Dear People of the Northwest Intermountain Synod,

Recently I received the honor to be named one of fifty recipients of the Reflective Leadership Grant awarded by Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School. Please read all the way to the end to learn more about Leadership Education (lots of great resources and opportunities offered!) in general and the Reflective Leadership Grant in particular. In short, the grant provides leaders in Christian organizations the opportunity to step out of the busy-ness of ministry to think about and plan for key pivots, or shifts, that they might anticipate. I do think it can be beneficial to share with one another what and how we are thinking from time to time. Allow me to share some reflections with you here.

I began my work and call as Assistant to the Bishop just over six years ago – August 2018. As I look back over those years, they are broken into three distinct chapters.

Chapter 1: New Beginnings, New Bearings – Years 1-2

These were largely spent finding my bearings in this call. I remember entering 2020 feeling like I finally had some sense of how to live into and out this call to be Assistant to the Bishop of the newly named Northwest Intermountain Synod.

Chapter 2: The Pandemic Times – Years 3-4

This chapter was many things, and it is difficult to summarize in a few brief sentences. It was filled with immense challenge. It was marked by abrupt and significant shifts in how ministry was carried out. It placed a heavy burden on leaders. And it was evident that God’s Spirit was still at work!

Chapter 3: Transitions – Years 5-6

The most recent chapter has been defined by transition. First, a year of planning and preparing for a bishop’s election. Then, a year of melding as a staff.

The question becomes, what does the next chapter hold? The Reflective Leadership Grant will provide an opportunity to consider that question, and I am excited to discern to the best of my ability where God’s Spirit is leading. If the past gives any indication, there will be surprises and unexpected turns along the way. There are a few things I do know…

• There will be continued engagement with and learning about Bowen Family Systems Theory.

• I will apply that learning to ministry.

• It will mean that I will be out of the NWIM Synod a bit more as I re-engage with the ELCA Natural Systems Academy and partake in other learning. In addition, the Reflective Leadership Grant encourages “leaders to broaden their perspectives and gain clarity about what needs to happen next in their personal and professional life.” For me, that personal reflection will take shape as some additional intentional family time through this next year before (and as) our eldest graduates from high school.

And there is one more thing that I do know: I enter this next year and this next chapter with tremendous gratitude. Gratitude for this call to serve as Assistant to the Bishop and the opportunity it provides to accompany so many wonderful leaders—both lay and rostered—and so many ministries where God’s Spirit is daily breathing in life. Gratitude for my co-workers on Synod staff that have encouraged and supported me as I apply for this grant. Gratitude for my family. And not least, gratitude for all the ways God Spirit continues to enliven and equip, call and enlighten me into life abundant. It is such a gift…and one received only by the grace of God.

With so much thanks,

Pastor Phil Misner

Information on Leadership Education and the Reflective Leadership Grant