Cultivated Ministry

CULTIVATED MINISTRY

Cultivated Ministry gives us a way to undertake ministry with a clear and purposeful understanding of how our activities contribute to God’s mission in the world. 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.

Cultivated Ministry is a culture and process of ministry that does not rest on traditional metrics nor does it abdicate accountability altogether. It is a commitment to four interlocking means of assessment, evaluation, and (re)design aimed at nurturing thoughtful expressions of God’s mission in the world.

We are excited to share these resources with you and pray they will be of use to you in your work.

FREE FIELD GUIDE DOWNLOAD
LOOK INSIDE
WRITERS & DESIGNERS
RESOURCES
BLOG POSTS

FREE FIELD GUIDE DOWNLOAD

Get started today!

The easiest way to get started with Cultivated Ministry is to “purchase” our free download by adding the product to your cart! After checking out with the Cultivated Ministry item in your cart, you will gain access to the downloadable field guide.

ADD TO CART

SAMPLE PREVIEW

MEET THE TEAM

 
DESIGNERS & WRITERS
  • Shawna Bowman

    pastor & artist, Friendship Presbyterian Church

  • Chineta Goodjoin

    pastor, New Hope Presbyterian Church

  • Becca Messman

    pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church

  • Frank Spencer

    president, Board of Pensions, PC(USA)

  • Casey Thompson

    pastor, Wayne Presbyterian Church

  • John Vest

    professor of evangelism, Union Presbyterian Seminary

  • Jen James

    Cultivated Ministry project facilitator

  • Jessica Tate

    director, NEXT Church

CONSULTANTS
  • Andrew Foster Connors

    pastor, Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church

  • Christopher Edmonston

    pastor, White Memorial Presbyterian Church

  • Casey Wait

    pastor, John Calvin Presbyterian Church

  • Billy Honor

    pastor, The Pulse Church

  • Charlie Lee

    pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, NC

  • Carla Pratt Keyes

    pastor, Ginter Park Presbyterian Church

  • Landon Whitsitt

    executive and stated clerk, Synod of Mid-America

  • Rick Young

    president, Texas Presbyterian Foundation

 
DESIGNERS & WRITERS
  • Shawna Bowman

    pastor & artist, Friendship Presbyterian Church

  • Chineta Goodjoin

    pastor, New Hope Presbyterian Church

  • Becca Messman

    pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church

  • Frank Spencer

    president, Board of Pensions, PC(USA)

  • Casey Thompson

    pastor, Wayne Presbyterian Church

  • John Vest

    professor of evangelism, Union Presbyterian Seminary

  • Jen James

    Cultivated Ministry project facilitator

  • Jessica Tate

    director, NEXT Church

CONSULTANTS
  • Andrew Foster Connors

    pastor, Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church

  • Christopher Edmonston

    pastor, White Memorial Presbyterian Church

  • Casey Wait

    pastor, John Calvin Presbyterian Church

  • Billy Honor

    pastor, The Pulse Church

  • Charlie Lee

    pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, NC

  • Carla Pratt Keyes

    pastor, Ginter Park Presbyterian Church

  • Landon Whitsitt

    executive and stated clerk, Synod of Mid-America

  • Rick Young

    president, Texas Presbyterian Foundation

* contextual information for writers, designers, and consultants is as of fall 2017, the original publication date for Cultivated Ministry

RESOURCES

Here are additional resources to support the implementation of Cultivated Ministry in your ministry context. As we develop or discover resources to accompany this guide, we will add them here.

Jessica Tate and Shavon Starling-Louis hosted a conversation on Facebook on why we should assess ministry, even in a time when things are crazy.

Join our Cultivated Ministry in Practice Facebook group to connect with other people who are using Cultivated Ministry in their context. Feel free to ask questions or crowdsource ideas about implementation or anything else related to Cultivated Ministry!

JOIN FACEBOOK GROUP

As we’ve incorporated the principles of Cultivated Ministry into our work as NEXT Church, we developed worksheets to assess our initiatives. Carla Pratt Keyes of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, has done the same. Here are examples from the ministry of her church for your use and information.

DOWNLOAD WORKSHEETS

PRINTED BOOKLETS

Booklets are available for purchase.

Individuals and congregations interested in purchasing printed field guide booklets may now do so! Booklets may be purchased for $5 apiece. To request an order, please email us.

EMAIL FOR BOOKLETS

READ MORE

Learn more about Cultivated Ministry from these blog posts from the designers and writers, plus those who piloted the project in their contexts.

Field Guide Preview: Storytelling as Assessment

Today, we’re sharing the fourth sneak peek of the Field Guide for Cultivated Ministry, which we’ll release in full this fall. This preview is from another movement of the guide: storytelling as assessment.

Telling Stories That Matter

When we came together to work on the Field Guide for Cultivated Ministry, we wanted to infuse the process with storytelling. We know we can collect all the data we want, but if we don't know how to make sense of it or tell the stories of what it means, of how our ministries and mission are having impact, then the data doesn't do us very much good.

The Surprising Benefit of Evaluation

/
1 Comment
Evaluation is not just a way to gauge the effectiveness of a ministry so that it might be tweaked toward perfection. Evaluation actually subverts the forms of our ministry. It actually returns us to the theological question at the heart of vocation.

Field Guide Preview: Mutual Accountability as Assessment

Today, we’re sharing the third sneak peek of the Field Guide for Cultivated Ministry, which we’ll release in full this fall. This preview is from the second movement of the guide: mutual accountability as assessment.

Building Evaluative Muscles

As we continued to wrestle with what that discipleship meant, we began to get stuck on how we would know if we were making progress. What were the metrics we could use to see if we were actually doing what we said we felt called to do? We knew that we could not just use the church’s operating budget or our worship attendance numbers to tell us if the discipleship priority was taking hold.

A Culture of Accountability

Accountability is one of the most challenging practices for the church and certainly for pastors.  But accountability is not just the responsibility of a pastor alone. I’ve come to see it function best not so much as a practice, but as a culture.

PROJECT SPONSORS

We give thanks to the sponsors of this project. Their sponsorship has allowed Cultivated Ministry be a free resource to all church leaders.

Texas Presbyterian Foundation

Leadership Education at Duke Divinity

Presbyterian Foundation

First Presbyterian Church

Shreveport, LA

Wayne Presbyterian Church

Wayne, PA