{"id":22473,"date":"2023-01-12T10:58:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T15:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=22473"},"modified":"2023-01-31T13:01:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T18:01:38","slug":"president-of-the-pcusas-board-of-pensions-talks-about-recent-efforts-to-break-down-barriers-to-flourishing-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/president-of-the-pcusas-board-of-pensions-talks-about-recent-efforts-to-break-down-barriers-to-flourishing-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"\ubbf8\uad6d\uc7a5\ub85c\uad50 \uc5f0\uae08\uc704\uc6d0\ud68c \uc704\uc6d0\uc7a5\uc774 \ubc88\uc601\ud558\ub294 \uc0ac\uc5ed\uc758 \uc7a5\ubcbd\uc744 \ud5c8\ubb3c\uae30 \uc704\ud55c \ucd5c\uadfc\uc758 \ub178\ub825\uc5d0 \ub300\ud574 \uc774\uc57c\uae30\ud569\ub2c8\ub2e4."},"content":{"rendered":"
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A shared ministry pilot project involving both the Board of Pensions<\/a> and Pittsburgh Presbytery<\/a> was among the cutting-edge items of discussion Wednesday when the Rev. Dr. Frank Clark Spencer<\/a>, President of the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), spoke to the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation<\/a> during the Leading Theologically podcast. Listen to their wide-ranging half-hour conversation here<\/a> or here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before he shared news of pilot projects like the shared ministry partnership, Spencer offered up some alarming statistics, including this one: PC(USA) ministers who have never received benefits from the Board of Pensions are 50% more likely to leave ministry during their first 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about that,\u201d Spencer said. Someone has answered God\u2019s call and gone to seminary, made it through the presbytery\u2019s inquirer and candidate process, taken and passed their ordination exams, been approved for ordination by their presbytery \u2014 \u201cand within 10 years it\u2019s a 50% higher likelihood they hang it all up and disappear from the rolls of active ministry,\u201d Spencer said.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the only disappointing statistic Spencer shared. A Board of Pensions study with the National Black Presbyterian Caucus<\/a> determined that only 20% of the caucus\u2019 member churches had installed pastoral leadership. For majority congregations, that figure is 50%. \u201cHow do we take a deep dive and deconstruct policy that may have been well-intentioned when it was formed,\u201d Spencer wondered, \u201cbut has had different impacts by race and by gender and for those who have been excluded who are not in the majority white heterosexual male profile?\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer and the Board of Directors of the Board of Pensions \u201care convinced\u201d those numbers can be turned around, he told Hinson-Hasty, \u201cand we will be working over the next two years on creating more inclusive, more flexible system of benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal unabashedly is to have every minister ordained by the Presbyterian Church have access to benefits. We as a community have not done that,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are structural changes I believe the Board can make in the way we conceive our benefits package and in the choices we give people that will bring more and more to those ministers who have been excluded into the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experiment in partnership with Pittsburgh Presbytery \u201cis not the only solution, but it is a solution,\u201d Spencer said. It relies on five tenets of flourishing ministry developed by Notre Dame scholar Dr. Matt Bloom<\/a>, who says pastors who flourish:<\/p>\n