BROWNWOOD, Texas — While a seminary degree can be an important component of a pastor’s toolbox, relationships with other pastors can be just as important — if not more so, according to some Texas Baptists who work with students preparing for vocational ministry.
But the mentoring relationship need not wait for graduation, and its genesis may be better suited before that first full-time position has been attained, they insist.
Tim Skaggs (left), pastor of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood, has mentored three Howard Payne University ministry students—(left to right) Chase Woodhouse, Paul Deetz and Evan Henson. (PHOTO/George Henson)
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“It provides them with a support system,” said Don Williford, interim dean of Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
“They know there are people they can call when they face situations they have uncertainty about.”
For instance, when a pastor or staff member considers a change in ministry location, it can be comforting to have the voice of experience whispering in one’s ear, he noted.
Williford lacked that type of interaction when he was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary years ago, he noted.
“When I had struggles in the local church, I had little to fall back on,” he said.
“My time in seminary prepared me well for doctrinal issues and those sorts of things, but for those things that pop up from time to time, I was largely on my own,” he recalled.
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Mentoring constitutes a key part of the program at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, amounting to 12 hours of the degree program, said Robert Creech, director of pastoral ministries for the seminary.
Students choose a mentor in the field of ministry they plan to pursue, and they spend a full semester working with that person. The program presents a list of ministry competencies each student is to engage in during the semester.
The student not only meets weekly with his mentor, but also meets monthly with a lay committee.
In addition, each student has about 2,000 pages of books and articles to read and respond to during the semester as part of the mentoring experience.
In each of his classes, Creech said, he stresses the importance of every minister finding a mentor during the first three months on the field when he or she secures a first full-time position.
The program at Truett helps them become accustomed to that type of relationship, he said.
“Having that kind of relationship provides a confidence that I can do this, and I’m not in it all by myself. I have people I can fall back on,” Creech said.
Often, a reverse-mentoring takes place as an added benefit, because the mentor is exposed to new ways ideas and perspectives, said Tim Skaggs, pastor of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood, who has mentored three Howard Payne University ministry students.
“It’s challenged my own way of thinking,” he said. “It’s forced me to evaluate why do I have a quiet time, why do I preach the way I preach, and in general, why do I do the things I do,” he said.
Skaggs tries to maintain a two-prong approach. On the one hand, he tries to cover some of the nuts-and-bolts of ministry — how to manage staff, how to run a staff meeting, how to make a hospital visit, how to relate to deacons, and how to conduct a baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
He tries to convey there is more than one way to do all those things, but how they are done will reveal the pastor’s personality — for good or ill.
The other part of the equation is more personal.
“I ultimately want to impress upon them the importance of the family. The church is not the top of your ministry list—your family is. If you win your community for Christ but lose your family, you’ve lost,” he said.
Skaggs also tries to impress upon the young ministers the importance of taking care of their own spiritual conditions and the value of spiritual rest.
Creech echoed that concern.
“There is so much to ministry that isn’t head knowledge. And one thing these mentoring relationships provide is an opportunity to wade out into deeper waters, but to know that you are safe, you have support,” he said.