Background Information on the Ministry Portfolio
In many contemporary educational settings, instructors are expected to maintain a teaching portfolio (also known as a teaching dossier) as a living, up-to-date document in which they track their various professional work including teaching, writing, continuing education, professional service, and more. The teaching portfolio is both owned and updated by the instructor; therefore, the portfolio nurtures a sense of agency and subjectivity. It is a tool for being able to tell one’s story of development as an instructor. At their best, the teaching portfolio not only serves as a record of past work but also becomes a tool for ongoing self-reflection.
Student portfolios have also become commonplace in all disciplines – e-portfolios in particular. Rather than being just a way to showcase one’s best work, the portfolio is a tool for being able to tell one’s story as a learner. The overall purpose of a student portfolio is to nurture self-reflective process, to cultivate a narrative of self-development, to learn about learning in a self-critical/constructive manner, and to document the students’ accumulation of educational experiences, successes, and strengths. It makes something visible to the student and, as needed, to others who are considering the student for prospective jobs and/or educational enrolment. It represents a process of learning.
Both teaching portfolios and student portfolios do at least three things simultaneously:
- they document past learning,
- they generate learning in light of past experience, and
- they encourage future learning.
Portfolios assist instructors and students to develop new teaching and learning practices which result in new/better jobs and higher grades. At another level, portfolios stimulate self-directed learning, motivation, self-reflection, curiosity, and relational skills (as they discuss and interpret their portfolio with/for others). The use of portfolios is associated with what some identify as a unique self-reflection and integrative thinking about one’s learning journey.
In the Church Setting: Ministry Portfolio
The Ministry Portfolio is a living document maintained by each participating pastor ideally starting at the time of pastoral call and continuing through all the years of ministry – the portfolio “lives” because it is integral within the life journey of the pastor as they are first called to ministry, as they mature in ministry, as they make sense of their past experiences, and as they aspire toward future pastoral ministry. The Ministry Portfolio is a tangible way to encourage each pastor to see themselves on a learning journey, and it provides a common language with which to accompany one another.
This is where the Ministry Portfolio goes considerably deeper because it welcomes personal/spiritual examination:
“it was you who formed my inward parts…” (Psalm 139:13).
Each participating pastor chooses either a hard-copy template or an electronic template (MCEC makes both available) and each is encouraged to develop their own creative approach to the portfolio – i.e. it becomes a very personal self-expression. Even while the portfolio may contain many outward items such as educational experiences, records of having been a mentor, sabbatical achievements, and lists of sermons preached, it also contains inward items such as reflections on pastoral leadership development. Indeed, this is where the Ministry Portfolio goes considerably deeper than teaching portfolios or student portfolios in the academic world because it welcomes personal/spiritual examination – for example, reflecting on what it means that “it was you who formed my inward parts…” (Psalm 139:13). Pastors could be encouraged to spend a certain amount of time every year (or every month) with their portfolio. Congregations could be encouraged to incorporate portfolio work into the pastor’s job description.
The Ministry Portfolio is not only the repository for educational experiences, but also a place to keep record of other formational moments, key transition experiences, ongoing professional development goals, ministry successes, and more. The portfolio is a tool for self-reflection, a basis on which to engage in discussions with peers and denominational leaders, and an incentive for participating in continuing education. It is the place for integrating key aspects of the pastoral journey:
- Asking hard theological questions
- Expressing joy about new Core Competencies gained
- Expressing frustration about Core Competencies that always seem difficult to attain
- Identifying points of being “good enough”
- Thinking about intercultural growth
- Reflecting on vulnerability and weakness as a pastor
- Sharing stories about what it’s like to be mentored
- Recounting the experience of being a mentor to someone else
- Engaging with a credentialing process
- Expressing short-term and long-term ministry goals
The Ministry Portfolio proactively welcomes all such things. It is wide open to the liberal and the conservative, the outspoken and the shy, the inexperienced and the seasoned. It blends educational practice and ecclesial practice. It is an embodiment of Anabaptist ecclesiology because the preparedness of each member of the Body of Christ hinges on a litany of foundational stories that go right back to the cornerstone story of Jesus’ ministry. The point is not “simply” to identify historical consciousness about what we have done (or what God has done!) but also to orient our already/not-yet faith as both reflexive and forward-looking. The Ministry Portfolio is an affirmation of the fact that, as Mennonite Church Canada makes clear, lifelong learning is “the expected standard of practice for all pastors” (A Shared Understanding of Ministerial Leadership).