Pastor's study challenges seminaries

 

David Gortner, an Episcopal priest, psychologist and practical theologian with academic and research work focusing on developing effective clergy leadership, uses his knowledge and skills both in his work at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Coeur d'Alene and as a national consultant.

His efforts support programs to help clergy become effective leaders who can develop thriving, vital congregations.

"I want to help people find how God is already moving in their lives. God loves us, has made us each uniquely and wonderfully in God's own image and will not leave us alone," he affirmed.

That is why he has taught and trained hundreds of clergy and lay people "to embrace the practice of sharing their journeys of faith, listening for signs of God at work in everyone's lives, naming where they see God at work and inviting people to discover more."

In 2018, David responded to requests from the bishop and the vestry—church council—to serve St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Coeur d'Alene.

"I first came to St. Luke's as vicar during a time of congregational difficulty, to assist in re-stabilization, healing and setting a fresh course of direction. They asked me to remain as their rector," he explained.

David, who has worked in many different places across the U.S., moved to the Inland Northwest with his wife, Heather VanDeventer, also an Episcopal priest and dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. They have two young adult children.

"For more than 30 years, I have served in seminaries, churches, campus ministries, church plants and interfaith organizations," he explained. "All of my previous work, including my early work on farms and building houses and my work in various pastoral and mental health settings, has shaped me as a pastor and leader."

Prior to coming to Coeur d'Alene, he was professor of evangelism and congregational leadership, director of the doctoral programs and associate dean for church and community engagement at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), the largest of the Episcopal Church's 10 seminaries.

During his tenure there, he was key to carrying out two important research grants related to effective clergy leadership.

From 2009 to 2014, he was the principal investigator for a Lilly Endowment grant entitled "Transitions to Ministry Programs Impact Study."

This study used 40 in-depth interviews and more than 600 surveys of clergy across denominations who had participated in Lilly-funded Transition into Ministry programs after seminary to determine their growth and impact on congregations.

Related to that study's goal, David asked questions about clergy growth: "Did we end up with better leaders because of the programs Lilly funded when the participants transitioned from seminary education into real-life ministry?"

To determine that, he asked participants questions he believed were at the center of the Lilly initiative.

• What enables pastors to thrive as pastoral leaders and lead congregations effectively?

• What common professional and personal challenges emerge along pastors' ministerial careers and present obstacles that impair their ability to lead well?

• What particular professional challenges confront pastors who serve in specific ministry settings?

• What wisdom from experienced clergy can help pastors negotiate these challenges?

In the study, David found that recently ordained clergy reported having the highest confidence in preaching, leading worship and acting as a role model. Not surprisingly, these topics had received the most attention in their seminary programs. They were also areas clergy said they devoted the most time in their work.

Similarly, participants in Transitions into Ministry said their programs emphasized strengthening preaching and pastoral care, already skills among most emphasized in their education. Their programs also emphasized self-development and self-management.

However, at the bottom of the rankings were skills such as objective-setting and program planning, lay leadership development, conflict engagement, organizational leadership, congregational development and building community connections.

These new clergy described themselves as unprepared to provide leadership and ministry in supervision, youth work, finance and administration, and understanding and working with natural social networks.

"Seminaries are good at forming ministers who have the basic traditional—and expected—skills in preaching, pastoral care and sacramental ministry. Seminaries, however, are not nearly so adept at shaping leaders who can be agents of transformational change," David said.

While serving at St. Luke's, David continued for seven years at VTS as program principal for its Lilly-funded Thriving in Ministry project. This project used his learnings about effective clergy leadership to address gaps in clergy development. Employing mentor-coach training methods through individual consultations, peer learning sessions, churchwide partnerships and an emphasis on focused in-place practice, it has aimed to strengthen Episcopal clergy in the weaker set of skills to make them stronger congregational leaders, he said.

David presented this work in a white paper to the seminary, which was later published and distributed widely to seminaries across denominations in the journal, In Trust.

The paper recommended that training include focus on essential leadership skills, in addition to the traditional skills of preaching, pastoral care and being a role model, which are already emphasized in the mainline Protestant seminary training.

The paper reported that what is missing in curricula across most mainline and evangelical seminaries "is a more robust emphasis on developing seminarians' capacities in building communities and organizations."

David noted that such courses are relegated to "elective" status and not even emphasized as part of field education.

When seminary graduates arrive in congregations, schools and other settings ready to do what they have been trained to do, they come face-to-face with challenges and negative situations they were not prepared to deal with.

Those include congregations' financial disarray, deep conflict or latent hostility, organizational malaise, absence of evangelism and mission, detachment from surrounding neighborhoods and communities, deteriorating buildings and weak lay support of ministries.

David believes "it is a high art to build and strengthen communities and organizations."

Because the perspectives, skills and capacities for this art are not typically taught in seminary education, David suggests that traditional seminaries adjust their overall curriculum, field education and co-curricular programs to create specific paths for capacity development.

For information, email priest@stlukescda.org.