New Frontiers is a free yearlong program that helps pastors thrive as they chart their vocational course. By cultivating peer networks, connecting pastors with senior mentors, and opening avenues for intellectual exploration, New Frontiers gives pastors practical tools for responding to God's call to creative ministry. Closely related to Westmont's liberal-arts mission and hosted by the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts, New Frontiers will especially benefit professionals in their first years of ministry, or anyone seeking rejuvenation and refreshment as they imagine new possibilities for their own engagement in the church and the church's service in the world.

Besides the content, I loved laughing my head off at dinner with new friends and connecting with peers and mentors. I also so appreciated the time to reflect from afar on my ministry, giving me new eyes to see when I get back home. - Kelsey Guckenberger, Pastor, Christ Community Church, Des Moines

The Program
A vocation to ministry can be uniquely rewarding and uniquely challenging. As pastors seek to flourish in their calling, especially in their first years in ministry, they face a number of distinctive hurdles: developing life-giving connections with other ministry professionals, finding guides who can help them navigate the path, and preserving and developing the Christian life of the mind. With these challenges in view, New Frontiers supports pastors through:

• Relationships
  On the surface, professional ministry is a highly social line of work. But it can be surprisingly lonely and isolating. New Frontiers creates space for genuine friendship and dialogue among a close cohort of peers who know the joys and struggles of life in the church.

• Mentorship
  A career in ministry inevitably includes many challenges and changes; these shape a pastor’s sense of what the church is about, how it should do its work, and how individuals can be effective in its institutional life. New Frontiers connects pastors to seasoned mentors who are further down the path, who have experienced transitions in the church and its ministry, and who can be wise conversation partners as the church confronts new challenges.

• Intellectual Renewal
  The Christian Gospel has relevance for every dimension of human life. Amidst the pressures of ministry, though, it takes real energy and imagination to continue to explore the broad implications of the good news we have in Christ. New Frontiers encourages pastors in intellectual renewal through faith-and-learning workshops, complimentary access to conferences and talks offered at Westmont, and more.

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  It's very helpful to be around others in ministry—I've found myself energized and re-energized each time. There is movement of the Holy Spirit in my life, and I think part of that is what happens in this group. - Brett Stuvland, Lead Pastor, Westside Journey United Methodist Church, Beaverton

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