Wheeler - Sustaining ministry: foundations and practices for serving faithfully

This book is largely the fruit of conversations conducted over more than twenty years with long-serving ministers and new student-pastors, district superintendents and bishops, and judicatory officials from several denominations. Occasionally they involved congregants whose pastors had gotten into moral difficulties of one kind or another. It would be impossible, and probably unwise, to name all these interlocutors. Those who have participated in these conversations may recognize themselves in this book, but I would not be surprised if they did not. (We often do not realize the impact our casual remarks may have on someone else.) In any case, I remember them and remain grateful for their particular insights and contributions.

Special thanks are owed to Reverend Anna Copeland, pastor in the United Church of Christ, who read and responded to some of the most delicate sections of the text, sharing with me the fruit of her considerable experience and challenging me to rethink some of my own judgments. The Reverend Peter Moon, district superintendent in the United Methodist Church, patiently entertained my questions and offered me his own perspective on questions of policy and procedure in cases of misconduct, which was very helpful.

I also garnered ideas and insights from others in the field of ministerial ethics, several of whom are cited in the text or whose work is included in the list of further readings. But even among colleagues, it was often the collateral discussions at meetings and the exchange of stories we had heard or been part of that proved most provocative and useful. In this regard I think especially of Joe Kotva, a colleague with many years of pastoral experience, and Rebekah Miles, professor of Christian Ethics at SMU. In exchanges with such people I discovered illuminating patterns, consistent ways in which ministers begin to go wrong, and likewise consistent ways they find their way back in time (or dont).

There is, I have learned, no formulano policy or procedure or set of rules that can guarantee that a person will not become confused or cynical about the role of pastor and misuse its powers. But there are ways forward, strategies and disciplines that help ministers negotiate the challenges they face and offer them safe and healthy ways to receive the support every human being needs. What I know about these practices I have learned chiefly from listening to and watching others, gifted pastors like the Reverend Daniel Mejia and the Reverend Dr. Scott Kisker who have long been sustained by them. I am grateful for their example as well as their instruction. Finally, I remain grateful to all the ministers I have had the privilege of working with as students, teachers, and colleagues over many years. Their faces, voices, and stories crowd my imagination, and it is to them I have dedicated this work.