30+ Days of Giving Thanks, Day #53: the Ministers Council

Today I am thankful for a special group of colleagues in ministry: the members of the Ministers Council. This is a professional organization that has a National component (professional ministers or “clergy” of American Baptist Churches across the United States) and a Regional component (professional ministers from around the New York state “Region”). Though the potential membership in our region is well over 300, less than 20% of our ministers are members in the Ministers Council.

This voluntary association of pastors serves a number of important functions for me. It offers a collegial network of pastors who can encourage one another, commiserate with one another, and counsel one another, when a pastor has no one in his or her own church to whom he or she can confide (which is almost always the case). The Ministers Council offers a forum for sharing ideas—especially those that have been somewhat successful elsewhere. It is a place for refining the pastor’s skills, for sharpening the pastor’s tools, and for maintaining the pastor’s spiritual vitality.

Since coming to First Baptist Church in Newburgh and becoming a part of the American Baptist family of ministries, the Ministers Council has become very valuable to me. Among the constellation of agencies and ministries associated with American Baptist Churches generally, the Ministers Council is unique in that it has the pastors as its sole focus. Oh, the Ministers Council is a crucial resource for our churches, because the Ministers Council exists to serve and to support the pastors. Improving and enhancing pastoral ministry is a particularly important piece of the puzzle of how to help our churches grow and thrive.

I thank God for the Ministers Council!