Pastoral Residency at Midtown
The Midtown Pastoral Residency Program is a two-year residency program
The program includes hands-on ministry experience in multiple areas of the local church alongside vocational development, with the goal of developing the resident in ECO’s four main leadership competencies (emotional and spiritual health, proficiency in ministry, leadership skill, and biblical/theological integration). The program is designed to produce a candidate who is then sent out to pastor, plant, or revitalize within ECO.
The Mission Field
Who is Midtown?
The Church
Midtown Presbyterian Church, is an urban church plant on the forefront of missional engagement with spiritual “wanderers “- skeptics, deconstructors, dechurched, and unchurched neighbors who are curious about a life of faith but often have difficulty engaging in traditional church settings. Retaining our rich Presbyterian heritage while also contextualizing the faith in a way that is approachable and inviting, Midtown’s presence in an urban center has led it to embrace creative, artistic, justice-minded approaches to mission in the city. They cultivate asset-based community development partnerships with local organizations, facilitate artistic outreach to the local art scene through showcases and concerts, and provide space for lots question-asking in skeptics bible studies, all while retaining a focus on holistic discipleship in and through their teaching and community gatherings.
Midtown is located in the heart of Phoenix on the border of a variety of different contexts. Immediately to our east is the Arcadia neighborhood, a predominantly upper middle class white neighborhood packed with young families in suburban homes, most of whom have inhabited Christian spaces at some point but largely in a nominal manner; immediately to our west and north are the Coronado and Los Olivos neighborhoods, which have gentrified in recent years and are predominantly occupied by young professionals who work and live in urban settings and are often skeptical about faith; immediately to our south is the Garfield neighborhood, inhabited primarily by folks of Latinx backgrounds - 80% of people who live there identify as Mexican in their heritage, and the area has become one of the lowest income areas in Phoenix, providing missional opportunities to spark some Asset-Based Community Development opportunities with organizations already doing great work in the area. All this to say, Midtown has a unique opportunity to reach a diverse collection of folks:
Deconstructors, skeptics, and spiritual wanderers: given the mass exodus of Gen-Z and Millennials from organized religion, the young professional and suburban settings on either side of Midtown provide us with rich opportunities to reach these folks who, all over the country, are rapidly fleeing the church. Our apprentices quickly develop an acumen for sparking spiritual conversations with their neighbors and learning to communicate the Gospel in ways that will culturally resonate with this community.
Vulnerable and at-risk families: Hope Women’s Center, where Midtown meets on Sundays, primarily serves women and families in the Garfield neighborhood, providing us a multitude of opportunities for cross-cultural engagement with our neighbors in need. Our apprentices will be placed into cross-cultural settings and learn to meaningfully engage neighbors across worldly cultural divides.
Our Program
The Midtown Pastoral Residency Program is an residency program where job responsibilities and feedback dovetail training and mentoring. The program will include hands-on ministry experience in a particular area of a local church alongside vocational development, helping candidates build entrepreneurial, urban, and cross-cultural missions experience in order to be empowered to the work and sent out to missionally engage others through pastoring, planting, revitalizing, etc.
Each resident will assist leadership within a local church in planning, implementing, and improving both in-person and digital elements of their mission, outreach, and discipleship.
These are the expected outcomes for each resident in the program:
Learn and apply specific spiritual gifts and leadership wiring
Develop skills for and practice pastoral care
Develop hands-on experience in disciple-making and evangelism
Develop preaching, teaching, and communication abilities
Develop cross-cultural ministry capacities
Learn how to fundraise for ministry
Receive direct mentorship from a local pastor
Build connection across a variety of churches and contexts to learn and grow from them
Read and discuss books and resources on pastoral formation and discipleship
Begin, continue, or finish seminary education and work towards CLP and/or ordination
Build and implement a Rule of Life
Learn and work under ECO Essential Tenets, polity, theology, and history
Learn how to articulate and promote mission of the local church to others
These outcomes meet four fundamental leadership ministry competencies: emotional and spiritual health, proficiency in ministry, skill in leadership, and biblical/theological integration. The program is designed to be two years long, with resident then taking a next step into pastoring, planting, or revitalizing as ordained ECO ministers in other settings.
Requirements for the Position:
Minimum 3 years of ministry experience, preferably in missionally-focused contexts
Started progress on or completed a graduate degree from an accredited theological seminary