The 4:12 Pathway for Pastoral Leadership: Building an Authentic Culture of Discernment, Encouragement, and Accompaniment

Immaculate Conception Seminary of Seton Hall University’s (ICSST) Pathway’s grant, “The 4:12 Pathway for Pastoral Leadership: Building an Authentic Culture of Discernment, Encouragement, and Accompaniment,” is a series of initiatives focus on renewed formation for pastoral leadership of priests, deacons, and laity. It includes a coaching and spiritual gifts program, formation groups, and a leadership advisory council. This grant also aims to foster a culture of discernment, encouragement, and accompaniment, with international programs on catechetical leadership and support for new pastoral leaders and lay catechists.

John Potter, the project director, explains the grant’s role in educating and supporting new pastoral leaders and collaborating with institutes to provide ongoing education and assistance.

Briefly describe the project.

Our grant, “The 4:12 Pathway for Pastoral Leadership: Building an Authentic Culture of Discernment, Encouragement, and Accompaniment (Pathways 4:12),” draws inspiration from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 4:12: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” This message emphasizes equipping God’s people for service to build up the body of Christ.

Through multi-faceted grant initiatives, ICSST aims to strengthen the Church by raising awareness of the positive impact from ICSST and inspiring greater participation. This grant focuses on preparing leaders f(whether ordained or lay) or today’s challenges, supporting those discerning a call to ministry within the Church, and affirming newly ordained individuals in fulfilling their vocations.

What have you learned so far?

We realized early that Pathways 4:12 could not, and should not, exist in isolation within ICSST, but should align with, complement, and support the school’s mission. We began by collaborating with ICSST faculty and administrators to assess and identify opportunities for constructive interaction. This led to key grant initiatives being embedded into ICSST’s strategic plan, thereby ensuring a commitment to shared goals and the promise of sustainability.

A key takeaway was the importance of project management. Drawing on an approach based on learnings and experiences from 2022, we prioritized asking, collaborating, listening, and learning before developing further project plans for implementation. This approach produced not only key learnings and new partnerships and collaborations, especially with N.J. diocesan leaders who have been enthusiastic in guiding us in developing effective pastoral coaching programs within a Seminary. Our approach has been to invite, listen, and provide hospitable gatherings where we learn from one another, celebrate our love of our faith, and grow in spiritual friendship focused on what the Lord wills for us in these efforts.

What has surprised you along the way?

The words “Discernment, Encouragement, Accompaniment” in our grant title symbolize a focused outreach to building up the Body of Christ. While this remains true, we discovered that we, too, were being guided to discern God’s unfolding will for us, encouraged and accompanied by an ever-growing group of faith-filled people. We – and continue to be – nourished and inspired.

The Holy Spirit’s presence and inspiration are evident in the deep personal witness on calls to vocation in our new Insights video, and in the personal commitment of diaconate leaders from many N.J. dioceses who are working together to better reflect practicalities and realities of vocation in the diaconate formation program.

During the Rome Catechetical Conference, despite delayed (and then cancelled) flights due to a storm, extreme heat in Roman and fifty percent of our pilgrims contracting COVID upon return, there was a high degree of sharing, praying, and camaraderie. A post-conference survey reflected a 100% satisfaction/high satisfaction.

We are grateful and pleasantly surprised by the level of professional and personal commitment to ICSST’s success from key partners and collaborators referenced above.

The enthusiastic desire of students, alumni, and diocesan leaders to be part of our programs is inspiring. They not only attended events but kept up with those they met and formed spiritual bonds.

What have been a few successes so far?

We hosted a catechetical conference in Vatican City titled, “Grace and Action: Catechesis in the Footsteps of St. Paul,” for 30 highly engaged ICSST graduate students, alumni, and collaborators. Participants learned best practices in catechetical ministry from speakers representing myriad backgrounds, experiences, and faith traditions, including Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist. These speakers hailed from 13 countries (Mongolia, Mauritius, U.K., U.S., Tanzania, Ghana, Congo, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Mexico, Pakistan).

Our objective was to immerse participants in a week of prayer, faith-sharing, affirmation, and learning new and proven methods of catechesis from a global perspective. This experience was designed to ignite a passion for faith that participants could share and spread within their ministries upon their return to the U.S.

The trip was an incredible success, filled with joy, inspiration, and far-reaching impact. The Rome pilgrims truly bonded like a close-knit family. A video has been released, and a publication detailing the week, including reflections, is set to be released shortly.

We initiated a Diaconal Leadership Forum and accompanying retreat following an extensive survey and a previous gathering of diaconate leaders and constituents, including two national diaconate leaders. This initiative includes the senior leadership from the four dioceses that send candidate to ICSST: the Archdiocese of Newark, and the Dioceses of Trenton, Paterson, and Metuchen. The forum fostered trust, collaboration, and bonds of friendship among the diaconal leaders from four dioceses. As meetings continued, there seemed to be a movement of the Holy Spirit, with honest sharing of what the leaders had learned about diaconal ministry. The depth and enthusiasm of the initial meeting persisted throughout all forum meetings.

The leaders also spoke about the positives: the holiness of the men who were feeling called by the Lord to serve; their diverse gifts; their cultural backgrounds, and their willingness to work hard to be effective and fruitful in the service of the Lord. Over time, the focus of the leadership forum shifted beyond competencies, skills, and academic courses to a broader, increasingly foundational, and vital realization: effective diaconal ministry requires an interior foundation of humility modeled after Jesus Christ to effectively integrate specific competencies and skills.

The forum’s initial work concluded with a retreat that included the senior Seminary and diaconate leadership from each of the sending dioceses. The group reviewed the final report of the Diaconal Leaders Forum, which contained recommendations for proposed changes in the academic formation of deacon candidates.

We created and produced an “Insights into ICSST” video to provide a behind-the scenes look at the Seminary, aiming to raise awareness, support the vocational calls, and demystify Seminary life. The video features personal testimonies on the call to vocation through the lens of the President of Seton Hall University, the Rector/Dean of ICSST, and transitional deacons of ICSST who are now ordained priests.

Finally, we launched a four-year Pastoral Coaching Program for 12 newly ordained priests, beginning with fulfillment stories and skills assessment/awareness to build a strong foundation. The program then provides leadership development and transition skills/techniques as they enter ministry in their first assignment, along with ongoing accompaniment and coaching support. We are preparing to welcome a new cohort starting in Fall 2024.

What aspects of the project are you hopeful about?

Guided by our original goal of continuing in “building the Body of Christ,” the Pathways 4:12 grant has sparked many pastoral leadership initiatives that have ignited obvious sparks that have grown into flames of faith (2 Timothy 1:6). Our hope is that by fanning the flames, we have emanated from Pathways 4:12, extend hospitality, deepen relationships and awareness that will inspire pastoral leaders, and broaden participation through enrollment and engagement with ICSST.

We are inspired by collaborations, friendships, and continually broadening communities that have been formed and nourished.

What are you learning that could help other schools?

Teamwork, collaboration with existing and new partners, and opportunities for camaraderie have been invaluable in building and sustaining an enthusiastic commitment to our grant projects. While disciplined project/program management is required to organize teams, nothing replace opportunities for true conversation and enthusiastic give-and-take.

Authenticity, transparency, and accountability have been our guiding principles. Our constituents knew that when we sought their assessments of current programs and their ideas and vision for future programs, we intended to consider all input with a spirit of humility.

We began many initiatives with in-depth surveys (structured inquiry), which were used as a starting point. These structured inquiries confirmed our assumptions, but often provided broadening our thinking and uncovering areas we hadn’t previously considered.

To build an authentic culture of discernment, encouragement, and accompaniment, we examined our own team how were we discerning next steps, encouraging each other in our work and ministries, and accompanying each other in life-giving ways. The seeds of our grant project started with self-knowledge—truly understanding the big picture of priestly, diaconal, and lay formation. Thus, before we began our projects, we paused and looked at overall mission, vision, and strategy. Only after this deliberate pause did we move forward with energized momentum.