The Ministerial Director > Ministerial Director Ethics

Since the work of the Ministerial Director is essentially a pastoral position, the ethical behavior expected of a pastors is a good starting point for thinking about the appropriate ethics for a Ministerial Director.

Just as in parish ministry, a Ministerial Director should be:

•Confidential. Nothing will squelch the confidence your pastors will have for your work if you do not keep private what they share with you. And while there may be times when you must share information (see Mandated Reporter later in this list), those will be rare in comparison to the day-to-day transaction of your work.

When you become a new Ministerial Director, even if your field knows you well, pastors will generally keep a safe distance until they are sure you are trustworthy. This can take time, so be patient, and be consistent in showing that you are trustworthy with the secrets and burdens of your pastors. The safer they feel you are, the more they will be willing to share with you, and the more you can positively impact your field.

•Caring. This may seem obvious, but being a caring person means real effort on your part. First steps in showing you care is to learn the names of your pastors and their spouses, and if you want to earn bonuses, their children's names as well. You might need some good software or other method of tracking this kind of information, but do keep track of these things. When you learn of particular family or health or church-related issues, note those in the software as well so that when you know you are going to come in contact with a pastor, you can review your notes so that you will know what to ask them about. Pray for their expressed needs, and pray for the needs you observe that they don't even see. Remember that many pastors feel isolated from their conference leadership team and perhaps even from other pastors. Try to find ways to provide the opportunities for pastors to mingle together. Try to provide settings where pastors can be with their conference leadership teams other than in formal meetings. Act as if each pastor were a part of your own family that you care deeply about.

•Interested in His Pastors' Development. This is an area of ethics that extends beyond the ethics of how a pastor would treat his/her parishioners. While a pastor can play a key role in the spiritual development of their parishioners, a Ministerial Director ought to be about the business of helping their pastors to continually grow. It does no service to a pastor who is floundering to leave them to sink in their own failures as a pastor. To care about a pastor's areas of need and then coming alongside that pastor to help him/her grow is a critical task for the Ministerial Director. To ignore areas of growth needs in your pastors is a breach of ethics for the Ministerial Director.

•A Responsible Mandated Reporter. Ministerial Directors are not released from the responsibility of reporting certain things of which they have direct knowledge. Things such as physical/sexual abuse, a person planning to harm themselves or others, or someone who has broken some laws have to be reported. The specifics vary from state to state, so you would be wise to find out what's required in the jurisdictions in which you serve. If a pastor has become involved in something that must be reported, advise the pastor of this and volunteer to go with them to administration to tell their story.

•Willing to Help Every Pastor They Can. Even for those who don't feel they need help or support or who will reject your efforts to support or build up their ministry, make the effort anyway. Try your best not to ever allow discussion of a pastor's weaknesses and failures to reach the ears of your conference administration without you having done your best to help them before then. If you hear about an issue the same time as your administration, go to them and ask for some time to become involved with the pastor to try to help before any administrative action is taken. Sometimes a pastor will be more open to your offer of help if they realize that if they don't work in good faith with you, that they will have to stand alone before administration, who may not be disposed towards favorable options for the pastor.

•An Advocate for the Larger Ministry. Even though your work is to help pastors as individuals and to advocate for them wherever possible, sometimes it may be necessary to advocate for the larger view of ministry. If a pastor soils the reputation of ministry because of his/her actions or character, you might well have to work on behalf of the pastor and also the wider ministry. There may be times when you have to make a painful choice as to which you support most - the individual pastor or the ministry in general. Seek counsel from experienced Ministerial Directors if you sense you are coming into one of these situations so that you can be better prepared to face it.

•Supportive and not Undermining of Conference Leadership. You might think that by quietly cutting down your conference leadership to your pastors is a good way to get in good with them. But this will only serve to undermine you. Word will get around, and you will pay a high price for this. This is a tricky area because sometimes in the course of working with a hurting pastor who finds themselves on the outs with your administration, they will say some things about your conference's leadership that reflects the hurt they are experiencing. In trying the empathize with them, be careful not to participate in such talk. You can learn to empathize and sympathize with your pastors without becoming an apologist for your admins' actions and without speaking ill of them.