Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives (DLd)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Kristin Hamilton, DLd

Second Advisor

Christine Roush, DMin

Third Advisor

Jason Swan Clark, DMin, PhD

Abstract

There is a pastoral leadership crisis in the US. With the convergence of pastors aging out, burning out, moral derailment, or simply choosing another career outside of pastoral work, there is a great need to raise up the next generation of pastors. However, traditional institutions for training pastors (such as seminary or bible college), though important, are not sufficient in and of themselves for producing future pastors. We live in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world with novel pastoral challenges perpetually emerging. But our normative pastoral training assumes a world (Christendom) that no longer exists.

What is required is reimagined, holistic development for future pastors. Such training needs to be relational, adaptable, contextual, and scalable. An insight that emerged was a simple, ancient practice: Mentorship.

With this in mind, I began to develop a map for mentoring future pastors. This is called The Paideia Framework. In developing a coaching practice for aspiring pastors, which is called Paideia Mentoring, my goal is to mentor as many future pastors as possible through the Paideia Framework and eventually develop mentors, equipped with this framework as a mentorship guide, to aid in the labor. This framework for pastoral mentorship is a seven-layer pyramid that focuses on the life/personhood of the pastor at the four foundational layers followed by the skills and competencies required for the work of pastoring, which are the next three layers.

The development of future pastors for the complex work of pastoral ministry in the 21st- century West is a vital task for seminaries, churches, and denominations. This is a model for mentorship that is adaptable, relation, contextual, and scalable. With the immense need for pastors trained up for pastoring in a VUCA world, the goal of Paideia Mentoring is to widen the pinch in the church leadership pipeline.

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