Witherspoon is elated to partner with our Sisters and Brothers in Christ at Second Presbyterian Church to serve as a residency site for the Lake Fellow Residency.
Please click below for more information on the three primary developmental emphases: Congregational Ministry, Church Leadership, and Academic Study.
Two outstanding candidates are selected each spring, and they serve for two years, beginning in August. These are ordained positions, and compensation is commensurate with associate pastor positions in large PC(USA) congregations.
Lake Fellow Program Founder
William G. Enright, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Senior Pastor Emeritus of Second Presbyterian Church. With the generous support of church members Tom and Marjorie Lake, and the expertise of colleagues at the Lilly Endowment, Dr. Enright developed the Lake Fellow program in 1997. About the Lake Fellow program, he says:
“Years ago, a young minister by the name of Reinhold Niebuhr was asked why any intelligent person would enter the ministry. Niebuhr replied: ‘Where can one invest one’s life where it can be made more effective in as many directions? Here is a task which requires the knowledge of a social scientist, the insight and imagination of a poet, the executive talent of a business person, and the mental discipline of a philosopher.’ I believe that being a parish pastor is the most invigorating and fulfilling calling in the world.
Following medical school, young doctors pursue their medical specialties in extensive residence programs. Bright young attorneys conclude law school with clerkships in courts of law or they serve as apprentice associates in large law firms where they learn the fine art of turning theory into practice. What happens to young seminary graduates? Recent clergy studies reveal that it is the first church experience following seminary which is most formative in shaping the kind of minister they will be. This program is for those women and men who, having felt God’s call to parish ministry, desire to get off to the right start by fine tuning their skills in a large congregation with a long standing commitment to excellence in ministry.”