Helping Congregations Flourish
By Paul Louis Metzger,
PhD, Professor of Christian Theology & Theology of Culture, Multnomah Biblical Seminary, Jessup University
I love Jessup University and Multnomah Biblical Seminary’s commitment to the local church and congregational health. Thus, we take very seriously a report that many pastors are enduring a “mental health crisis” displaying “alarming rates of post-traumatic stress disorder level symptoms.”
In light of this news, it seemed like a natural — indeed a supernatural — opportunity to apply for a grant initiative that would make it possible for us at the seminary to support pastoral leaders experiencing emotional and mental trauma. So you can imagine that Seminary Dean Dr. David Timms and I were delighted to receive news earlier this year that the seminary was awarded a grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program under the “Science Engagement for Congregational Flourishing” (SECF) project. SECF is funded with support from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Thriving Congregations Initiative. The title of the seminary’s grant initiative is “Church and Science Working Together to Cultivate Resilience in the Face of Suffering.”
Core to our work with the grant is to meet and partner with two cohorts of pastoral leaders. Dr. Timms will oversee one cohort from Rocklin, California and I will oversee the other cohort from Portland, Oregon. We have been very pleased with the response and are encouraged by the diversity of stellar pastoral applicants who want to learn from science professionals on how to foster mental and emotional health in their congregational settings.
We will meet with our cohorts a total of six times starting this autumn. By the end of 2026, the cohort participants will provide artifacts of programs they have put in place in their local church contexts. Two examples might be a sermon series or a support group. Whatever they choose to do in view of the instruction and advice from science experts in collaboration with mental health practitioners will need to be simple and transferable for the sake of congregational sustainability.
This year’s LEAD Gatherings sponsored by Jessup’s Center for Church Health will operate in tandem with the grant aims. Dr. Dave Heitman oversaw the Rocklin Lead Gathering on September 18th and I will be coordinating the event in Portland on October 9th. You can find out more about the grant here at the press release and can register here at the links for the Rocklin and Portland LEAD Gathering events. Join us, keynote speaker Yale University professor of medicine and local church pastor Dr. Benjamin Doolittle, fellow experts, and diverse practitioners for these LEAD Gatherings.
A few of the questions we seek to answer in the cohorts and at the conference gatherings will be: How might science assist pastoral leaders to better understand the impact suffering and trauma have on them and on their congregations mentally and emotionally? And how can they cultivate resilience to address these challenges? Please join us in prayer for the work of Jessup University and Multnomah Biblical Seminary as we pursue answers and as we continue to take steps in collaboration with the church to foster congregational flourishing.
