Dedicated to strengthening and sustaining excellent pastoral leaders for a lifetime of creative and effective service to the church
Welcome to the Pastoral Excellence Network! Our mission is to work with congregations and church-related institutions to help new pastors get the best possible start in ministry and to encourage experienced pastors to sustain their vitality by participating in communities of ongoing support and learning.
Drawing on more than ten years of faithful and inspired work to foster and sustain excellence in pastoral leadership that involved congregations, seminaries, retreat centers, judicatories, and regional organizations in 28 states and 25 denominations, we seek to harvest the learning and share a feast of resources and practices from Lilly Endowment's Transition into Ministry (TiM) and Sustaining Pastoral Excellence (SPE) initiatives so that current efforts can be strengthened and new projects can be launched and grow to maturity. Our aim is to help the church surround every pastor with opportunities for support and learning.
Our goal is to sustain the momentum and amplify the impact of Lilly Endowment's Transition into Ministry (TiM) and Sustaining Pastoral Excellence (SPE) programs. Together we seek to expand the body of wisdom about what constitutes pastoral excellence as we lean forward into a church whose future we cannot yet fully see or imagine.
We invite you to explore this site for resources, networks, examples, and events. Start with the About page to learn more about our activities. Read our blog. Join us on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for the e-newsletter or RSS feed. We hope to see you soon!
The Pastoral Excellence Network is funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., a private Indianapolis-based philanthropic foundation. Through its religion grantmaking, Lilly Endowment seeks to deepen and enrich the lives of American Christians. It does this largely through initiatives to enhance and sustain the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes. The Pastoral Excellence Network is one of five programs of the Center for Pastoral Excellence at Christian Theological Seminary.