The Need

Too many pastors lack the support and collegial community they need to minister in an urban context, especially in vulnerable urban communities. Far too often energetic, gifted, and compassionate pastors are hobbled by overwhelming need, rivalry, resentment, and most dangerous of all, isolation. Nowhere is this more true than in the task of preparing weekly sermons.|
 

The Response

The Preaching Peace initiative does three things:

1. Sets a table where urban pastors can prepare their sermons within a diverse community.

2. Cultivate a community of practice that offers peer learning, mentorship, coaching, and soul care.

3. Provide urban pastors access to thought leaders and a global network to enliven their professional lives and their church community.
    

Keys to Success

We are still learning why the model works. Here are 10 things we have identified.

1. Simplicity: The model is simple, highly contextual model and repeatable.

2. Practical: It begins with a practical question that is tied to a real need.

3. Asset Based: It recognizes that pastors have a wealth of wisdom to offer each other when given an opportunity and a community in which to share it.

4. Meal: Each week pastors share a simple meal – sack lunch. The Eucharistic shape of this initiative keeps it rooted in the power of relationship and authentic community.

5. Diverse: The variety of theological and denominational perspectives, and a specific focus on gender diversity enrich the discussion and deepen the community..

6. Community of Practice: We use a peer learning model in which pastoral colleagues serve as role models, coaches and even mentors to one another, providing each other a vital relational web of support.

7. Support Structure: It is supported by additional learning opportunities such as the lecture series/workshops with thought leaders, retreats and Vision Trips that target the needs of pastors and their congregations.

8. Scalable and Sustainable: It is scalable through Street Psalms’ network of Training Hubs that are locally funded and self sustaining.

9. Incarnational Framework: It is supported by Street Psalms’ Incarnational Framework, which is a diagnostic tool to help leaders examine themselves in light of the Incarnation. Our framework has been adopted by all of Street Psalms’ Training Hubs and partners

10. Humor: It affirms lightness, levity, humility and humor in the face of difficult challenges
     

Ongoing Challenges

1. Limits of Lectionary: While the lectionary provides an easy way to gather pastors around a common text, this has tended to limit the table to mainline denominations who use the lectionary.

2. Neutral Convener: It’s not clear how helpful it is to have a neutral convener who is not themselves the pastor of a local church host the table.

3. Expectations of Rollout: So much of what happened in Tacoma was organic. If we had told pastors initially of all the things the table would have accomplished it may have overwhelmed the participants who needed a place to gather without expectations of more work.

4. Hermeneutic: Street Psalms has spent 20+ years learning how to read Scripture “from below” for peace. This perspective has been shared inductively over five years as “a perspective” on the text, not “the perspective.” However, unless the convener of the table is steeped in this perspective the table may lack this valuable resource.

5. Incarnational Framework: While the Street Psalms Incarnational Framework informs all of the conversations that happen at the Preaching Peace table, most pastors have never directly engaged the Incarnational Framework. It places a lot of pressure on the convener to integrate these perspectives into the conversation.