By Jeff Brumley
As a CBF-trained minister working at a Southern Baptist church in Hawaii, Eric Hasha says he could be the poster child for ministerial isolation.
“I’m literally and figuratively on an island when it comes to moderate Baptist life,” said Hasha, associate pastor for youth and students at University Avenue Baptist Church in Honolulu.
That’s why Hasha said he is grateful to be part of CBF’s peer-learning group program.
It features small groups of ministers around the nation meeting one day a month for professional and spiritual support.
“It’s a great way for me to still feel connected and get some insights and still be challenged by those I trust,”said Hasha, who’s meeting is one of CBF’s two Skype groups.
‘Tenacity of the groups’
But it doesn’t take being on an island for ministers to feel isolated – a fact that led CBF to develop the program about a decade ago, said Terry Hamrick, coordinator for missional visioning.
Hamrick, who retires June 30, was coordinator for leadership development at the time when he and others were growing concerned about the isolation of CBF clergy.
“Pastors across the denominational spectrum feel isolated, but ours even more so being separated from the traditional structures in the SBC,” he said.
As they wrestled with the problem, the Lilly Endowment began offering grants to launch peer-based programs for clergy.
CBF was one of about 70 organizations to get a grant and has since made it a regular budget item.
The program’s sustainability has been a career highlight, Hamrick said.
“I’ve been amazed at the groups’ tenacity in staying together.”
Some resistance
CBF began with 30 groups and now has 130, and more are on the way, said Steve Graham, CBF’s director of leadership for missional congregations.
Graham said the groups consist of six to 12 members each, mostly from CBF churches and ministries. Occasionally it takes quite a sales job to get ministers to participate.
“They can think of every reason they don’t have time for it,” Graham said. “But once they go, they don’t know how they lived without each other.”
They discover what studies and other clergy have already found: A direct correlation between success in ministry and collegial relationships, he said.
Managing growth and conflict
A 2010 Lilly-funded study by Samford University religion professor Penny Long Marler found that peer group participation boosted other areas of ministry.
Pastors who belong to such groups, especially over long periods of time, report higher church numerical growth in their congregations and being better able to handle internal church conflicts, according to the pan-denominational study.
They are also more likely to be involved in the community service, her report said.
Pastor: ‘you can get weary’
It’s not a mystery as to why it works, Graham said. Meeting regularly with peers reduces feelings of geographical, professional and spiritual isolation. In turn, resentments, cynicism and burnout are reduced or eliminated.
“One thing about ministers getting together, they get each other pretty quickly.”
Keith Herron has seen that first hand in the Missouri group he’s convened for eight years.
“We have a mantra in my group: nobody knows your work better than we do,” said Herron, senior pastor at Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City.
There are few settings where pastors and other ministers are instantly understood, the 32-year ministry veteran said.
“We’re tending to human beings and there’s a tremendous amount of drama that goes into that – and creativity and imagination,” he said. “You can get weary from too much.”
Groups independent
The groups establish their own personalities and style.
Herron’s group, which is one of two in Kansas City, decided to spend part of its day having a shared cafeteria meal. “It’s like a family having dinner together.”
Another portion of the day is spent discussing the chosen book, and yet another checking in with each other.
“Each of us has a chance to share what is going in our lives,” he said of the group, which includes Cooperative and American Baptists and clergy from other Protestant denominations. “If someone has a crisis of leadership, we stop and handle those moments.”
The groups, while initially organized by CBF, are not run by the denomination. They are free to set their own rules of when, where and how they meet. CBF provides grant dollars that groups use as they want, such as to have retreats, pay for meals or guest speakers.
Looking west
Graham said groups will continue to be formed as CBF pushes the concept in seminaries.
That’s good news for Hasha, who said CBF’s westward expansion, hopefully, will increase his odds at establishing a face-to-face meeting in Hawaii. Another Skype group has members who live in Arizona, California and Utah.
For now, talking over the Internet is better than not talking at all, he said. “It’s been a real treat for us – as long as you have a strong enough Internet connection.”