Coming Soon: New Mentoring Opportunities
We have been listening to you. And we will continue listening to you.ย We are grateful for the ways that you are leading, guiding, and supporting many people in your care. We heard your needs expressed for processing grief, taking care of your health and your spiritual well-being, creating rituals and practicing Sabbath. This is the work you need to do so that you can lead the church in a new era of ministry. I wrote about all of this and much more in the #PandemicPastoring Report. You can download the report and start reading right away.ย
Today I want to preview some of the ways we are responding to what we heard from you. In the coming months, with more in 2023, we are offering new mentoring opportunities to support your ministry! Let’s get a quick look at what’s coming. Sooner and later.
Tuesday, November 1: Ruth Everhart and I are going LIVE to talk about #MeToo and #ChurchToo
Find us on Facebook (1pm CT // 2pm ET)
and Instagram (7pm CT // 8pm ET)
We will be talking about our self-paced #MeTooReckoning Course. Because we want to help you to be more prepared to respond to parishioners, friends and colleagues who say #MeToo and #ChurchToo.
I know so many women, and more than a few men, who have experienced the pain and suffering of sexual harassment, abuse, stalking, and the lack of appropriate response that unfortunately often follows.
What about you?
When I think of the faces of my friends whoโve experienced this kind of pain and harm? I also think about the schools, churches, denominations, and businesses that often failed to give them an adequate response. Instead they were met with disbelief, silence, and sometimes they were re-victimized. I donโt want to be part of any organization again that responds so poorly.
Do you share this feeling?
Of course we donโt want anyone to be harmed, and there are many steps we can take to put precautions, good guidelines, and wise relational boundaries in place. Still abuse will happen becauseโฆ Well, the humans. People make some terrible mistakes and sometimes do unspeakable harm. So we also must be prepared with a response and pathways to safety, empowerment, justice, and healing.
Last year, Ruth Everhart and I put together a four-session course. We made five videos and more than 20 handouts, and we had a full house for the zoom-based training. We want this material to continue to be available — to you! So we created a self-paced course just for you. Hereโs the pricing and the links. You can start your learning today.
Do you have questions about the course? Please send them to us and we will do our best to address them in the live event.ย
Two conversations about grief and ritual
Very recently, I said there are five things that ministers need now. These insights come from the findings of the #PandemicPastoring Report (download the free report here โ all we ask in return is your name and email).
In the coming weeks, I am following up on each of those five important things that ministers, leaders, clergy, chaplains, priests, and seminarians need.
To get those conversations going, Iโve invited two practical theology colleagues to talk with me. Iโll be sharing those conversations with you by video and podcast.
Please get acquainted with Dr. Clรกudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship, and my colleague at Union Theological Seminary specializing in liturgy, worship, and ritual. He is the author of many books, as well as a speaker, performer, and consultant. He will join us to help us think together about rituals for grief and lament — for our collective and personal healing and well-being.
And take time to learn about Dr. Joyce Ann Mercer, Horace Bushnell Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care and new Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. This year she was appointed Yale Divinity Schoolโs chief academic officer. She will be our guest to help us consider how we cope with ambiguous loss and grief coming out of the last 30 months of multiple pandemics.
New Coaching and Writing Table Options in 2023
Starting in March 2020, I began offering an occasional, sometimes weekly, Writing Table for students, ministers, and professors. Lots of people needed to write during those early days of the pandemic, and yet everything was so exhausting and distracting. Despite being sheltered at home, we needed accountability and support to get our writing done. The Writing Table helped me complete my book Pastoral Imagination and now 2 ยฝ years later many other authors have completed books and many other projects including:
- Books and book chapters*
- Sermons*
- Blogs*
- Business articles
- Poetry
- Academic journal articles*
- Dissertations
- Presentations*
- Proposals*
- Reports*
*I have started, continued, and completed writing in all these genres myself.
All the mutual support, and building the sturdy and lasting habits of writing, have been offered through Three Minute Ministry Mentor (3MMM) at no charge. Can you imagine that? It has all been free.
Why did I do that?
Well, honestly it helped me. And we were living through multiple pandemics! So the Writing Table became a practical and concrete way I could support friends, colleagues, and students. And eventually even dozens of people I didnโt know. People who became new friends.
Most weeks (2021-22) I gave between three and five hours of my time to host a Zoom space for the Writing Table. I offer brief and simple coaching around building a writing habit and helping writers inspire each other with strategies for writing. It has been a joy. And now it is also time for me to convert some of this energy into support for Three Minute Ministry Mentor.
At 3MMM we give away so much of what we do. Itโs our delight and joy to support ministers and pastors, professors and authors, poets and priests. And now we hope that you might share that same spirit of generosity with us.
Free-Write Fridays
Through the end of 2022, the Writing Table remains free and open. We just ask for your name and email, so you can receive the weekly link. Going into 2023, the Writing Table will not be fully open access as it is now. However, some of the Writing Table days will remain free!
Every Friday all are welcome at the Writing Table for no charge whatsoever. Give it a try, keep your habit going, invite a friend, or simply enjoy the support and energy of other writers.
If you want to join the Writing Table other days of the week, and we surely hope you do, youโll be able to do so for less than a dollar a day starting in January. New pricing and options for how to join the Writing Table are coming in November. Some of the options include receiving one on one coaching for your writing project. New pricing begins in January.
The Writing Table remains free (3 to 4 days a week) through December. Everyone who signs up for the Writing Table now (or is already signed up โ thank you!) will have an opportunity for discounted subscription rates.
More details coming soon!
New Mentoring and Coaching Groups Coming in 2023
When I began Three Minute Ministry Mentor in December of 2018, people asked me: ย Will there be opportunities to receive mentoring and coaching? I thought eventually the answer would be โyes.โ But it was hard to know for sure when that might be.
The time is almost here.
First, I needed to share what I was learning in the LPI Project in as accessible a way as possible. Second, I needed to build a community of learners and ministers who were interested in pastoral imagination, learning through experience and reflection, engaging provocative questions, and continuing to remain open to learning.
Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. We decided to continue making everything free and open-access. We will continue to offer blogs, podcasts, videos, and downloads with no charge. But for those who want more, who want to go deeper, we are planning to offer you something more.
I also needed to identify my partners in this process. Right now, Iโm in ongoing conversations with those highly qualified and skilled partners to offer coaching and mentoring in 2023. We would love to have your input while we are in the planning process.
Here is where you can share your thoughts with us.
ย ย ย ย 3MMM Mentoring and Coaching (interest form)
For coming this far — and reading this much — here is a small appreciation for you!
October is Clergyย Appreciation Month! So, head over to theย 3MMMย Shopย ย for your copy of Pastoral Imagination gift sets, the companion journal, and other gifts. Check out our set of Permission Slips, buy a few or the whole set!
Forย Clergyย Appreciationย Month,ย the permissions slipsย are 50% off!
Use code:ย ย CLERGY50ย for a fifty percent discount on permission slips through October 31.
So many mentoring opportunities for you. Stay with us this fall to inform and inspire your ministry. Even in these challenging days.
