Photo: Mennonite Church USA leaders (Glen Guyton, David Boshart, Terry Shue, Nancy Kauffmann) and Beryl Jantzi. Photo by Tom Duckworth/Everence.

How does financial stress impact pastor well-being–and how can denominational groups and agencies help?

That was the topic of discussion Aug. 29-30, 2017, when key leaders from Everence, Mennonite Church USA, Conservative Mennonite Conference, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and Eastern Mennonite Seminary assembled for a Pastor Well-being Gathering at the Everence offices in Goshen, Indiana.

Participants heard from Matt Bloom, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business in South Bend, Indiana, and Director of the Flourishing in Ministry Project, an in-depth study of well-being in ministry that is part of a broader Wellbeing at Work research project.

“Our pastors give so much of their time and talents, often with lean resources and significant financial

challenges that go unsaid,” said Beryl Jantzi, D.Min, Everence Director of Stewardship Education and Manager of the Everence Pastoral Financial Assistance Program. “Dr. Bloom’s research is important as we all work at helping clergy live into their calling.”

The event also celebrated the overwhelming success of the Everence Pastoral Financial Assistance Program for pastors in Mennonite Church USA and Conservative Mennonite Conference (which is funded, in part, by a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc.).

Within the first year and a half of the initiative’s three-year timeframe, the Pastoral Financial Assistance Program provided a total of 160 grants to pastors for direct financial assistance. Additionally, the program held 35 educational events with nearly 900 participants representing more than 370 congregations, along with three financial coaching events and one six-session Freed-Up Financially training. Participation was so unexpectedly positive that Everence announced necessary changes to the program in early 2017.

“It’s clear that many pastors, inside and outside of our Anabaptist circles, are dealing with very real and very overwhelming financial struggles,” said Madalyn Metzger, Everence Vice President of Marketing and Director of the Pastoral Financial Assistance Program. “It’s imperative for all of us–seminaries, denominational leaders, conference ministers, and agencies–to work together to find solutions if we’re to support and nurture pastors for the mission of the Church.”

“We’re now setting our sights on ways to make the Pastoral Financial Assistance Program, or a form of it, sustainable for the long term,” explained Jantzi. One outcome of the Pastor Well-being Gathering included the establishment of a task group, coordinated by Everence, to further discern how denominational groups, organizations and agencies better collaborate to help pastors along every stage of their financial well-being journeys.