Recapping the year so far
Substack Seminary is “the home for wayward, orphaned pastors” – ministers experimenting with cage-free, nontraditional forms of church in a changing landscape.
What does it mean to be a minister in a church that no longer works like it did in the 1960s (or even the early 2000s)?
Q1: Unstuck Church
how institutional patterns and 20th-century assumptions about full-time clergy and programs are crushing both pastors and congregations.
Reflecting on recognizing where she was replicating old systems in new settings and how telling her story helped her see where she was still stuck.
Q2: Sustainability
Quarter 2 was an exploration of what sustainability really means and what “thriving” looks like spiritually, emotionally, and financially for ministry in the 21st century.
Good ministry needs the focus and clarity of good business - serving a particular people in a specific way without burning out.
Q3 & Q4
Quarter 3 (startsAugust 2) will be theology and community: how ministry is actually ministry - preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and forming community both online and in person.
Quarter 4 will focus on technology and how digital tools are not a separate world from “real church” but one of the main ways relationships and ministry begin and grow now.
July 25 online retreat
You preview the online retreat where current participants will submit one concrete place they feel stuck; the group will workshop each for about 20 minutes with the group.
The retreat will be free for enrolled partners; others can pay to attend, and if they later join Substack Seminary, their retreat fee rolls into their annual enrollment.
Why this community matters
Substack Seminary has become a real community of peers: clergy and lay leaders who discover that their problems are not unique - they’re almost eerily the same.
Long-term clergy groups and retreats that have sustained you for decades and imagine a future in-person Substack Seminary retreat shaped by prayer, silence, conversation, and a very Episcopal cocktail hour.
Open season until August 2
During the break between quarters, the livestream space is open to everyone, not just paid subscribers, so folks can get to know you and see what Substack Seminary is about before the next enrollment window.
Do more than read along from the sidelines
Become a Substack Seminary paid subscriber to join the conversation.
Our rollicking weekly livestream (hosted by , with co-hosts , , and occasional Substack Seminary Participants), goes in depth on all things ‘Future of Church’ and ‘Cage Free Ministry’
Members are even starting a denomination.
Join live Thursdays at 3:30pm Eastern (we read comments in real time) and get the recording in your inbox on Friday.
Bring your own questions - and where your ministry is ‘stuck’.
If you’re already a paid subscriber, enjoy the Conversation archives…
