Steven Sanderson said he needs all the help he can get to be a good pastor.
So he asked. And he got flooded with help.
It came in the form of the Pastoral Enrichment Network (PEN), supported by Samford University’s Resource Center for Pastoral Excellence (RCPE). With PEN, pastors meet in small groups within their local association for free theological education and tips on pastoral service.
The first time Sanderson attended his association’s PEN, he admits it was really just for the free book, but he quickly realized there was much more to it than that.
“It is hard for me to put into words to describe the kind of impact it has made upon my ministry,” said Sanderson, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Hamilton. “For three years, I have … experienced the type of education I have not been able to find anywhere else. There is something special about fellow laborers in the ministry gathering together to support one another, pray, share stories and learn together.”
He is now serving full time at the Marion Baptist Association church, but when he first started attending PEN, he was a bivocational pastor in Fayette Baptist Association.
And, he said, the help just kept coming and coming. “For years, I had prayed and had waited on God to tell me where and if He would have me to go to school,” Sanderson said. Then one day, just after getting involved in Fayette Association’s PEN, he got a call from Director of Missions Larry Barnes.
“There was someone who had offered to pay my way through Liberty Home Bible Institute (LHBI),” Sanderson said. “My wife and I prayed over the decision for me to enroll in LHBI and generously accepted the scholarship from the anonymous giver. It and PEN were just what I needed with the type of schedule I had as a bivocational minister with a young family.”
He graduated with his bachelor’s degree, and then he got a call from Barnes, saying he had a scholarship to Pastors School at Samford’s Beeson Divinity School.
“[The scholarship] was something I had never heard about,” Sanderson said. “I had been fasting for help to become a better pastor. Wow, did God answer such prayer.”
Barnes said God answers prayer often through PEN.
“I have stories of men being called into the ministry through this group,” he said. “It’s been going for seven years now, and we’ve definitely seen lives impacted.”
About 20 PEN groups are currently active in the state, and though not all of them have seen dramatic fruit from the program, a number like Fayette Association’s have.
Michael Wilson, RCPE’s program director, said each participating association adapts the group’s objectives to fit its needs.
“PEN group objectives vary by location and are contingent on leader styles as well as emergent needs and interests of members,” Wilson said. “Some groups make use of books, while others utilize audio and video resources. As has been the practice in these groups from the start, leaders and members share responsibility for topics and flow.”
Prayer and peer support are the No. 1 priority, he said. And in addition to the associational groups’ own agendas, RCPE offers some statewide activities and resources, such as a Bivocational and Small Church Leaders Lab coming up in August. Dennis Bickers — longtime pastor and director of BivoNet, a national ministry to bivocational pastors — will be the speaker for the lab.
“He is far and away the leading author for materials for bivocational pastors,” Barnes said. “It’s a one-of-a-kind event and the only time we know of someone coming to do something like this for a state convention.”
The lab is scheduled for:
- Aug. 22 at Tunsel Road Baptist Church, Hartselle.
- Aug. 23 at Sparks Gap Baptist Church, Bessemer.
- Aug. 25 at First Baptist Church, Bay Minette.
- Aug. 26 at Dale Baptist Association, Ozark.
- Aug. 27 at Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville.
For more information about the lab or RCPE, visit www.samford.edu/rcpe or call 205-726-4064.
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