Marquette helping clergy find friends, colleagues to help with pastoral adversity

Members of the clergy are driven to help their communities.

They listen to confessions, counsel their parishioners through hardship and care for the communities they serve.

Often, those same clergy struggle with the burden of the work they are entrusted to do in spreading God's word.

"It's eye-opening to see how the professional isolation and workload are two core challenges that clergy face," says Dr. Peter Battaglia, program coordinator.

Enter Companions in Ministry: a program funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. that creates space for clergy to spiritually reflect, rest, connect and create a network of support.

Since 2019, Companions in Ministry has completed seven cohorts, and 73 priests and pastors have completed the program.

The cohorts meet regularly for nine months to discuss how to navigate day-to-day life as clergy helping their flock. The cohorts also attend conferences and retreats to bond and build relationships as friends and confidants.

"Most people in life lack a true friend that really knows you," says Rev. Tom Pietz, a life and grief coach and Companion in Ministry alumnus. "Clergy can be even more isolated because it may be discouraged to have a deeper friendship or confidant in the congregation, so you must go beyond the church and that may be limited."

Those challenges lead to burnout and a reduction in the number of available clergy members, inflating the ratio of parishioners to clergy.

"Companions in Ministry is a jewel in the Milwaukee community through which many pastors could strengthen their ministry effectiveness by intentionally engaging in self-care," says Rev. Darryl Seay, pastor of Liberty and Truth Ministries in Milwaukee. "If more pastors were able to participate in the program, I am convinced the level of clergy burnout could be reduced."

As such, Battaglia says Companions in Ministry tries to get in front of clergy members who are still in their first seven years of pastoral experience, as Lilly Endowment's data shows those years are critical for building sustainable, long-term trajectories of wellness and well-being, key determinants of whether they'll stay in ministry.

"We share stories, and I feel heard, like the challenges I face aren't unique to me," says Rev. Tom Smith, a life coach and retired pastor. "Companions in Ministry offers time away from the demands of ministry to gain perspective, reconsider habits, implement action steps, and move toward greater flourishing.

"It has broadened my understanding of the challenges inherent in the life of a pastor and offers researched ways to improve work-life harmony."

A byproduct of these relationships is that clergy learn how to better work with established community leaders to achieve shared outcomes.

Battaglia says pastors, especially ones in underserved communities, recognize that to be sustainable they must work collaboratively with others to share the ministerial load. He says it also helps with professional isolation.

"There's a pastor I'm currently working with who helps other pastors collaborate with his congregations to provide a model of community transformation through business as justice initiatives," Battaglia says. "There's a laundromat, a kitchen, a grocery store and more entrepreneurs coming together to support one another. That's the kind of collaboration that really focuses on moving away from everything being a church program and focuses on mutually ministering to one another."

Battaglia says Companions in Ministry also serves "seasoned" clergy members who are preparing to retire - a huge change for them.

"Being a pastor or priest is intertwined with these people's personal lives and there's a tendency to wrap up your identity in it," Battaglia says. "When a priest is facing retirement, they ask themselves a lot of questions like what they do with their decades of knowledge and investment into the church. It's all just stops, so we guide them in a way that helps them flourish in retirement."

A common thread that Pietz, Seay and Smith have identified is that Companions in Ministry creates spaces of hope.

"If you want to do more than survive in ministry, if you feel overwhelmed, or if you feel you can't possibly fit one more commitment in your life, CIM is precisely what you need right now," Smith says. "It creates space to breathe, to reclaim your belovedness in Christ and your baptismal identity and calling. Mostly, it reminds us that God hasn't abandoned us and that God has invited us into the ministry that God, through the Holy Spirit, is already doing. You can flourish and reclaim your joy."

More information on Companions in Ministry is available online.