TOGETHER IN MINISTRY
MINISTERS COUNCIL, AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES
2009 COVENANT GROUP FUNDING OPTIONS
All applications for 2009 covenant group grants are due in the national Ministers Council office by October 31, 2008. Applications must be submitted to your constituent Ministers Council officers to be reviewed for completeness before September 1, 2008, and through that body submitted to the national Ministers Council office. Applications to the national office must come from constituent Councils and be postmarked by October 31, 2008. Application forms may be found on www.ministerscouncil.org under the Together in Ministry link. In order to be considered, please complete the form online and print it out. Applications must be received by mail and NOT by email or FAX.
THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF GROUP FUNDING OPTIONS FOR 2009.
Options 1 and 2 fund collegial covenant groups of pastoral leaders, to fulfill the following goals:
1. CONTINUED PARTIAL FUNDING FOR EXISTING COLLEGIAL COVENANT GROUPS
Partial funding will be made available on a competitive basis to the groups previously funded through 2007 that continue, at a rate reduced from $1,800 to $1,000 per year for facilitators for 2009. While the necessity to seek your own funding for sustainability has been communicated to groups since the project inception, ensuring continuity of model groups will more firmly embed the consciousness of relational ministry as vital to pastoral excellence. Excellent groups that have continued for the duration of the project will be studied for learning what dynamics maintain the life of a group over time in the face of ministry’s varied demands, and how participation contributes to sustaining excellence over the long haul. At the same time, the stories of existing groups will be showcased to leverage their experience in the development of further collegial covenant groups.
If your group is continuing for 2009, in addition to completing an application for 2009 funding please complete the evaluation instruments for facilitator and group members as part of your re-application process. Both types of evaluation forms are also available on www.ministerscouncil.org under the Together in Ministry link.
2. NEW COLLEGIAL COVENANT GROUPS
For each of the five years from 2008 to 2012 facilitation of twenty new collegial covenant groups will be funded at $2,000, for a total of $200,000. Also for each of the project’s five years 120 of the participants in the funded collegial covenant group will receive $100 group expense money, for a total of $60,000.
3. NEW COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE, PASTORAL AND LAY LEADERS TOGETHER
One means of working to enhance pastor-people relationships will be to offer an optional model for covenant group formation that includes both pastoral and lay leaders, focused specifically on Christian Practices.
According to Craig Dykstra, Lilly Endowment Vice President of Religion, “Christian practices are not activities we do to make something spiritual happen in our lives. Nor are they duties we undertake to be obedient to God. Rather, they are patterns of communal action that create openings in our lives where the grace, mercy, and presence of God may be made known to us. They are places where the power of God is experienced. In the end, these are not ultimately our practices but forms of participation in the practice of God" (http://www.practicingourfaith.org/prct_what_are_practices.html).
Offering the option for formation of covenant groups that include pastoral and lay leaders together focused specifically on Christian practices extends Together in Ministry work directly toward greater pastor-people mutuality. While Dykstra states that “many pastors complain that their ministries are consumed by all sorts of activities that make real engagement in any of these practices almost impossible,” the opportunity for communities of shared competent practice focused on Christian Practices and comprised of pastoral and lay leaders together will serve to encourage pastoral practice as it also strengthens pastor-people relationships (Growing in the Life of Faith: Education and Christian Practices, Second Edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. pp. 54-55).
All applications for 2009 covenant group grants for any of these three options are due in the national Ministers Council office by October 31, 2008. Please email joe.kutter@abc-usa.org if you have any questions.