In 2024, the Center for Congregational Health worked across North America from the East Coast (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL) to the West Coast (CA), from Texas to Canada, and many places in between. We coached, consulted, organized and facilitated trainings (coaching, consulting, and transition consulting), led workshops; developed new partnerships and renewed previous partnerships. We worked with students and CPE residents and collaborated with other Lilly Endowment grant recipients. We began discerning and planning for sustainability for two grants as we look to 2025. We met and collaborated with our colleagues throughout the Advocate Health system and created opportunities for helpful conversations with our consultants, clarity about our communications and the ability to dream and plan for the future.
Following are highlights of 2024 shared by each of our fulltime consultants:
Chris Gambill: In reflecting on my work with clergy, laity, and congregations in 2024, I am thankful for leaders—both ordained and not—who continue to lead their congregations in a difficult environment. It has never been easy to lead a congregation, and that is especially true now. Economics, political polarization, culture shifts, aging buildings, fragmented lives, mental health crises and a thousand other things seem to be conspiring against creating healthy, thriving congregations. And yet, thousands of leaders continue to spend their best time, energy, and money in service to God and their congregations. Almost everywhere I go, I see new ministries being birthed and new ways of being a congregation being lived out. This gives me great hope for the future. I feel honored to get to stand alongside these creative, committed leaders and want to continue to find new ways to support them in this vital work.
Beth Kennett: The highlights of my year were shared with congregations and clergy authentically making bold decisions to live out who they are by doing what they are called to do. Clergy who decided to do ministry in their settings in a very different way, stemming from their strengths and passions and being the authentic pastors they are called to be, while working with their congregations and organizations as they discover together new practices and methods for ministry. Congregations engaging processes for dreaming into their future or navigating pastoral transitions, where the leadership teams worked beautifully together, listened to their congregations, analyzed the current circumstances and moved to make courageous recommendations for immediate action and initiated healthy plans for the future.
Charity Roberson: When I reflect on the year, I am most proud of our work creating a new Transition Consultant training program. The Center has long been involved in training other consultants, coaches and intentional interim pastors but we have recognized changing culture during the transition period between pastors. Out of these changing needs, we created a new program to train consultants to help congregations with the very unique challenges a transition period holds right now. It brings together the best of our consultant training, what we have learned through our thriving congregations grant work, the best of our intentional interim training and our experience working with congregations in transition, and it is the first of its kind. I am excited to see how this training continues to develop.
Every training participant, coaching and consulting client leaves an impression on us when they share with us in the work. With every colleague—fulltime, part time, contractors and clients—as we engage in the work of collaboration, we discover that the work we do may not always be easy, but together what we do is good and holy work.
Thank you for the ways you have connected with us in 2024! We look forward to continued collaboration in 2025.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!