By Michael J. Brooks
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
Samford University’s Resource Center for Pastoral Excellence (RCPE), founded in 2003, plans to unveil a new name and an expanded mission in September. RCPE will become the Center for Congregational Resources (CCR), according to Director Michael Wilson.
“We will continue the several programs we’ve done from the beginning, but we’re excited about some new projects too,” Wilson said.
RCPE from its inception has offered Sabbath Leave grants to pastors and other staff for continuing education, physical fitness training, rest, spiritual renewal or any combination of the above.
One bivocational minister from rural Alabama was given a month in Birmingham and worked on all of the components.
“I took a course at Beeson Divinity School and met with a personal trainer at Samford,” he said. “The grant paid for my tuition, meals and lodging as well as for the supply preachers back home at my church. It was a wonderful time of renewal for me.”
According to Wilson, RCPE also now offers shorter study leaves of about two weeks. Aimed at ministers who don’t have time for a longer Sabbath leave, the in-house program on the Samford campus offers focused time for study or research.
Additionally RCPE supports the Pastoral Enrichment Network, which gathers bivocational ministers from around the state for fellowship, encouragement and training.
“Generally these groups meet monthly and study a topic together,” Wilson said. “We’ve partnered with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and the office of LeaderCare and church administration for this program.”
RCPE also reaches across denominational lines in ways such as facilitating the interdenominational Alabama Wellness Retreat of the Ministering to Ministers Foundation (MTM).
“MTM brings together ministers in crisis, including those who’ve gone through involuntary termination, for a week of therapy, instruction and healing,” Wilson said. “This event helps broken ministers find renewed resources to continue in ministry or in a different kind of ministry.”
CCR, as RCPE will become in September, will continue these programs but add a new component: coming alongside small-to-medium-sized membership churches to encourage them.
“I call this our Barnabas mission,” Wilson said. “With declining denominational funding, many of the smaller-membership churches don’t have the resources they need for various tasks. We hope to offer them a hand.”
As an example of the work he will be involved in this fall, Wilson said he got a call from a small church recently that was having difficulty securing a pastor.
“The church is five years old, and they’ve been without a pastor for two years,” he said. “I met with them and discussed how we’d come alongside to help. I plan to invest time with them and function like a coach. We also plan a congregational event to listen to the concerns of the members and to help them find the way forward.”
Team of strategists
Wilson, a Samford alum, served as an education director and associate pastor in churches in Alabama and Louisiana before becoming RCPE director in 2006.
He explained that he’s in the process of bringing together a team of six to eight “strategists” who will assist him in offering coaching to the churches. The center will serve as a clearinghouse to assist churches and ministers with finding proven resources to help with the challenges and opportunities they identify.
Lilly Endowment
RCPE and the organization it will become, CCR, are part of Samford’s Division of University Advancement.
Samford provides the administration costs, according to Wilson.
The organization received a grant from the Lilly Endowment of about $800,000 to do its work over a five-year period. The hope is that after five years the organization will be established and self-supporting.
“We have a small endowment presently, but it’s not large enough to do what we need,” Wilson said. “We will encourage churches and individuals to grow our endowment so that we can be a helper for the churches who contact us.”
The goal, he said, is “to offer hope and help to congregations who are short of both and thus advance the work of Christ.”
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