It’s not all about self care: Community justice ministry and relational organizing to enhance clergy wellbeing

by Rev. Tara Humphries

I find street parking and hustle towards the door with my phone, keys, paper calendar, and a half-finished ceramic mug of coffee. I make my way into the sanctuary, following the sound of gentle laughter, and find a seat in the circle amongst local faith leaders–colleagues I now call friends. I am five minutes late and they know to leave a chair for me and the others who will arrive even later. Grace abounds.

We are the Greater Portland Multifaith Organizing Group, made up of clergy and a few lay leaders from local Episcopal, Unitarian Universalist, UCC, Presbyterian, Jewish, Independent Methodist, and Quaker congregations, serving in Maine, one of the least religious states in the country. The group formed after the 2024 election as a response to a shared calling to unite in our work to resist injustice and show up with prophetic voices and faithful witness together in our community. We embrace the practices of relational organizing: tending to our connections with each other, strengthening relationships in the community, and building new ones. It is slow, meaningful work and we have accomplished a lot. But equally important to what we’ve done is how we have each been transformed, and how this has impacted our ministries back within the walls of our respective congregations.

How are the churches? How are the pastors?

Our communities vary in size from less than 50 to over 300. Some of us are newer to ministry and others have been serving inPortland for decades. Our congregations all weathered the pandemic differently. As the EPIC studies illuminate, there is no single COVID-19 story.

The Challenges are Great Opportunities report names that “pastoral wellness is a complex interplay of many factors.” Many clergy are struggling after the pandemic, for reasons that may or may not be correlated to the COVID disruptions and impacts on religious life. But there are also many of us who are thriving in ministry. I arrived at a congregation in 2022 that had just begun gathering in person again after the COVID years, a time of instability and unexpected ministerial transition. The first few years were difficult. I often felt lonely and unsure how to guide my people into uncharted territory. But with time and a few intentional changes to the way I approach aspects of my own leadership, my wellbeing has increased.

Ministry as a team sport

Though I’ve been part of colleague groups–both based on identity and geographic region–since the beginning of my ministry, the Greater Portland Multifaith Organizing Group has impacted my wellness differently.

Many collegial groups I’ve experienced are either support groups, or action groups. In support groups we celebrate and commiserate.In action groups–committees for denominational or movement work–we’re driven by the agenda. Our group is a mix of both. We spend time nurturing deep relationships and genuinely care for one another. But we also get stuff done. The support builds trust and a sense of teamwork and camaraderie, and the work completes the stress cycle and brings meaning and purpose to our being together. One colleague recently remarked that our gatherings felt like church to them, which is something most of us lose (the parishioner experience, that is) when we answer God’s call to lead.

Most of our congregations expect their minister to be involved in justice efforts and are hungry for information about what’s going on and how they can participate. But not all. A few members serve communities that are either struggling to keep up with being a congergation – whether due to the chaos of chronic staff turnover, disagreements, not enough volunteer energy to get the basic work done–or other dynamics explored in EPIC’s Back to Normal report. Those colleagues remark that they come for themselves… to stay in touch with God’s call on their own hearts so that they can continue to serve in settings where there may be more of a discrepancybetween the daily work of the institution and what feeds their soul. Alignment between calling and task does wonders for wellbeing.

Early on, we decided we would meet in person. There are so many benefits of technology: accessibility, innovation, efficiency. But we felt and continue to feel a pull to be together in body. And we are lucky that we live close enough to make that possible (in manyparts of Maine you might have to drive an hour or more to get to a collegial gathering). It’s less efficient, less convenient, and almostalways just what we need.

Self care versus mutual support

Clergy preach again and again on the importance of community. Yet we so often feel lonely and isolated. The cultural narratives surrounding burnout prevention don’t help much either. Exhausted? Lonely?

Resentful? Overwhelmed? Take more time for yourself! Enjoy a bubblebath! Go get lost in the woods! Exercise! Treat yourself!

Even as an introvert, traditional “self care” is often not what fills my cup. My yearning for wholeness is deeper. I yearn to be seen in my fullness… as a leader and as a regular person running in the door late, not yet fully “on.” I yearn to be with people whounderstand how weird my job is, and are unphased… to contribute to the work of bringing about the Beloved Community in this broken and beautiful world without being expected to have an answer or know the path. I yearn to see ministry happen, and to meet God, outside the walls of the church and beyond Sunday morning with unexpected people and in unexpected places. Though I love and need quiet afternoons of rest and alone time, I don’t think it’s always working less that will save us. Perhaps it’s working differently.

Though often tired and overwhelmed, at the moment I am thriving in ministry. Much of that is thanks to many mornings in a circle of chairs amongst good, imperfect, faithful servants scheming about how we can all get free.

Rev. Tara Humphries (they/them) serves as the full-time Developmental Minister at Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine, and as a very-part-time Reflective Supervisor with the Centre for Creative Supervision at LeaderWise. They are a graduate of Yale Divinity School (MDiv) and hold Certificates in Congregational Leadership from Andover Newton Seminary, Transitional Ministry from the Interim Ministry Network, and Reflective Pastoral Supervision from the Centre for Creative Supervision and Wesley House. Tara is passionate about supporting processes of transformation and change on the individual and institutional levels. Their organizing work centers around queer and trans liberation. They are happy to call Portland home, and enjoy running and kayaking with their partner, volunteering at a therapeutic horse farm, and caring for a menagerie of pets.