The Briarcliff Church Pastoral Residency is a two-year mentoring program designed to train and equip church leaders of tomorrow. Believing the local church, as God designed it, is the hope of the world, Briarcliff Church seeks to provide aspiring church leaders a healthy church environment to learn, grow and practice ministry after completing their degree. Students selected as residents will receive a full-tuition scholarship for their final year of MDiv work. Upon completion of his degree, each resident will serve a two-year residency at Briarcliff Church. The Pastoral Residency, a paid position with full benefits, provides a wide-range of potential ministry opportunities suited to each resident’s gifts, abilities and eventual ministry focus, with multiple opportunities for mentorship available.

The new pastor takes on the pastoral authority that is conferred by the congregation and/or denomination and, at the same time, enters into a shared understanding with the congregation that he or she is a pastoral apprentice­-in-residence. This duality provides an ideal setting for the formation of a pastoral identity. By providing a calibrated, graduated, reflective initiation into the pastoral life and the pastoral office, assuming the role of being a pastor is integrated with the emerging experience of becoming a pastor. One moves from “role play” to “role ownership” and identification.

The Alban Institute

The Briarcliff Church Pastoral Residency is a Made to Flourish (MTF) pastoral residency. MTF is a national network that exists to equip pastors to understand the integral connection between faith and the work God has called us to as individual pastors and each vocational calling of the members of our congregation. This partnership with MTF connects our church with resources and relationships that actively illustrate the all-of-life design God has for the discipleship of his people and the common good of all people.