Dear Friends in Christ, Several weeks ago Sherre and I attended a ministry conference in Keystone, Colorado. The pastors and spouses of the largest 100 United Methodist Churches in the nation gathered for worship, prayer and dialogue with the deans of our approved seminaries. We talked about how Dr. Davis Chappell we might partner together to raise up leaders for the revitalization of the church. We had representatives from Duke, Emory, SMU, Drew, Gammon, ILIF, Clairmont, Boston University, Wesley, Garrett, United, St. Paul, United and Asbury. It was an invaluable meeting. Adam Hamilton called us together and led the meeting. This was our 5th annual gathering, but the first time such a group had met with the deans. The attending pastors did a self-survey of what we perceived to be the 5 most important components of ministry. Adam also conducted a similar survey among laity on his website. I thought you might be interested in the results. The pastors' top 5 were these: 1) Leadership 2) Preaching 3) Interpersonal Skills 4) Theology 5) Spiritual Health. The laity's top 5 were these: 1) Relational/Interpersonal Skills 2) Business Skills/Administration 3) Preaching/Communication 4) Leadership 5) Pastor's Own Spiritual Life. The pastors agreed that no one person excelled in all of these areas, but the data revealed that these ingredients were critical in our vocational understanding. It was important for us to share these findings with our deans because it is instructive in our vision and curriculum of preparing leaders for the church.
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