ARTICLES ABOUT TCC

Philadelphia Daily News
Sat, Jan. 11, 2003

The Clergy Committee is a safe place to sustain spiritual health
By DR. DAVID APPLE

WORKING IN urban ministry can be a draining task. In 1999, I was feeling tired of it all and was nearly burned out.

Thankfully, I was asked to take part in a new group that promised to help and encourage Christian clergy. The group is The Clergy Committee, which uses one of the most proven, effective tools ever employed by corporate executive officers.

Once a month, TCC members spend a day together. In the morning, they are challenged, equipped and encouraged by an outside speaker who expands their horizons on topics vital to their ministries. In the afternoon, the members become consultants to each other and share their ministry challenges and opportunities (balancing priorities, dealing with difficult people, coping with death, etc.).

The payoff is that members learn to work more intelligently and more effectively trusting God and one another. In the course of the month, the chairman meets with each TCC member in private coaching sessions.

The Clergy Committee helps urban ministers who are already battling the effects of crime and poverty. TCC makes a real difference by uniting people of several denominations and helping them attack the problems of the city through mutual consulting, strengthened personal relationships, shared learning and resource exchange.

Ministers and urban ministry executives learn skills against being burned out, kicked out or dropped out. They find in it a safe place to sustain spiritual health. For all members, participation gives them valuable ministry perspectives that cross cultural and denominational boundaries.

The Clergy Committee is for pastors and Christian ministry. Their challenges are just as real as those of corporate executives, but their stakes, often, are daily life-and-death issues. That is why a group that is oriented toward action and accountability is so helpful. Peers not only offer helpful input, but they know what works and what does not.

When I became a member three years ago, at first I felt I couldn't afford to set aside one full day a month. Now it is the one day of the month that I am NOT putting out lots of fires - I'm actually able to think clearly, plan carefully and strategize wisely. By joining, I received help to overcome obstacles, deal with difficult challenges and meet unreachable goals.

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Melting the Isolation
Across the country pastors are finding a place of support and encouragement as they meet with their peers in a safe environment
by Thom Schultz

Leadership is often lonely. And leadership within ministry often magnifies that loneliness. In ministry, who can you turn to for advice, support, guidance, encouragement, solace, and accountability? Another member of your staff? Perhaps, but that can be risky. A member of your congregation? That too is difficult for a person in church leadership. What’s a pastor to do?

The answer may be found within your own city. Pastors around the country are beginning to meet on a regular basis with other pastors within their own cities. Walls are coming down and pastors are realizing they must join forces, encourage each other, and consult with one another as they reach their communities for Christ. And one organization, The Clergy Committee (TCC), is quietly gaining traction in several U.S. cities. In Denver, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, several inner city ministers meet monthly for a day of training, personal support, idea swapping, and peer consultation to enable improvement in their ministries.

The mornings typically feature outside speakers who offer training on everything from leadership skills, urban theology, creative fund-raising strategies, or any other subject vital to the attendees. After lunch, the atmosphere turns decidedly to the members: their personal needs, their ministries, and their visions and goals. The members use this confidential safe zone to present their ministry issues, their visions, and their successes and failures. This often involves unpacking their frustrations, hurts, doubts, joys, and triumphs. Because they commit to gathering every month, the members trust their Clergy Committee to help them through the best and worst of times. Meeting with peers can be both a healing time and a time of challenge.

A Healing Time
At a meeting in Denver, the group began their afternoon session listening to each member’s life and ministry update. The reports were quite brief and straightforward until Bill (not his real name) shared.

"I’ve been hurting a lot lately," he began. Slowly Bill described how a recent personality assessment uncovered some negative and destructive traits that have affected his ministry and home life. "I want to be in control, but I don’t want to let anyone else be in control. I want affection, but I don’t give affection."

Haltingly, he detailed to these colleagues his newly discovered struggles. He recounted a past that lacked healthy authority figures. And he called on the group to help him grow. "I want this group to help me be accountable with these issues," he said. "I want to change—for my wife, my kids, and my church." Since this is an example of how individual concerns can affect a ministry, it was appropriate for this action-oriented session.

After asking clarifying questions, one by one the other members began to speak, offering encouragement and affirmation. Spontaneously the group huddled around Bill and prayed for him. He smiled, thanked the members, and said, "This committee has been good for me."

Bill had written down several action steps that he and the group decided he could take with him and work on, and the group committed to follow up and support him as he addresses the changes he wishes to pursue.

Taming the Ego
The training segment that day featured Ken Blanchard, author of best-sellers The One Minute Manager (Berkley Publications) and Raving Fans (William Morrow & Co.). After telling how he became a Christian, Blanchard said, "Most church leaders don’t use Jesus as their leadership coach. The real evaluation of you as a leader isn’t what happens when you’re there, but when you’re not there."

He challenged the members to examine their leadership styles. "Are you a self-serving leader, or a servant leader?" he asked. Self-serving leaders fight to maintain their positions, get defensive about feedback, and drive to be in charge, he said. But servant leaders are actually willing to step aside and take another role when a better leader comes along.

What prevents people from becoming servant leaders? It’s ego, Blanchard said. In fact, unhealthy egos are so prevalent that he’s developed a 12-step Egos Anonymous program. He led the members through the beginnings of the program with a familiar statement: "Hi. I’m Ken. I’m an ego maniac." With much laughter, each member made the self-introduction.

Passion for the Church
How was this small group of inner city ministers able to land such a high-profile speaker and author? Blanchard is a friend of The Clergy Committee’s co-founder and primary initial funder, Fred Chaney, a highly successful businessman with a passion for the church.

Chaney is no stranger to leadership development groups. He built an international organization called The Executive Committee (TEC)—from which TCC is adapted—that convenes more than 7,000 corporate CEOs every month. After experiencing that model’s great effectiveness in the business community for more than 30 years, he wondered if the concept might be effective with inner city clergy and the difficult situations under which they minister.

He and Rev. David Delaplane launched the project in 1996. Delaplane was working with inner city clergy on another project for the U.S. Department of Justice; he and Chaney discussed how an effort patterned after TEC could work with ministers. From that discussion, the work in Denver was started with Delaplane as the chair.

Today Delaplane recruits and trains leaders in each city to chair the clergy groups. In addition to facilitating the monthly meetings, the chairperson makes monthly on-site visits to each of the members. The primary purpose of these one-on-one sessions is to identify the next goal or step to be taken in the member’s ministry or life to be presented to his or her peers for constructive input. The group provides a confidential haven for problem-solving, goal-setting, encouragement, and support. The chairperson—having spent quality time with each of the members—facilitates the process.

Denver chairperson Thomas deBree said he loves the time he spends with the urban ministers. "It’s satisfying to help colleagues in ministry—just to serve them. They need to be spiritually renewed. We need to remind them about their significance."

Chaney and Delaplane now want to see The Clergy Committee expand to other cities. Besides Denver, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, they have begun doing initial work in Atlanta and Dallas. And although the primary mission of TCC is to serve inner city pastors and religious leaders, their expertise is available to help suburban churches establish similar models.

The time is now for clergy and church leaders within cities to work together in reaching people with the gospel. And both Chaney and Delaplane agree—their desire is to help church leaders realize their God-gifted potential.

To learn more about The Clergy Committee, contact David Delaplane, (303) 227-6700, dadelaplane@msn.com. Thom Schultz is the founder and president of Group Publishing, Inc.


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http://www.pcusa.org/ministers/pdf/clergycommittee.pdf

THE CLERGY COMMITTEE
Supporting clergy and strengthening ministries through peer consultation

Vision and Mission of TCC
The mission of The Clergy Committee (TCC) is to equip persons to organize and facilitate groups of religious professionals that meet regularly for a disciplined experience of spiritual, intellectual, and professional development. The vision is to have trained and committed facilitators operating intra-denominational, ecumenical, or interfaith groups across the entire United States. These trained facilitators may be pastoral counselors, church consultants, denominational staff, hospital chaplains, or others who feel a call to this kind of work.

The TCC Model
The Clergy Committee (TCC) and each TCC group is modeled after the very successful corporate model for peer consultation, The Executive Committee (TEC). In TEC, CEOs of non-competing corporations come together monthly as consultants to one another. A chairperson facilitates the process of their advising each other on new opportunities, management skills, goals, and objectives for their companies. They also work on items of personal development.

TEC is a very successful international organization, consisting of groups in countries all over the world. As it has for the CEOs in TEC, TCC has proven to be a very successful, action-oriented peer support model for clergy and religious leaders. The goal is to strengthen the lives and work of these leaders, to help them clarify their vision and goals, and to identify practical steps toward the accomplishment of those goals.

Members of a local TCC meet once a month for a full day. Meetings generally include both time for a resource speaker — an authority on a subject of particular concern to the members — and time for group members to consult to one another. In addition, each group member schedules a one-on-one session with the facilitator/chairperson during the month to examine and discuss his or her particular ministry and to consider opportunities, goals, and objectives.

The facilitator’s role, as the name implies, is to facilitate the operation of the group. Tasks can range from recruiting and establishing a group, to arranging for an outside resource speaker; from facilitating the working of an issue to holding a "one-on-one" with each of the members every month to ensure follow-through and to prepare for next month’s issue. Running one group can occupy five days per month.

History of TCC
The Clergy Committee (TCC) was established in Denver, Colorado in 1996 by two people: Fred Chaney, the founder of The Executive Committee (TEC International), and a clergyman, David Delaplane, who has many years of experience as a church pastor. His specialized ministry was in educating and involving congregations nationally on service to victims of crime. In 1999 TCC groups were formed in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In the three cities of Denver, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, TCC groups include inner city clergy and leaders of faith-based programs.

TCC was later expanded to Minneapolis/St. Paul — an intentional interfaith group with members from Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist backgrounds — and to three cities in Texas (Austin, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio), all of which are single denominational groups.

The TCC model has become an effective tool in enhancing the lives and ministries of the members of all of these groups, and is currently being used with five new groups of Methodist pastors in Texas.

Peer Support Groups in Mission Presbytery
Mission Presbytery has recruited ministers for three groups. Each group has a chairperson who manages the process in these groups.

The model consists in structured monthly meetings of groups of twelve or so, and one-on-one conversations between the chair and each member of the group between the meetings. One-on-one conversations follow up on implementation steps the group member decided for him/herself in the previous meeting, and are used to sharpen an issue the members wants to put before the group for problem solving in the next (or some future) meeting.

Monthly meetings consist of personal sharing and an educational presentation by an outside resource person, usually on a topic in which the group has expressed an interest. These presentations are done in a structured format that maximize use of time.

The morning typically is given to these activities: the afternoon uses a structured problem solving process to enable the group to engage in problem solving with issues/problems presented by the individual members. (Typically 3-4 problems will be worked on in an afternoon session; this efficiency of time use is made possible by the one-on-one preparation and a structured group problem solving process.)

This model has been successfully tested for 3-5 years in TCC groups of inner city pastors in Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles. A fourth group recently started in Minneapolis; it is interfaith and includes a rabbi and an imam along with Christian pastors.

Organizing Pastors Support and Accountability Regional Groups
A Covenant For Participation In A Pastors Support And Accountability Group
For more information contact: Lou Snead, pastor of Faith PC, Austin and chair of the presbytery’s support committee at faithpc@flash.net.
Mike Murray, Creative Interchange Consultants International, also in Austin at MTFM@aol.com. Mike has done a lot of work for a number of years with TEC (The Executive Committee) groups and is chair of the TCC (The Clergy Committee) national board.