Residency Program - Lilly Grant

History and Purpose:
Effective pastoral leaders have helped congregations discover resources of faith and understandings of ministry that has led to vital congregational life.

A crucial question for the twenty-first century North American church involves calling, preparing and forming effective pastoral leaders for congregations. When bright, capable persons respond to a call to ministry and are given the necessary tools of theological training, how do they develop the understandings, habits and practices that enable effective pastoral leadership?

The primary assumption of the Lilly Endowment and Central Christian Church’s Pastoral Residency proposal is that the practices of effective pastoral leadership can best be learned in intensive involvement with a faithful, effective congregation and in sustained conversation with an experienced pastoral leader.

Central Christian Church aims to provide an experience that will nurture the pastoral imaginations of newly ordained ministers.

Central Christian Church received a grant of $750,000 from the Lilly Endowment in December of 2001 to establish a Pastoral Residency Program in the Endowment’s Transition into Ministry initiative. This grant was renewed in 2005 to help us continue this wonderful program.

Residents have included graduates from Vanderbilt Divinity School, Candler School of Theology at Emory, University of Chicago Divinity School, Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, and Lexington Theological Seminary.

Residents have gone on to work as solo pastors, associate pastors.

Residency in Real Life
The Residency Program is a 2-year program designed to nurture wise pastoral leaders through intense engagement in a flourishing congregation. Residents are active ministers within the life of Central Christian Church. Central Christian provides residents with a variety of ministry opportunities and encourages residents to explore new ministries and practices.

Central’s program differs from many other residency programs by following a different model for engaging the congregation. Rather than using a rotational model in which residents have a set amount of time within each particular ministry area of the church and rotating through each area, Central Christian offers a more flexible model in which residents explore the church and its ministries in a broad fashion for the first several months, gaining insights into the character of the church. Residents then explore ministry areas more in depth according to their own interests and their needs for growth.

Residents are primarily self driven, though under the direction and supervision of the senior minister.

Components:

• Residents provide pastoral care ministries such as hospital and homebound visitation, funerals, marriage preparation and weddings.
• They participate in weekly staff meetings, meetings of the Ministry Teams, Council of Ministries, Administrative Board and Trustees. They also sit on various ministry committees.
• Residents have the opportunity to participate in local outreach ministries, the evangelism ministry of the church, and faith formation ministries for children, youth and adults (teach Sunday school, counsel camp, help with vacation Bible school, lead ChristCare groups)
• Residents have the opportunity to preach and participate in worship leadership.
• Residents have the opportunity to publish in the Biblical Preaching Journal. 
• Residents meet weekly with senior minister to discuss situations in congregational life, the practices of pastoral leadership, the theological foundations of their ministry, and any assigned readings.
• In addition to occasional preaching, ministers in residence write articles for the Chimes, our bi-weekly newsletter.  Click here to view a sample.
  

Application Process
The Residency Program will be advertised at all Disciple seminaries and all interdenominational divinity schools and graduate schools of religion at which Disciples have an historic student presence.

The staff  here at Central reviews all applications received and the senior minister then contacts those whom the staff are interested in interviewing in person. (Travel costs for this interview are reimbursed.) After the applicant is contacted there is an interview process through which  the staff determines whom they will hire as a resident(s) minister. The senior minister will contact the applicant(s) chosen.

Interested persons should complete and return the application available here, along with Search and Call papers to Central Christian Church no later than March 1, 2010.

Those wishing to apply may either mail a copy of their Search and Call papers directly to Central or may send them through the Regional Offices of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Kentucky (please contact the regional minister to specify that the papers be sent to Central Christian).
Applications may be mailed to:
Central Christian Church
c/o Lynn Gray
219 East Short Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507

For more information or if you have questions, please contact Lynn Gray or Jake Caldwell at (859)233-1551 or lgray@centralchristianlex.org, jcaldwell@centralchristianlex.org.

Additional Information:
•    Transition into Ministry program’s website: http://www.thefund.org/programs/coordination_newpastor.phtml
•    The Fund for Theological Education: www.thefund.org
•    Lilly Endowment of the Transition into Ministry program: http://www.lillyendowment.org/religion_tim.html