 Hi, my name is Julia Schmidt and I am the Program Administrator for Transition to Leadership. Transition to Leadership is a program run by AMBS for pastors in their first four years of ministry. In this two-year program, you'll meet monthly with a mentor, as well as come together with your mentor to two learning events per year, once in the spring and once in the fall. For the two-day learning events, you'll join others in worship, times of reflection and learning sessions led by consultants from AMBS and faculty and other leaders in the church. In addition to the learning sessions, there'll be times for you to meet in small groups to talk about topics pertinent to your own ministry. For learning events alongside the topic times and worship, for me what's been most helpful is just the side conversations that can happen, where you can be vulnerable and honest with new pastors that are in similar situations and mentors who have experienced what you're going through. Maybe not the exact thing, but just being vulnerable and honest with people who know where you are at. Mentoring pairs also have time to meet together at these learning events to set goals. You, as a participant, will be able to set goals that are unique to your own ministry experience to help you grow over your time in the program. My monthly meetings with my mentor were extremely important. They gave me a chance to process things that were happening in the congregation. I'm in the second year, but I'm surrounded by, first of all, my mentor and advisors, and I was able to share my experience and have the people pray for me, so I was well-equipped. In addition to the learning events and your mentoring, you, as a participant, will also have a chance to join monthly Zoom calls for additional support and check-in from the consultants, as well as have one-on-one consultations. For people who are just graduating seminary or for people who are entering a new profession, pastoring is like no other profession out there. It requires some skill and some emotional intellect that maybe some other professions don't, and so in this program I believe it's helpful for people to have a cohort and a mentor that can help them through some of the difficult beginnings of ministry. It's often said that the first year of ministry is the most difficult. So the transition to leadership ministry program, what we do is we help participants think about their self-awareness, but their curiosity, and their intercultural competence as they are working in their ministry settings. We want them to be as effective as possible. You are in the process of taking up a role that is both demanding as well as widely varied and even the most supportive of congregation. In transition to leadership, you will be invited to be part of a cohort with other pastors who are beginning their journey in congregational ministry as well. You'll be able to process questions that have arisen for you in ministry and to seek counsel with consultants and your peers in ministry and return to your congregation with some new insights and clear focus on the work that is before you as a shepherd of a congregation. And so we also go over issues of system, dynamics, we talk about power, we talk about issues of justice, particularly undoing racism as they're beginning to work in their settings. And we also really talk about self-care needs, about setting boundaries and engaging in practices that will help them to really thrive. It's giving me support, wings to fly and go somewhere to not feel dangling, which is kind of how I was feeling through COVID and after that. And I've just appreciated so much that I've been able to be invited into this program and to have these wonderful consultants share with us what they know. As a new pastor, I'm really grateful that this program gives me the opportunity to create spaces to reflect and think about all the work that I'm doing so that I can go back and do the work in better and new and creative and more curious ways. We hope that you'll consider joining this unique program. For more information, visit ambias.edu slash transition to leadership. There you will find more information as well as my contact info.