From Our Program Director
Welcome to Sustaining Pastoral Excellence. We hope that you will find here on our pages the stories, ideas, and resources that will help sustain you in Christian ministry, whether an ordained minister, a family member, or a layperson.
Some of my most rewarding and productive days in Christian ministry have been spent as the Program Director of Sustaining Pastoral Excellence (SPE) at Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS). That’s because, as an ordained minister, myself, I know that the challenges of ministry can take a toll on even the most well prepared ministers or laypersons. Health, spiritual life, and scholarship can suffer as we give faithfully to others. But through programs like SPE, busy ministers and engaged laypersons find the support needed to sustain themselves for ministry over the long haul.
As my staff and I have worked together over the past five years, we have seen pastors and laypersons embrace life-giving practices of ministry that not only enrich themselves but their family members and their congregations --practices such as Sabbath-keeping, developing holy friendships, creating accountability with congregations, and attending to personal health.
We hope you will learn more about all these life enhancing practices on our website, and that you will be encouraged in your own life to seek and receive the grace of God that leads to wholeness.
As you learn more about SPE, share with us your responses and your own creative ideas about how to sustain pastoral excellence. We will look forward to hearing from you.
God Bless you.
Cozette R. Garrett
SPE Program Director