Reflective Practice - Formation and Supervision in Ministry (E-Journal)

Senior, John

Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
ISSN 2325-2847 (print)*  ISSN 2325-2855 (online)
* © Copyright 2021 Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
All Rights Reserved
Ministry Formation in the Places of Wisdom
John Senior
Many field educators tell a familiar story about the relationship be-tween wisdom and ministry formation: ministry, as many have recognized, is fundamentally about wisdom. Wisdom is a kind of 
knowledge of the fitting, what Greek thinkers termed phronesis—the ability, 
as Aristotle said, to do the right thing for the right people at the right time. 
Wisdom understood in this way is an irreducibly practical form of knowl-
edge; it is also deeply embodied. One learns wisdom through practice and 
intentional forms of reflection on practice, and, critically, in conversation 
with a wise mentor who is themself continuing to learn from experience. In 
the process of “reflective practice,” wisdom becomes deeply rooted not only 
in the things one knows but in one’s instincts, the ways one’s body responds 
to situations, and one’s worldview. Wisdom, at its deepest level, is a way of 
seeing the world, a way of being in the world, and a way of responding to 
the world.
The best mentors for ministry, whether they be field education direc-
tors, internship setting supervisor-mentors, or other mentoring figures in 
a student’s life, understand that they are in a continuing movement of “re-
flective practice.” Through the practice of discernment, good mentors are 
John Senior is director of the Art of Ministry program and assistant professor of practical 
theology at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Email: seniorje@wfu.edu.
95
open to God’s ongoing call to the life and work of ministry for them and 
for the communities they serve. Wise ministry practitioners know that they 
are never a finished product. Traditional models of theological education 
rightly position supervisor-mentors as “more finished” than the students 
they mentor. Wise supervisor-mentors know how to leverage their expe-
rience in their work and their wisdom about it to encourage students in 
their own process of discernment about their journey in ministry. On oc-
casion, good supervisor-mentors leverage their wisdom in a prescriptive 
way by saying, “No, you really shouldn’t do that,” or, “If you go about this 
in the way you’re imagining, I can tell you what’s going to happen.” Mostly, 
though, good mentors, secure enough in their own ongoing process of for-
mation, invite their student-mentees into a fulsome exploration of their own 
vocational journey, embracing both laudable achievements and cringewor-
thy missteps. 
In traditional field education or “supervised ministry” pedagogies, the 
locus of wisdom, implicitly or explicitly, is understood to be the “supervi-
sor-mentor”—a person, in other words, who is well formed in their min-
istry vocation. The contexts or “ministry settings” (as they’re often called) 
in which these ministry leaders work— congregations, chaplaincy settings, 
nonprofit settings, etc.—have been understood to remain relatively stable 
over time. In the traditional frame, it is as though there are these vast vo-
cational spaces or regions, one might say, called “congregational ministry” 
or “chaplaincy” or “nonprofit leadership.” Wise and well-formed minis-
try leaders have learned all of the nooks and crannies, all of the ins and 
outs, the complexities, the gifts and challenges, etc., of these spaces over the 
course of their career. Their learning emerges from an intentional and ongo-
ing process of reflective practice. 
Presumably, the spaces in which ministry leadership is practiced are 
always changing shape. The challenges facing congregational ministry in 
the middle of the twentieth century, for example, are not exactly the same as 
those facing us now. But what happens when these spaces begin to change 
rapidly or dramatically? The current COVID-19 crisis is instructional in this 
way. The learning curve for ministry under the conditions of a pandemic 
is dramatic. Congregational ministers are learning, on the fly, how to con-
vene their communities remotely in online worship services, peer group 
gatherings, and other opportunities to be community together. They are 
navigating hard questions about what it means to celebrate Communion 
SENIOR
96
and preside at baptisms and funerals in online spaces. Hospital chaplains 
are learning how to support patients, their families, and hospital staff un-
der conditions of limited physical access and restricted movement. Pasto-
ral caregivers working in counseling practices are learning how to provide 
therapy on electronic platforms. All of the above and many more are feel-
ing the fatigue of their vocational lives mediated through Zoom, Facebook, 
and other electronic platforms. A growing number of ministry leaders are 
beginning to process the trauma associated with death caused by this virus 
and the exhaustion that navigating relentless change brings.
Ministry in the context of the current coronavirus pandemic points to 
the ways in which space is itself a carrier of wisdom. When I use the term 
“space” here, I mean the distinctive patterns and practices of association 
that human beings create to organize their life together in distinctive ways. 
Some thinkers might use the terms “tradition” or “institution” similarly. 
Spaces, understood in this way, have histories; they are created, maintained, 
and modified over time by human communities and their successors. Spac-
es carry wisdom, in the sense that they contain the deeply rooted patterns 
and practices of life together that persons and communities learn, rehearse, 
embody, and also modify and riff on over time. Wise practitioners are in-
telligible only in relatively stable spaces. One can only learn to be a good 
preacher—even a singular or extraordinary preacher—if there are spaces in 
which preaching as a practice of corporate life is intelligible. The same goes 
for all of the practices of ministry leadership: pastoral care, religious educa-
tion, worship leadership, mission and outreach, program development and 
administration, and the like. Concomitantly, theological schools train and 
form professional leaders who have the skill set to function well in rela-
tively stable ecclesial spaces. Theologically trained professionals know, for 
example, how to preach a sermon in spaces in which preaching is and con-
tinues to be intelligible; they learn how to offer pastoral care in spaces in 
which pastoral caregiving is intelligible; they learn how to provide religious 
instruction in spaces in which that practice is intelligible.
Wisdom arises through reflective practice. But reflective practice is 
only meaningful in the spaces in which the practices about which practitio-
ners are reflective are intelligible. By upsetting access to space, COVID-19 is 
pushing against the conditions of wisdom. Preachers still preach—but what 
does it mean to deliver an impactful sermon on Zoom? Worship leaders still 
lead worship—but how do you do it on Facebook Live? A congregant dies 
MINISTRY FORMATION IN THE PLACES OF WISDOM
97
of complications related to the coronavirus. How does the funeral happen? 
Does it happen online? Is there a graveside service where all the mourners 
position themselves six feet apart from one another? What does wisdom 
look like when ministry practices, and reflective practitioners, are quite lit-
erally displaced?     
COVID-19 is certainly a dramatically different moment, posing pro-
found, if not unique, medical, social, economic, political, and public health 
challenges. But it comes as a sudden departure in the context of the rapid 
institutional change in North American Christian traditions that is already 
underway. Scholars and analysts have been attentive to the “changes” in the 
“American religious landscape,” to use a familiar shorthand, for more than 
two decades now. Christian traditions are wrestling with declining partic-
ipation and interest in the received patterns and practices of church and 
religious life. Americans who claim to be “spiritual but not religious” do 
not look to traditional forms of faith community in which to express their 
religiosity. The spaces of ministry practice are challenged to change in re-
sponse to these and other cultural and historical pressures. Similarly, min-
istry leaders are challenged not only to provide the various forms of lead-
ership to which they are called—forms of leadership that make ministry 
as a vocation distinctive from other forms of professional formation—but 
to work with their communities to reconfigure the spaces in which those 
forms of leadership are intelligible and meaningful. 
Theological education has long operated on the assumption that semi-
naries and schools of theology are forming ministry leaders who, following 
graduation, will be called to a position and will more or less take over where 
their predecessors left off, leading relatively stable organizations into a new 
chapter of their corporate life. Sure, there may be some growing pains in a 
transitional season as communities of faith welcome new leadership, often 
occasioning the opportunity to revisit and revise mission and vision. But 
following a time of transition, ministers will do what ministers do in the 
spaces they have prepared to inhabit and in which their distinctive form of 
professional work makes sense.
That assumption of institutional stability, of the integrity of space, no 
longer makes sense. Seminary graduates, along with the ministry practi-
tioners from whom they learn, need to orient themselves to the work of 
reconceiving the spaces in which their professional formation is geared at 
the very same time that they lead and serve in these spaces. They must, in 
SENIOR
98
other words, rebuild the boat while it is sailing. The good news is that wis-
dom does not cease. Reflective ministry leaders are constantly exploring 
emerging wisdom about their work as they continue to labor in the rapidly 
changing American religious landscape. Wisdom does not cease. How can 
persons who are preparing for ministry learn from emerging wisdom?
Here, another spatial challenge is relevant, and that challenge has to 
do with academic space. The academic classroom has always been a fraught 
space in which to explore and foster ministry formation. Classroom spaces, 
and the pedagogies its teachers learn to perform in those spaces, are not 
naturally resonant with the work of reflective practice. Academic classroom 
spaces traditionally encourage transactional pedagogies: the expert stands 
at the front of the room and delivers expertise to a mostly passive student 
audience. Classroom spaces encourage the delivery, analysis, and critique 
of discursive forms of knowledge. Classrooms are largely sequestered from 
the world of practice. Indeed, classrooms are intentionally set apart, pulled 
away from the messiness and complexity of the spaces in which human be-
ings build multiple forms of community. The university campus itself is a 
space that signals the presence of discursive activities aimed at generating 
understanding and insight about what is going on “out there.”
The work that happens in academic classrooms is vital and important. 
But classrooms are challenging spaces in which to foster vocational forma-
tion for ministry. Some might say that classrooms are ideally positioned for 
the “reflective” part of “reflective practice.” That is true to an extent—but 
academic spaces often denigrate reflection to the extent that reflection is at-
tentive to questions of personal and corporate experience, identity, practical 
wisdom, vocation, and sense of purpose. These are often understood not to 
constitute “real” areas of academic inquiry.
Moreover, academic production is rooted in research. Academic re-
search comes up behind realities already manifest in the world and at-
tempts to analyze, understand, and make meaning of them. Research is also 
noble and vital work. But a research orientation to the world may not best 
serve the purposes of vocational formation for ministry in an era in which 
the spaces in which ministry happens are changing so rapidly. Research 
may not be quick enough on the draw.
 The questions that seem to me pressing for the theological academy 
are, How can seminaries and schools of theology best engage and capture 
the wisdom about the practice of ministry in a context of profound change, 
MINISTRY FORMATION IN THE PLACES OF WISDOM
99
even as new wisdom is bubbling up from the reflective learning of wise 
practitioners every day? What kind of education would connect to and ex-
plore emerging forms of wisdom in ways that benefit novice learners?
One frame that may be helpful in this regard is rooted in an awareness 
of the assets that a school has and can leverage towards the ends of educa-
tion. Traditionally, schools of higher education are understood to possess 
one primary asset: expertise. Learned academics develop sophisticated un-
derstandings of the fields of inquiry of which they are expert contributors. 
This, too, is a vital and important pursuit. Expertise aligns well with a con-
ception of space—both academic and ecclesial—that is relatively stable. Sta-
ble spaces can be isolated, analyzed, and understood. Wisdom, on the other 
hand, aligns well with spaces in transition. Reflective practitioners who are 
navigating changing spaces every day are always adjusting their sense of 
what is fitting for those spaces as they change.
What if academic institutions thought more broadly about the assets 
they have that would position them to access and engage emerging wis-
dom about the life and work of ministry? Academic institutions have the 
capacity to convene wise practitioners who can work with one another to 
explore their learning about ministry. At my own institution, my colleague 
Fred Bahnson has expertly convened practitioners who work in various re-
gions of the food justice, agriculture, and ecology worlds to share emerging 
wisdom about their work in ministry. Students get to participate in these 
gatherings, too, and have the opportunity not only to overhear but also to 
participate in the conversations happening among these gifted practitio-
ners. These convenings also have the benefit of creating and strengthening a 
network of ministry practitioners who work in the food justice, agriculture, 
and ecology spaces. Bahnson’s work has demonstrated that convening and 
networking, in addition to expertise, are assets that a school leverages to do 
the work of education.
To better prepare the next generation of ministry leaders, seminaries 
and schools of theology must close the gap between the academic classroom 
and the changing shape of ministry spaces in which new wisdom about the 
life and work of ministry is constantly emerging. Schools must be spaces in 
which ministry practitioners can come together for peer convening, reflec-
tion, and networking with other practitioners and with students. Schools 
also need to consider in a more expansive frame who their learners are—not 
only the students enrolled in formal degree and continuing education pro-
SENIOR
100
grams but also the practitioners who are seeking opportunities for deeper 
reflection. In short, schools need to find ways to become valuable partners 
with ministry leaders who are navigating changing landscapes of ministry 
so that these partnerships will become the context of ministry formation for 
new leaders.
MINISTRY FORMATION IN THE PLACES OF WISDOM


English

Ministry Formation in the Places of Wisdom

Challenges of learship formation duing crisis

Goatley, David Emmanuel

Forming Leaders to Flourish in Crises

Systems Centered approach to teaching and learning

Higgins, Katherine

Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
ISSN 2325-2847 (print)*  ISSN 2325-2855 (online)
* © Copyright 2021 Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
All Rights Reserved
On Life at the Edge of the Unknown:  
A Systems-Centered Approach to Life and Leadership  
in Pandemic Times
Katherine Higgins
For many of us who cut our teeth in crisis ministry, the early days of the spring of 2020 brought focus and clarity of purpose or at least some sense of familiarity as we drew on skills that served us well in late-
night emergency room visits: a calm and steady presence, making good-
enough decisions, and being willing to alter our course as new information 
comes in. Taking breaks, remembering to breathe, and drinking plenty of 
water kept our minds focused and our bodies alert. As I met virtually with 
my CPE colleagues across the country, I saw how hundreds of faithful de-
cisions supported students in finishing units and allowed for the spiritual 
care of countless patients, family members, and staff colleagues, all while 
attempting to stay vigilant against the new viral threat. Focusing on the next 
right thing ensured our very survival and the survival of our field.
But those early days have turned into weeks and into months. Early 
rushes of adrenaline have subsided, and heightened cortisol levels have be-
come our new normal. Pandemic life has become a chronic condition. 
 Katherine Higgins is an ACPE Certified Educator and director of ACPE’s 
Communities of Practice program. Email:Katherine.Higgins@acpe.edu.
15
As the acute becomes chronic, we can begin to notice the ways that our 
survival instincts, designed to keep threats at bay, in fact limit our oppor-
tunity for growth. Old survival patterns may keep us alive when the threat 
level is high, but they also keep us stagnant or stuck. Systems-centered the-
ory offers a lens for understanding these defenses and tools for emerging 
from them.1 Its practices keep me grounded in the reality of the here and 
now. Clarity about what we know and what we don’t, accurately assess-
ing the sources of our information, and resisting the urge to fill in the gaps 
in our knowledge with fantasies are all strategies that help to inoculate us 
against the dangers of negative predictions and allow us to access the full 
range of our cognitive and affective wisdom. 
As one pandemic has become two and makes plain the factures in our 
society, psychic resources are apt to grow thin. Level-headedness about fac-
ing all of the unknowns is both vital and nearly impossible to sustain. We 
learn more each day about the physical manifestations of the novel corona-
virus—how it spreads, how it’s best treated, the damage it wreaks on the 
human body. The pandemic of racism, illuminated for many by the death of 
George Floyd, is not novel. Centuries of history and lived experience have 
brought expertise to many, while countless more of us have closed our eyes 
to this knowledge, preferring instead our fantasies of self-evident truths 
that “all men are created equal.” White people, and those who have lived 
in relative comfort and ease, are beginning to reckon with our capacity for 
self-delusion. Unknowns buffet us from all sides—the sensory, the scien-
tific, and the social and even from within our own souls. 
Political polarization has amplified the experience of threat from all 
these unknowns. Neighbors and families are at odds as the news cycle is 
dominated by yelling and outright lies. Other people become caricatures, 
and we ourselves do too as we seek to keep out any differences real or per-
ceived. Real and deep human suffering is ignored or exploited. We have lost 
the opportunities for collective rituals of grief.
In the midst of all of this, it is easy to write a narrative of negative 
predictions: hundreds of thousands dead, countless others besieged by lin-
gering life-limiting symptoms, and debilitating moral injury to those on 
the front lines; no more jovial family gatherings; White people’s urgent in-
sistence on change followed by a predictable lack of stamina amidst racial 
stress. I find these predictions to be crafty and deceptive, convincing me 
that they are actually sophisticated analyses or sharp professional judg-
HIGGINS
16
ments. And although this negative line of thought may have ensured sur-
vival somewhere along the developmental journey, its usefulness quickly 
expires. As I think of my role at ACPE as one who attends to the growth and 
the flourishing of the system as a whole, it is most evident to me that these 
survival defenses may have been necessary for a time but now must be shed 
in order for us to grow and adapt. 
Harder and more faithful is standing tall and open-eyed, facing into 
the unknown with courage and hope. The edge of the unknown is the place 
of potential, where energy enlivens us and transformation can occur. It is 
at this place that we can access the wisdom of our hearts and minds and 
bodies. This is a place of power. And this is the particular expertise that we 
pastoral educators have and that the world so desperately needs: the ability 
to look inward in honest self-reflection while at the same time recognizing 
and integrating deep difference.
This stance is very hard to sustain in the best of times. And it is down-
right impossible to sustain alone. Indeed, isolation raises the stakes, and 
all those old survival defenses clamor to make themselves known. The an-
tidote, for me, is to find a subgroup to discuss and metabolize my experi-
ence with. Whether I find an explicitly systems-centered theory function-
al subgroup or an implicit subgroup that draws on my experience, having 
someone in my boat can calm my threatened psyche and depersonalize the 
experience enough so that I may begin to understand all the inputs as valu-
able information. Intricate webs of connection and support strengthen and 
grow, like a railway map that makes cross-country travel seem easy. This 
web emboldens me to face into life at the edge of the unknown.
Drawing on the wisdom of the web, individual growth and transfor-
mation never remains solely an individual act. Our systems influence one 
another and will grow (or stagnate) together. Indeed, our willingness to rec-
ognize and dismantle old survival patterns in favor of a more complex con-
sciousness is the gift of our professional lineage and the very thing this 
world so desperately needs now. We are here for such a time as this. 
NOTES
1 For more information about systems-centered theory, see Yvonne M. Agazarian, Sys-
tems-Centered Therapy for Groups (London: Karnac, 2004). Or, see the website of the 
Systems-Centered Training & Research Institute at www.systemscentered.com for re-
sources and training opportunities.
ON LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE UNKNOWN:IN PASTORAL FORMATION


On Life at the Edge of the Unknown: A Systems-Centered Approach to Life and Leadership in Pandemic Times

Rowthorn, Anne

Rowthorn, Jeffery

Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
ISSN 2325-2847 (print)*  ISSN 2325-2855 (online)
* © Copyright 2021 Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
All Rights Reserved
Out of the Depths We Cry Out to You  
in the Face of the Coronavirus
Anne and Jeffery Rowthorn
Creator God of the universe, God of a thousand names and faces, di-vine source of health and wholeness, whose compassion embraces the entire community of Earth: behold your fearful people all over 
the world as we confront the coronavirus. Out of the depths we cry to you, O 
God. Holy God, hear our voices. Let your ear be attentive to our cries (Psalm 
130:1–2, adapted) as we pray for all who may be affected by the virus:
For all health caregivers—nurses, physicians, aides, EMTs, paramed-
ics, technicians and therapists; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For hospital and nursing home medical staff, assistants, and house-
keepers who have close contact with patients and for the patients 
themselves; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For all who travel for their daily work over land and sea and through 
the air—flight attendants, pilots, ship captains and sailors, bus drivers, 
passengers and long-distance truck drivers; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For all who handle money—bankers, supermarket, village market and 
convenience store cashiers; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For all who pump gas and serve customers at Interstate rest areas; out 
of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
Anne and Jeffery Rowthorn wrote this litany while resident scholars at 
the Collegeville Institute for use in places of worship in the midst of the 
spreading coronavirus. Source: Bearings Online, March 6, 2020, https://
collegevilleinstitute.org/bearings/a-litany-for-the-coronavirus/.
287
288
For restaurant workers—bartenders, coffee shop baristas, cooks, serv-
ers, chefs, and dishwashers; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For hospitality workers–hotel and motel receptionists, servers and 
housekeepers; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For daycare center staff who cuddle and comfort children and for all 
children; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For teachers and professors, coaches and cafeteria workers at schools 
and universities across the world and students everywhere; out of the 
depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For the homeless huddling for warmth over steam grates and under 
urban bridges; out of the depths, O God–
We cry to you. Protect them.
For the poor, the lonely, the vulnerable, migrants, and the isolated el-
derly who have no protectors; out of the depths, O God–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For clergy and people who eat the bread of life, drink from the com-
mon cup and pass the sign of peace; out of the depths–
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For all who have tested positive, all who are waiting for test results, 
and all who are quarantined; out of the depths—
We cry out to you. Protect them.
For all who have already died of the coronavirus, now free from pain 
and suffering. May the God of hope carry them all the way home, and 
comfort their families and friends; out of the depths—
We cry out to you. Protect them.
Loving God, hasten the day when the virus will have run its course; 
quicken scientists to develop medications and vaccines; call out the 
best instincts of your people—love, neighborliness, compassion, and 
a sense of caring for every member of your beloved community on 
Earth. We pray out of the depths to you, O God of hope, whom we call 
Jesus, Allah, YHWH, Divine Mystery, Wakan Tanka, Great Spirit.
Amen.
OUT OF THE DEPTHS WE CRY OUT TO YOU IN THE FACE OF THE CORONAVIRUS


Out of the Depths We Cry Out to You in the Face of the Coronavirus

A poem calling us to calm down and stand along with another

Gusdal, Nolan

Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
ISSN 2325-2847 (print)*  ISSN 2325-2855 (online)
* © Copyright 2021 Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
All Rights Reserved
STAND DOWN & STAND BY
Nolan Gusdal
My people my people
Stand down and stand by
Stand down from your hatred
Stand right by my side
Stand down from your fear
Stand down from your greed
Stand by for all people
all people of need
My people my people
Your power is death
Your power and privilege take away breath
IT’S TIME TO STAND DOWN
IT’S TIME TO STAND BY
Right next to the ones
standing up for their lives
Nolan Gusdal is facility manager of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. 
He wrote this poem following the September 29, 2020, U.S. presidential debate.
300


STAND DOWN & STAND BY

Chang reflects on her experience of working with students in formation during a time of extreme suffering and trauma

Chang, Sung Hee

Ministerial Formation through the Lens of Suffering: A Theological Reflection onTrauma-Sensitive Pedagogy

Floding introduces concern of ministry formation during a crisis

Floding, Matthew

Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
ISSN 2325-2847 (print)*  ISSN 2325-2855 (online)
* © Copyright 2021 Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry
All Rights Reserved
SECTION 3
MINISTERIAL FORMATION  
IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Editor’s Introduction
On March 10, 2020, Duke University employees received this commu-nication from the office of the president: 
To the Duke Community,
For the last several weeks, the Duke-wide Task Force has been working 
diligently to prepare for and plan our university’s response to COVID-19. 
In the past few days, it has become clear that the spread of the virus con-
tinues across the country. Even though this is due to circumstances be-
yond our control, we can take steps now to minimize health and safety 
risks to Duke students, faculty, staff and the larger community, especially 
as students and faculty prepare to return from Spring Break.
The instructions that followed included moving to remote learning and 
suspending in-person internships. The swift response coupled with a rigor-
ous testing regimen was extremely effective in protecting the community.
Suddenly, however, students engaged in field education found them-
selves learning with learners as worshiping communities, nonprofits, and 
CPE programs adapted to virtual environments. This was experienced 
across the country. Educators providing leadership to CPE and field educa-
tion programs were personally impacted. Still, ministerial formation con-
tinued, though not as before. In this section, authors explore facets of forma-
tion disrupted by the pandemic’s onset.
John Senior, in “Ministry Formation in the Places of Wisdom,” ex-
plores how “ministry in the context of the current coronavirus pandemic 
92
points to the ways in which space is itself a carrier of wisdom.” How does 
the assumption that wisdom arises from reflection operate in novel spaces 
and platforms?
David Emmanuel Goatley draws on historic resources from the Civ-
il Rights Movement and Mission Societies to Howard Thurman to explore 
“Forming Leaders to Flourish in Crises.” He contends that current and up-
and-coming leaders need to be formed with attention to adaptability, hu-
mility, spirituality, and sustainability.
In “Countercultural Remorse: The Importance of Attending to Grief 
in Transforming Our Embedded Beliefs,” Julie Hanada narrates her per-
sonal journey of living in the tension between embedded beliefs and val-
ues from her community of origin and important values and ideals she has 
embraced from other communities in which she is a member or participant. 
She finds the concept of countercultural remorse a key tool for healing and 
empowerment.
Mark Chung Hearn seizes the opportunity during the disruption to 
reflect on his vocation as educator in “Ministry and Formation through 
Multiple Pandemics: How a Clergyperson Ministers in Higher Education.” 
He writes, “Amid all this chaos and eruption of everything I and others 
know to be normal remain two interrelated calls: my responsibility to shape 
learners and my vocation to minister to people with a life-giving response.”
The sudden and dramatic changes ministerial leaders faced as the pan-
demic swept the globe, followed by the uprisings associated with the killing 
of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, all beneath the cloud of the threat 
of climate change, called for resilience in ministerial leaders. Dorothee Tri-
podi and Stephen Booth in “Embodied Resilience: Supervision and Mentor-
ing during a Time of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and Climate Change” 
consider insights and practices informed by Scripture, theology, and the so-
cial sciences that nurture resilience in those who nurture resilience in oth-
ers as supervisor-mentors.
Angela Barker Jackson and Jessica C. Williams present a case study 
from Central Baptist Theological Seminary’s pivot to “just-in-time learn-
ing” for participants in their Lilly-funded Thriving Congregations Initia-
tive. They reflect on their experience as participant-observers in the eight 
webinars that emerged to equip leaders and to document their experience 
and expressed needs in real time in the early months of COVID-19.
SECTION 3: EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
93
Excellence in supervision in theological field education was the focus 
of a collaborative effort of nineteen field educators in volume 40 (2020) of 
Reflective Practice. The topics the emerging five teams addressed included 
a literature review, exploring theories of supervision, training supervisor-
mentors, wisdom from supervisor-mentors about excellent supervision, and 
listening to the students’ experience as they described wise and helpful su-
pervision and mentoring. The teams addressing the last two topics reconsti-
tuted when it became apparent that supervisor-mentors and students were 
facing new challenges. Their articles document the dramatic changes expe-
rienced by supervisor-mentors and students in the new virtual reality they 
were navigating.
The articles in this section demonstrate the passion and commitment 
to reflective formation as practitioners and in the formation of students de-
spite the constraints and challenges of this past year.
Matthew Floding
Editor
SECTION 3: EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION


SECTION 3: MINISTERIAL FORMATION IN A TIME OF CRISIS - Editor's Introduction

Hanada addresses the importance of attending to grief in the process of transforming our embedded beliefs

Hanada, Julie

Countercultural Remorse: The Importance of Attending to Grief in Transforming Our Embedded Beliefs

Jones describes her theology which informs her supervision of CPE students

Jones, Imani

Theology Theory: The Power of Relationships

The authors address how important it is to listen carefully to our students as we are working with them

Not a member yet