January 8, 2009 | Editor’s note: This article previously appeared on the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence website.

While many paths lead to pastoral excellence, one of the best and most popular is the pastor peer group. Since 2002, when Lilly Endowment Inc. established the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence initiative, SPE programs nationwide have launched thousands of such groups, all aimed at giving pastors a safe place for support, professional development and accountability.

As an ordained pastor who has spent the past 35 years training, facilitating and consulting in the private and non-profit sectors (including the Texas Methodist Foundation’s SPE program), I offer the following suggestions for facilitating a pastor peer group.

Facilitation of climate and community

Facilitating any group is about much more than helping members acquire new knowledge. If the group is to be a community of learning, mutual support and encouragement, then the facilitator needs to keep in mind not only the intellectual needs of members but also their physical, relational, vocational, spiritual and emotional needs. Everything from the layout of the meeting room to the refreshments can affect the group’s ability to learn. Thus, at the outset, facilitators should guide the group in answering the following questions:

• Is the meeting space comfortable and conducive to forming intimate relationship? For example, is the room more like a study or parlor than a classroom?
• How frequently will we meet? Ideally, meetings should be often enough to allow group members to develop deep relationships and address each member’s particular strategic leadership issues.
• What refreshments can we have that are healthy and nourishing?
• What ground rules help create mutual trust and an atmosphere of learning? Such ground rules might include confidentiality; genuine listening; diversity of perspectives; attendance and, even better, presence at all gatherings (except in emergencies); no cell phone interruptions; and honest feedback. Display them in the meeting room as a covenant among group members.
• How will group members get to know each other? For example, will the group use psychological or personality assessment instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Birkman Method, or The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B); personal and faith journey storytelling; or some other means to facilitate self-disclosure and feedback?
• What is the group’s goal, and what are the goals of each member? From the beginning, groups should be able to articulate what they want to accomplish in their first year, including each member’s physical, relational and spiritual life goals.
• How can the group understand each member’s ministry? During each meeting, one or two group members might take 30 to 45 minutes to describe his or her congregation, its strengths, challenges and goals.
• Is the group “open” or “closed?” That is, once the group has started meeting, will it be open to receiving new members or not?
• How will the group help members who miss a meeting catch up? One option is for two members to have a 30- to 60-minute conference call with any absentees to update them.

Facilitation of learning

Facilitators who are responsible for helping a group of pastors acquire new knowledge or skills should be familiar with current theories about how people learn.

For example, at its core, learning is about exposing the learner to something different from what they already know. As a result, people who believe strongly in the accuracy and truth of their current knowledge often have a more difficult time learning. To help, a facilitator may encourage group members to suspend judgment or critical analysis at the beginning of the process, opening them to the possibility of acquiring new knowledge. That way, people might discover something they did not already know -- perhaps even something that contradicts what they know.

The facilitator should also keep in mind the following points about learning:

• The learner must be able to “appreciatively understand” what is being taught. Appreciating without understanding is superficial; understanding without appreciating (finding usefulness or value) is judgmental.
• The learner must have a way to apply the new knowledge to behavior. Change doesn’t happen until the learner has integrated the new knowledge into behavior.
• The learner must be equipped to practice the new behavior and learn from that experience. Every time a learner seeks to implement new knowledge, new learning can happen.

But where is the new learning to come from? Fortunately, numerous resources are available to help groups explore new ideas, concepts, practices and strategies. Outside speakers, books, magazine articles, movies and videos, and blogs can all be used as material. To help the group get started, the facilitator may want to ask the following:

• What are your goals? What do you want to learn?
• Who or what do you already know -- speakers, books, films, etc. -- that could help us achieve those goals?
• What are your favorite ways to learn? For example, do you prefer lectures, group discussion, experiential practice, group study, individual presentations on specific issues or topics?