MTM Celebrates Ten Years of Ministry

by Charles H. Chandler, D. Min., Executive Director

The Ministering to Ministers Foundation, Inc. is completing ten years of ministry. It was November 1994 that the original group of trustees met at the Missionary Learning Center at Rockville , Virginia to draft a mission statement, develop a constitution and by-laws, elect officers, and file Articles of Incorporation with the Commonwealth of Virginia . Bill Irvin, a Richmond attorney, was elected to serve as the trustee chair. We met from Thursday evening through noon on Saturday to accomplish the task and to get acquainted with one another. Currently, there are 27 trustees from nine states and they represent nine denominations. We meet semi-annually.

The first Healthy Transitions Wellness Retreat for Ministers and Spouses was held in May 1995 with ten participants. The retreat began at 2:00 p.m. on Monday and concluded with lunch on Saturday. We were totally drained physically, emotionally, and mentally. But it was a good beginning and through evaluations and refinements the retreat has evolved into the model we use today - 2:00 p.m. Monday through 2:00 p.m. Friday. Some components have been added and others have been improved.

During these ten years we have held 52 Wellness Retreats with 508 participants from 27 states and the Bahamas representing 28 denominations. We have also added the two-day reunions six months after the Retreats, which serve as an accountability opportunity as well as a time of encouragement and renewal of friendships. During the past ten years, over 5,000 ministers/spouses have received ministry through MTM. For each person who participates in a Healthy Transitions Wellness Retreat, there will be nine others ministered to by MTM who do not participate in a retreat. The phone calls and e-mails continue to increase. A quarterly newsletter, The Servant, has informed and offered hope to hundreds of ministers. Over 2,700 are mailed each quarter and about three hundred more are given out each quarter at exhibits, ministers meetings, and seminars. It can also be downloaded from the MTM Website.

We have identified isolation as a major culprit in the dynamics affecting ministers experiencing conflict with their congregation/congregation leaders and those who have experienced forced termination. Feeling isolated can be devastating. Church members and even ministry colleagues have a tendency to withdraw from ministers during church conflict and forced termination. After being blindsided, ministers often do not know whom to trust and as a result they add to the dilemma by their own withdrawal. Isolation erodes self-confidence, lowers self-esteem, elevates mistrust, encourages a sense of failure, and often results in an enormous amount of anger. Christians in general and ministers in particular do not handle anger very well. It is usually suppressed and comes out in many ways, most of them unhealthy.

With the aid of a grant from the Richard D. Van Lunen Foundation in Columbia , Maryland , we designed a MTM ministry component to stand alongside the Healthy Transitions Wellness Retreat for Ministers and Spouses. That component, called Friends for the Journey Network, was launched last March with a three-day training seminar to prepare the participants to be a friend to and walk with ministers/spouses who are in the midst of a church conflict or who have experience forced termination. Forty persons are now prepared to expand the MTM ministry through the Friends for the Journey Network. We hope to secure a grant to train forty more volunteers to augment this important network during 2005.

MTM has a network of attorneys who volunteer their time and expertise encouraging and coaching ministers as they try to find direction in their lives and ministries during the midst of conflict and forced termination. These volunteers help ministers look at the scenario objectively and to work through some of the obstacles if they stay in the ministry position, or help them negotiate a fair severance package if they choose to move. MTM has designed a model Closure Agreement for ministers and churches to follow when it is determined that the minister cannot stay. A model Covenant has also been designed for ministers and churches to agree to as tenures begin. This clarifies responsibilities, sets expectations, defines procedures for times of conflict, and defines settlement procedures when a conflict cannot be resolved. These documents can be downloaded from the MTM Website (www.mtmfoundation.org).

Last year we offered people an opportunity to partner with MTM through a prayer ministry. Over 100 prayer partners have signed up to pray for the retreat participants and leaders during and following the retreats. Prayer alerts are sent out prior to and following each retreat. Though the prayer partners do not know the names of the retreat participants, the leaders and participants have reported a strong sense of prayer support.

At our most recent MTM trustee meeting, I asked them to consider what would be missing today if we had not taken the bold step in November 1994. As we named the above, as well as many other tangible and intangible ministries received through MTM, we were amazed at what GOD has done through these years. The ministry has indeed made a difference for a multitude of ministers and their families.

I also asked the trustees to share their dreams for MTM for the next ten years. They agreed that we would like to see more of our efforts directed toward prevention, which has always been a goal of MTM. We also concluded that there is no limit to what God can do through His servants when they offer their abilities, training, and financial resources to reach out to His servants who have been wounded in the line of duty. Here are the costs of various elements of the MTM ministry.

. A Healthy Transition Wellness Retreat for Ministers and Spouses $15,000
. Production of a MTM Video or DVD $7,500
. A Six-month Retreat Reunion $3,000
. Retreat Scholarships for a Minister and Spouse $2,500
. One Issue of The Servant $2,000
. Retreat Scholarship for a Minister or Spouse $1,250
. Six-month Reunion Retreat Scholarship for a Minister and Spouse $500
. Six-month Reunion Retreat Scholarship for a Minister or Spouse $250

To make a more significant impact on the experience of forced termination, we will have to have more partners. We need more churches and denominational entities to include MTM in their budgets, as well as individuals committing significantly in order to expand their personal ministries through the reclaiming of ministers who might otherwise be lost to Christian ministry.