| Tampa church joins team to help Duke teach clergy
By Michael Wacht
TAMPA — Hyde Park United Methodist Church here
has been selected as one of 15 churches to participate in Duke
Divinity School’s new Teaching Congregations program, a five-year
program offering scholarships and summer ministry and learning
opportunities to future clergy.
The program is part of Duke’s Learned Clergy
Initiative and is funded by a $10 million grant from the Lilly
Endowment. “We hope this program will help restore the high level of
excellence the church needs to reclaim, where clergy were respected
like doctors and lawyers as the wise people in the community,” said
Nancy Rich, program coordinator for the Teaching Congregations
program.
Hyde Park was chosen because of its committed
lay and clergy leadership and tradition of strong teaching and
preaching, according to Rich, who said Hyde Park’s senior pastor,
the Rev. Jim Harnish, initially caught the attention of program
leaders. “He is one of the most well-known United Methodist pastors
in the Southeast,” she said, adding part of his reputation comes
from the books he has written, which are “used widely” throughout
the denomination.
Harnish said the church is “very excited,
humbled and surprised” about the program’s possibilities. He said
the congregation can teach seminarians what can happen in a church
that is very intentional about its vision and mission and “lives and
leads out of its life of prayer.”
“We have no illusions that we’ve got it all
right or that our way of doing things will work for anyone else,” he
said. “We are very excited about the possibilities, both in the life
of the congregation and any contributions we can make to the divinity
school.”
Rich said Hyde Park’s laity have shown
strength in leadership and have “worked with the pastor to initiate
learning opportunities.”
Training new pastors is part of Hyde Park’s
mission, according to Harnish. “The lay people have felt for a long
time that it’s part of the life of this local church to provide the
next generation of pastors,” he said. “We want to be a church that’s
very intentional about raising up young people who are feeling called
to ministry.”
Hyde Park will mentor a seminary student each
summer for the next five years. The senior pastor will be the primary
mentor, helping the student develop community-based ministries in the
church. The laity will form a spiritual formation group for the
student.
In return for its participation, Hyde Park can
participate in learning opportunities Duke Divinity School offers.
Rich said the congregation can request a Duke professor for a
three-day seminar or participate in one of Duke’s training programs,
including end-of-life care, parish nursing, hospice or Christian
formation of youth.
Harnish hopes people at Hyde Park will take
advantage of those opportunities to expand their vision for the church
and its ministries. He said Duke Divinity School’s Christian
formation and lay leadership programs complement much of what the
church is already doing through its staff, lay leadership and
relationships with other institutions, including Asbury Theological
Seminary.
Hyde Park will also help Duke Divinity School
learn. The church’s staff and membership will be part of a five-year
dialogue with Duke leadership about ministry challenges and how Duke’s
divinity program can adapt to those needs. “Duke’s educational
opportunity can change based on what the teaching congregations see as
their needs,” Rich said.
The program is designed to provide a diversity
of opportunity and input that reflects the makeup of Duke’s student
body. Nine of the 15 churches in the program are United Methodist,
four are located outside of the Southeastern United States, two are
predominately African-American and one is multiracial. Two of the
churches are served by female senior pastors.
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