Over the course of the last 15 years, never once have I had to wonder as so many do, “Who is the pastor for the pastor?”  Never one time, even in the most difficult days of my ministry have I thought, “I am so alone.”  Never have I worried about who I might call when I needed someone to be in prayer for me, my family, or my congregation.  I know, in the deepest part of my soul, that being connected with a community on this journey rooted in prayer and systematic trust, has made me a better woman, wife, mother, friend, and minister

Over these last years, I’ve traveled the difficult road of vulnerability and asking for help, the scary path of authenticity and humility, the hopeful path of collaborative leadership and relationship building.  These are the paths of the Bethany Fellowships Way. These are the roads that I continue to lead my congregation down each and every day because I know the difference it makes to have a community of people with whom you can journey as your truest self, your most broken self and how walking with such a beloved community can not only sustain you, but heal you and save you.

By Rev. Shanna K. Steitz

Senior Pastor, Community Christian Church

Bethany Fellows Alum and Board Member 

“During Paul’s lifetime, the Christian church was not yet an institution or a centrally organized set of common practices and beliefs. It was a living organism that communicated the Gospel primarily through relationships. This fits with Paul’s understanding of Christ as what we might call an energy field, a set of relationships inside of which we can live with integrity” (Rohr, 2018).

Founded in 1999, Bethany Fellows is an energy field, a set of relationships inside of which pastors can live with integrity. It is a mentoring and spiritual leadership ministry for young clergy in their earliest years of congregational service. The initiating mission of Bethany Fellows was to serve congregations by helping young pastors transition from seminary to sustained congregational ministry with a strong and healthy pastoral identity. At the heart of this ministry is an innovative mentor/leader team model.Originally developed through Transition into Ministrygrants from the Lilly Endowmentin partnership with HELM, Bethany Fellows helps meet the country’s need for bright, healthy and spiritually savvy clergy to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s changing and emerging church and world landscapes. Bethany Fellows launched its Ecumenical Fellows (EF) group three years ago and now has a waiting list of 40 for both the Disciples and EF groups. Today Bethany Fellows is sustained through individual and congregational support.

For more information visit www.bethanyfellows.orgor contact Director, Rev. Kim Gage Ryan, kim@bethanyfellows.org

Rohr, Richard. Church as Living Organism. Center for Action and Contemplation; May 7, 2018. https://cac.org/church-as-living-organism-2018-05-07/

On May 22 and 23, the Hispanic Theological Initiative sponsored an ecumenical gathering of twenty faith leaders at Princeton Theological Seminary for a Church Leadership Formation Conference.  Leaders in higher education, Latinx ministries and denominational life from Catholic, mainline and evangelical backgrounds met over the two-day conference to discuss the current context of Latinx Christianity in the United States and the role of higher education in training current and future leadership for the academy and wider church.  The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was represented by Rev. Lori Tapia (National Pastor for Hispanic Ministries), Rev. Dr. Loida Martell (Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Lexington Theological Seminary) and Rev. Dr. Jon Barnes (Director for Higher Education and Communications for HELM).

Presentations and discussions at the conference covered a range of topics, including the sharing of case studies on how different Latinx communities seek to address leadership development, a discussion of the changes that have taken place both within the Latinx community as well as the broader US context over the past decades, and a session on the role of denominational leadership in the future of Latinx theological education and formation.  When reflecting on the importance of the gathering, Rev. Tapia said that “This ecumenical and collaborative event reminds us that we are stronger and our sphere of influence is greater when we are all at the table. Quality theological education for and in the Latinx faith community impacts and enriches both academia and congregational life for all throughout the world.” The conference included in-depth conversation of the realities of all forms of theological education influencing our congregations, with a focus on bible institutes, certificate programs and others. “There is a hunger for theological education and ministerial formation and we are called as the Body of Christ to ‘feed the hungry.’ This may mean we need to look at the bigger picture through a different lens if we are to accomplish this relevantly and justly.”

Rev. Dr. Loida Martell, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean at Lexington Theological Seminary, participated in a panel of HTI graduates that reflected on the impact of the program.  At the conclusion of the event, Dr. Martell noted that “The Hispanic Theological Initiative’s gathering of important institutions involved in the development of Latinx religious leadership, for communities of faith and communities at large, underscores once again that the heart of the Latinx theological enterprise is collaborative in nature. Most important, it reminds us that Latinx theology has its roots in what Roberto Goizueta, Jr. once called a ‘praxis of accompaniment,’ an organic and holistic integration of the academic enterprise with eccesial and grassroots voices.”  Dr. Martell also emphasized the importance of the collaborative nature of the conference and her hope that participants will be able to experience the same environment in their own contexts: “We gathered as denominational leaders, academic leaders (including the Hispanic Summer Program and the Association of Hispanic Theological Education), and theological educators to envision how we can best serve the Church and the world for the Reign of God. In so doing, I hope that we have reminded both the academic and ecclesial structures at large that we are called to serve together, in an integrated and collaborative way; or as we say in Spanish, en conjunto. As the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Lexington Theological Seminary (and alum of HTI), I was proud to participate in this conference and to be part of an educational institution that models this spirit of collaboration with the Church in its curricular design.”

Mark Miller-McLemore is retiring as Dean of the Disciples Divinity House at Vanderbilt on June 30 after 23 years leading this innovative Disciples theological institution.

Disciples Divinity House is a student residence and scholarship foundation that supports Disciples of Christ students preparing for ministry at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville. Students receive financial aid and comfortable, low-cost housing near campus in a community of twenty students. The House’s mission is “to shape outstanding ministers for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in a supportive community of faith.”

The Disciples House model is unique to the Disciples of Christ. The denomination established two Disciples Houses at ecumenical, university-based divinity schools in order to provide the best in theological education in a cost-effective way. By affiliating with an established school, the Houses avoid the expenses of libraries, faculty, and educational structures, which holds down costs to the church and to students, reducing their debt. The House at Vanderbilt is focused on building community that fosters supportive collegial relationships in ministry that last decades, as alumni/ae consistently attest. And the combination of an intense community of Disciples in the context of an ecumenical school provides solid grounding in the Disciples tradition, while enhancing ecumenical openness.

As Dean Miller-McLemore writes, “I came to DDH-Vanderbilt from 15 years as a solo pastor in a small but strong congregation in the south suburbs of Chicago that reversed a decade of decline and became very engaged in ministry with its surrounding community. Among other creative and fun efforts, it birthed a homeless sheltering program in 1980 that grew to involve almost 100 congregations and housed 150 people per night in the winter months. So I brought with me to DDH a vision of the attention to theological depth plus a heritage of social justice at Vanderbilt, combined with a focus on doing transformative ministry in churches. Communities of worship and activism aren’t often seen together in the mainline churches, but they can and should be connected for Disciples especially. I’ve worked throughout my tenure to shepherd ministers, especially pastors, who are faithful, effective, bold, and creative in their congregations and in their communities.”

In 1995, Dean Miller-McLemore inherited and effectively turned around an institution in serious distress, and he moved the institution forward on many fronts in a time of increasing costs and complexity and decreasing denominational support. “From 1999-2001, the other six schools of the Council on Theological Education each gave a portion of their Disciples Mission Fund income for three years to the Disciples House-Vanderbilt to give us resources and time to recover and move forward. I am still grateful and amazed at that act of unprecedented institutional generosity by leaders who looked past their own self-interest to the needs of a colleague school and the church’s larger good.”

Dean Miller-McLemore rebuilt the board and organized the institutional, financial, procedural, and compliance-related aspects of the House, leading to two decades of balanced budgets and clean audits.  He began and grew the House’s Annual Fund, doubled staff, added 25 named funds to the House’s endowment and tripled its size, established the Legacy Society, and oversaw interior and exterior facility renovations that made the House’s 1960s-era building energy-efficient and more attractive. Internal renovations were made possible by cost-saving collaborations with Disciple Men of Tennessee and Volunteers in Mission of Disciples Home Missions, “another collaboration for which I am grateful to the church.”

During Dean Miller-McLemore’s tenure, 113 Disciples students have received the Master of Divinity degree, 14 have received the 2-year Masters of Theological Studies degree, and 14 Disciples students have completed their PhD degree at Vanderbilt. Of those graduates, 103 (at last count) were ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). They now serve faithfully throughout the church as pastors, college and military chaplains, counselors teachers, and leaders.

Over 23 years, Dean Miller-McLemore has worked with eight board chairs at DDH; three Deans at Vanderbilt Divinity School; and three presidents at HELM, three General Ministers, and a large number of presidents and deans at our other six Disciple seminaries.

Dean Miller-McLemore also advocated for ministry and kept alive a complicated partnership with the Divinity School and Vanderbilt University on behalf of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He started numerous programmatic initiatives: monthly House Dinners, an Opening Retreat to build community, and the annual Graduation Celebration Dinner.  “I firmly believe in this residential model for educating excellent ministers, so I am pleased that Disciples House-Vanderbilt has thrived and been successful in its mission in spite of a very challenging, sometimes disastrous, time for church-related organizations.” The House receives regular requests for information about how it functions from other seminaries and denominations.

Under the dean’s leadership, Disciples House attracted over $1.5 million in grants, including two major grants from the Lilly Endowment for the Congregational Immersion Project, a Transition into Ministry initiative that ran for 12 years, placing graduates in two-year pastoral residencies with an excellent mentor pastor in a healthy congregation. He participated in Transition-related meetings and took leadership in the Lilly-sponsored Pastoral Excellence Network. As a former pastor, the dean has been committed to measuring outcomes for graduates in ministry as well as numbers of graduates. Two intentional evaluative events, in 2004 and 2014, gathered first-hand information from graduates serving in congregations three to six years about the effectiveness of their preparation. They were highly affirming of their education at VDS and DDH, and “Wise Practice” was designed to focus on practices of ministry that these minister-graduates reported as needing additional attention: money, conflict, weddings and funerals, and anti-racism training.

Disciples Divinity House-Vanderbilt Alumni/ae Lunches at the last twelve General Assemblies were the largest gatherings of Vanderbilt Divinity alumni/ae in the country and were marked by hilarity and high spirits. In 2007, the Disciples House began the musical event “Talent 4 the House.” In ten years, it grew from a spaghetti dinner with a student talent show to a spectacular series of events that raised over $100,000 to support ministry students and attracted almost 500 Disciples to an evening of song and celebration. In later years, it featured Nashville musicians such as Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Allison Krauss, Andrew Peterson; and Disciples Jonell Mosser, Gabe Dixon, Thom Schuyler, Stuart Duncan; as well as students, church members, and (occasionally) the dean on banjo.

“I am thankful for so many people who have been supportive of this place over the years—excellent board chairs and board members, Disciple friends in middle Tennessee, our graduates all over the country, some incredible musicians and volunteers, the larger church, former deans on whose shoulders I stood. Their belief in the House and its good ministry sustained me and our students. I am hopeful of more good at Disciples House even in the face of ongoing changes.”

As part of his role as dean, Prof. Miller-McLemore taught numerous courses at Vanderbilt in the area of Leadership and Ministry, as well as the class for ordination candidates in the History and Theology of the Disciples of Christ. He advised Disciple students and oversaw numerous senior projects. He teaches currently as associate professor of the practice of ministry, as well as playing bass guitar in the VDS faculty cover band, the Soul Providers.

In addition to his administrative and teaching responsibilities, Dean Miller-McLemore is a member of the Academy of Religious Leadership and a founding member of the Association of Disciple Pastors for Theological Discussion (ADPTD), a group of pastoral colleagues that has met continuously for 31 years for reading, writing, and theological conversation about ministry. He has published numerous articles on ministry, including a chapter on the Disciples’ theology of ministry in the Chalice Introduction to Disciples Theology. He has lectured and spoken to congregation, Regional Ministers, and groups throughout the church on the theological tradition of the Disciples of Christ. One of his next projects is a book on a usable Disciples tradition for congregations today.

He has been a member of the Council on Theological Education for 23 years, chairing the group for four years and serving on the board and Executive Committee of Higher Education and Leadership Ministries. He is a member at Woodmont Christian Church, Nashville.

Mark is married to Bonnie, a Disciple minister and professor who teaches pastoral care and practical theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School. They have 3 wonderful grown sons, all living in Colorado.

Mark will lead his 45^thand last meeting of the board on June 4, 2018. “At my first meeting in 1995, few had email, so meeting materials had to be mailed a week or more in advance; the board chair had served for 35 years; the roof was leaking; and the inherited budget was a work of fiction. A lot has changed” But some things will remain the same: he intends to bring with him to this last meeting the same three juggling balls he brought to the first, symbols of what his work has been like, then and now, in an important, meaningful, small, church-oriented institution in a fast-changing world. He can still juggle.

Mark will teach a couple more years at Vanderbilt and give more attention to writing projects, his family, musical pursuits, and other interests forced to the back burner.

The board of trustees have named Rev. Beth Pattillo of Nashville as interim dean and will use this next period to assess the House’s work and conduct a search for the permanent position.