PROGRAM DEFINITION | SCHEDULE | REGISTRATION | FORUM   

   Asbury Theological Seminary 

  A project made possible by a Grant
from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Spiritual Leaders Academy

Authenticity is the fruit that results from the alignment of one’s vocational call with one’s sense of personhood. Pastoral authenticity should flow from the center of one’s vocation, rather than from an abstract goal toward which one moves. True excellence is rooted, not in the achievement of a predetermined outcome, but in a sense of faithfulness to the particular vocation to which God has called. Central to pastoral authenticity is having one’s roots in the story of God’s creative and redemptive work, one’s ability to find oneself in that story, and one’s delight in inviting others to receive and to participate in God’s grace.
 PSALM Proposal

Os Guinness expresses this reality: “Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service.”
 Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 29.

CURRENT STATE OF PASTORAL MINISTRY
The current state of excellence and depth of pastoral excellence can only be described as “mixed.” The problem as described below is merely symptomatic of a deeper, more profound issue: the lack of alignment between one’s true identity in Jesus Christ, one’s vocational call to pastoral ministry, and the way in which one lives out of that identity and call.

Sustaining pastoral excellence means nothing less than a radical reshaping of theological education—a reshaping that parallels the life journey of clergy, not merely the years when students are studying for their degrees, pursuing ordination, and launching their ministries. Sustaining pastoral excellence means extending all the theological disciplines within a formal curriculum into a holistic experience of lifelong learning. It means envisioning theological education in two phases, an early period of equipping for ministry during the “incubator years” of residential seminary life and the “unfolding years” of continual growth and development in the context of vocational ministry. The problem as described below underscores this assessment.

National surveys reveal that contemporary clergy find their work to be a mixture of fulfillment and frustration, both personally and professionally. Additionally, today’s pastors must deal with the ongoing challenges faced by clergy in earlier generations but also new ones such as the rise in congregational expectations and the marginalization of the church in the culture. For instance, George Barna’s research reveals that parishioners expect their pastor to juggle an average of 16 major tasks. He observes, “That's a recipe for failure—nobody can handle the wide range of responsibilities that people expect pastors to master." 1

To sustain pastoral excellence, seminaries must martial and organize resources in new ways to support pastors in the multi-faceted demands of ministry. But the concept of “sustaining pastoral excellence” also assumes that something has already begun that must be cultivated. Therefore, seminaries must understand that one of the major challenges facing pastoral ministry today is that of developing a curriculum within existing Master of Divinity (M.Div.) programs that will create the knowledge, understanding, and skills upon which pastoral excellence builds. Such a curriculum will not only be limited to the academic courses that comprise the degree but also will include such factors as the character and witness of the professors, the ethos in which education occurs, the nature of formative community, the worship of God, and the overall interface between theological education, the church, and the world.



PROGRAM DEFINITION
The Spiritual Leader’s Academy is a unique three-year (Wilmore cohorts) or two-year (Orlando cohort) opportunity for pastors to experience growth and transformation in these major areas:

• In-depth Spiritual Formation in the Wesleyan tradition (living by covenant)
• The power of team-based leadership and ministry (building a leadership team)
• Radical discipleship for the local congregation (equipping the saints for ministry)

Participants in Spiritual Leader’s Academy will convene in the spring and fall for three consecutive years in the two Wilmore cohorts; and in January and July for two consecutive years in the one Orlando cohort. Wilmore sessions will begin on Thursday mornings and will conclude at noon on Sundays (participants coming from an extended distance should plan on arriving on Wednesday evenings). January Orlando sessions will begin on Thursday mornings and conclude at noon on Sunday afternoons; and Orlando summer sessions will begin on Sundays and conclude on Thursday afternoons. Please see exact dates below for each of the three cohorts.

Participants will help shape and then will be encouraged to hold each other accountable to a high level of spiritual discipleship during the three-year course. Each pastor will be coached in forming a Ministry Lead Team composed of spiritually mature laity within the local congregation. This team will work out a Discipleship Plan for their congregation and then will develop an overall M.A.P. (Ministry Action Plan) for their church.

Pastors will explore and apply classical Wesleyan disciplines to their everyday lives, while at the same time covering the dynamics of congregational transformation. They will move quickly into the discernment task of calling together a group of like-minded, spiritually mature laity to meet with them on a weekly basis.

After Session One pastors will examine the tools and strategies of effective ministry teams with the clear goal in mind of calling together a team of laity to help disciple and lead the entire congregation. Pastors will then be taught how to utilize their new “Lead Team” in running an intentional discipleship process for their entire congregation.

Final sessions will focus on both implementing the discipleship process and upon the leadership necessary to move the entire congregation toward fulfilling the purposes of the church.

Throughout each of the sessions there will be ample time for devotion, reflection, and interaction both with peers and coaches. In addition, pastors will be encouraged to stay connected through small accountability groups they will form with one another after session one. The end result in mind for Servant Leader’s Academy is nothing short of dramatically transformed leaders serving radically transformed congregations.



PROGRAM LEADERS
SLA Program Leaders will come from Asbury Theological Seminary faculty and friends. Leaders will include Dr. Maxie Dunnam, Dr. Steve Harper, Dr. Leslie Andrews, Dr. Steve Martyn, Dr. Rick Gray, along with other ATS faculty members. Dr. Chuck Lord, from the University of Kentucky will be leading in the Academy as will Dr. Buff Hearn, Sr. Pastor of Kingswood United Methodist Church in Amarillo, Texas. Experienced pastors, fruitful leaders, and accomplished academicians will all help form the SLA experience into a season of transformational leadership for participants.

The Spiritual Leader’s Academy can be completed for CEU credit.


1George Barna, A Profile of Protestant Pastors in Anticipation of "Pastor Appreciation Month," September 25, 2001. www.barna.org


• DIRECTIONS: Asbury Seminary, Wilmore | Asbury Seminary, Orlando
• CONTACT: email: psalm@asburyseminary.edu

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