Thriving in Ministry, funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., takes a fresh approach to the longstanding challenges of clergy renewal and retention.

We envision a generation of pastors who flourish in their ministries, because they feel equipped to do so. Our conversations with clergy point to a persistent need for mentoring and new methods to learn once they have completed their seminary education. This desire is even more pronounced in the settings and stages of ministry that require great agility but lack defined processes for learning.
Today’s priests seek to learn from one another and from their contexts but do not have ready access to peer networks and mentors.
We address this challenge by surrounding them with a community of mentors and embedding them in a small cohort of thoughtful, committed peers. With this in mind, Thriving in Ministry cultivates the capacity to:
- Assess yourself and articulate your ‘growth edge’
- Anticipate challenges to then expand and develop patterns of effective response
- Nurture deep peer connections for inner reflection and outer adaptive work
- Practice greater nuance in ministry settings
- Develop a deeper well of confidence
- Practice intentional experimentation
- Purposefully and joyfully seek new and deeper ways of being in ministry and vocation
We would love the opportunity
to invest in you.
Thriving is creating new ways for pastors to flourish in their vocation.