be understood with respect to the seasons of pastoral lives—both internal transitions as well as chronological ones, through the auspices of a Research Collaboratory—teams of doctoral students will explore this topic through nationwide focus groups of pastoral leaders over the course of four years. Progress reports will be distributed electronically annually via a PSALM Web site in order to foster broader collaboration among our partners and others participating in the pastoral excellence initiative. The overall project will conclude with a monograph on the seasons of pastoral life and ministry. The administrative center of the Research Collaboratory will be situated on Asbury Seminary’s Kentucky campus. Up to 180 pastoral leaders nationwide and cross-denominationally will have participated in focus groups reflecting upon the pastoral seasons of life and ministry.

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PROGRAM OUTCOMES

1.	Program participants will demonstrate firm commitment to authentic personhood, as reflected in their rootedness in the story of God’s creative and redemptive work and one’s ability to find him or herself in that story (MARKED BY AUTHENTICITY).
2.	Program participants will reflect lives of sustained growth through their habitual immersion in the means of grace, namely, prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship, and Eucharist (MARKED BY GROWTH).
3.	Program participants will immerse themselves within an intimate community that fosters attentiveness to one another, trust, honesty, and vulnerability (MARKED BY INTEGRITY).
4.	Program participants will be growing individuals who, as part of their Christian vocation and commitment to the priesthood of all believers, exhibit the dispositions and abilities to empower others to be in ministry (MARKED BY EMPOWERMENT).
5.	Program participants will demonstrate continuing holiness of heart and life reflected in prophetic witness to justice and peace, as well as personal openness to the transforming power of love (MARKED BY HOLINESS).

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PROGRAM CONTEXT
ASBURY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY is a center of theological education that prepares men and women for excellence in ministry. It is characterized by commitment to the church (the whole people of God) as the primary locus of God’s continuing activity in the world. With a global vision of the Christian community and a passion to shape servant leaders within the life of the church, Asbury seeks to unite vital piety (heart) and sound learning (head) for the sake of God’s mission in the world (hands). This is the foundation of pastoral excellence, namely, faithfulness to Jesus Christ and commitment to a holistic vision of Christian discipleship in community.



PROGRAM CONTACT
For more information on Asbury Seminary’s Lilly Endowment Grant please call us at 1.888.264.0500, visit us on the web at www.asburyseminary.edu or email: psalm@asburyseminary.edu

KENTUCKY CAMPUS
204 N. Lexington Avenue, Wilmore, KY 40390

DUNNAM CAMPUS
8401 Valencia College Lane, Orlando, FL 32825

VIRTUAL CAMPUS
www.asburyseminary.edu/virtual.htm

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