Supervision can be a gift of grace.
This book explores pastoral supervision in the context of leadership development and equips readers with practical tools with which to create and implement policies that will help ministers become better, more effective grace-filled leaders. The book is informed by qualitative research using the introduction of structured supervision into the life of the Methodist Church in Great Britain as a case study. The author then brings this research into dialogue with her pastoral experience as both a supervisee and supervisor in order to integrate supervision, together with its methods and Wesleyan theology, into the total life of the Church.
This book informs both ministry practitioners and those with responsibility for the formation and professional support of clergy about the nature, benefits, and obstacles of pastoral supervision and the issues that should be considered in introducing supervision into the life of the Church. The author begins by thinking about the reasons for considering supervision as a means of grace and transformation in the service of fruitful ministry and mission. She proceeds to outline what pastoral supervision is and is not. The final section explores some of the practical issues of devising and implementing a supervision policy.
Jane Leach is Principal of Wesley House, Cambridge and Fellow-Commoner of Jesus College, Cambridge. She is also a Methodist Presbyter, theological educator, pastoral supervisor, and trainer. Leach is co-author of Pastoral Supervision: A Handbook (SCM 2010, revised edition 2015); contributor to Chesner & Zografou (eds) Creative Supervision across Modalities: Theory and Applications for Therapists, Counselors, and Other Helping Professionals (JKP 2014); and member of the editorial board of Holiness: The Journal of Wesley House. Leach is currently leading a national training program in Great Britain designed to equip all Methodist District Chairs and Superintendents to offer pastoral supervision.