DALLAS—It's not coincidental that the pastoral residency program at Wilshire Baptist Church occurs in a group context.
Wilshire employs four pastoral residents with help from the Lilly Endowment and supports a music ministry resident out of the church budget. The five young ministers work out of a shared office space and collaborate on many of their weekly tasks.
They also serve on the church's ministerial staff and often are paired with staff ministers for duties such as hospital visitation and specialized seminars.
“True mentoring moves beyond simply a relationship of supervision and leads both parties to a mutual support of one another,” said David King, a former pastoral resident who now is working on a doctorate in church history at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. “The shared labor and interaction between mentor and pupil is evidence that ministers need not—and should not—work in isolation.”
This lesson is designed to combat one of the main reasons ministers leave the pastorate—a long-term sense of loneliness and isolation. “Mentoring (at Wilshire) teaches residents from the outset that ministry is best undertaken in the company and support of others,” said Ann Bell Worley, a Truett Seminary graduate who completed Wilshire's residency two years ago.
For King, the collegial nature of what he had learned at Wilshire didn't dawn on him until the day of his ordination council. At that interview, Wilshire Pastor George Mason asked: “How will your ministry look different than mine? What will you do differently?”
At first, the question took King by surprise. “During the past two years, I had reflected long and hard about what it meant to be a pastor. What is the minister's role at the bedside, in the pulpit, behind the Lord's table? These were questions the council already had asked and I had answered. But George's question was asking me to dig deeper. …
“Once I realized what George was asking, the question made perfect sense. … As much as I may have wanted to emulate my mentor, I couldn't completely. We were different people with different gifts and abilities. … As a mentor, George was not interested in producing a mass of carbon-copy preachers. He understood that mentors are, instead, shapers and refiners of each individual's gifts—of the inherent statue contained within the marble.
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As the council concluded, I left the study empowered with a tremendous sense of freedom. Whether consciously aware or not, these past two years had shaped me to be the distinctive minister I am called to be. I left thankful that I had people around me eager to help me discover that minister. And I left resolute to remain true to my gifts.”