History of Cultivated Ministry
Members of the Original Writing Team: John Vest, Frank Spencer, Casey Thompson, Shawna Bowman, Becca Messman, Chineta Goodjoin
HOW IT STARTED
In 2016, NEXT Church convened creative, talented leaders to talk about the ways in which the church was collaboratively starting and supporting new ministries. In the room were leaders from large, established congregations; leaders from small upstart ministry ventures; and everything in between. There was energy in the conversation as we heard about ministries in places and with people often overlooked in mainline Protestant circles and creative ministries launched by established congregations. But the conversation got heated quickly when it turned toward resources, sustainability, fundraising, and accountability.
The conversation made clear the creativity and leadership in the present-day margins of the church and the energy and desire to try new things in established communities of faith. At the same time, the resources needed to fertilize that growth often rested in the established, traditional communities of faith and in denominational structures. At the center of these conversations were discussions about evaluation, assessment, and the movement towards impact.
Jessica Tate, former Executive Director
TRADITIONAL METRICS WERE INEFFECTIVE
As Jessica Tate, the Director of NEXT Church at the time of the project, wrote, “Traditional metrics — such as membership counts, financial totals, and worship attendance — have proved inadequate for measuring the effectiveness of traditional communities of faith, much less emergent ones, but other metrics have not risen in their place. Thus, we revert to what we know, perpetuating a status quo that serves neither partner in the leadership development and experimental learning the church needs now in abundance if we are to make the move into new, thriving models of church life.”
A NEW CULTURE OF ASSESSMENT
Original design sketch of Cultivated Ministry by Shawna Bowman
Over the course of eighteen months, with support from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School and the Texas Presbyterian Foundation, NEXT Church convened a talented group of leaders to tackle this issue within the life of the church.As the writing and design team met, they concluded the project was bigger than metrics and granting money; it was really about the whole culture of assessment, accountability, learning, and storytelling in the church — on every level, from actions of a committee to the direction of a congregation to the purpose of a presbytery or mission network. What resulted from their work was “Cultivated Ministry: Bearing Fruit through Theology, Accountability, Learning, and Storytelling.” They determined Cultivated Ministry was a culture and process of ministry that neither rested on traditional metrics, nor abdicated accountability altogether. It was a commitment to four interlocking means of assessment, evaluation, and (re)design aimed at nurturing thoughtful expressions of God’s mission in the world.
A NEW SEASON
As Cultivated Ministry spread and was embodied across the NEXT Church network of leaders, it evolved. Church communities, spiritual formation teams, and governing bodies took their learnings and lived out the practices. Leaders and facilitators from NEXT Church led workshops and adapted content over time to match the current realities of the Church and to move towards a greater impact. We learned one of the four interlocking areas didn’t quite fit in the same way and served as a grounding for the entire concept. As with all of our work, we continued to interrogate how our NEXT Church values were being lived out through this resource and its teachings.
The Rewriting Process in 2024
Essentially, we used the principles of Cultivated Ministry on ourselves to evaluate so new fruit might come from vines planted years ago. In the spring of 2024, after many years of practicing and collaborating on updated content, we began the rewrite of Cultivated Ministry that you read today. The new edition pulls from the original work and adds additional learnings, grown in community. The pruning of the original version, grown from faithful leaders, allowed for new growth – a new fruit for a new season.
We pray it leads to deep impact for years to come.
written and edited by:
Jen James (she/her) is on staff for NEXT Church as the Director of Programs and Operations. She was the original Project Facilitator for Cultivated Ministry and is a writer for the Updated Edition.
