Pastoral Leadership Conference: Meet Debbie!
Greetings Co-Workers in Christ
We are anticipating that the Synod Assembly will endorse the Pastoral Leadership Conference scheduled for July 2027, and want to introduce you to another member of the conference leadership team.
Today, we meet The Rev. Dr. Deborah Rundlett, our keynote speaker for the conference.
Debbie’s scholarship and research focus on this one animating question: Who are we becoming in this moment in time, now and how does that shape what becomes possible through our leadership? Her work, “sits where leadership, spiritual formation, and change meet. I call this whole-leader formation. It attends to body, mind, and soul, and to the relationships and daily practices that sustain us.” The daily practices of grounding ourselves in belovedness, growing in community, and responding to our call in the world are foundational pieces for living the process of whole-leader formation. Debbie shares that her own path “has run through the arts and advertising, ministry and the academy, coaching and community building” and that her own formation “has meant loosening the bond between identity and achievement.”
One of Debbie’s most rewarding works has been founding and shepherding the Meetinghouse. For Debbie, “It gathers much of what I care about: spiritual depth, community, creativity, hospitality, and a church whose life extends generously into its neighborhood.” She finds great joy in creating space with others to help others “recover gifts they had set aside” and discovers the deepest satisfaction when “someone finds the courage to answer a call, when a relationship deepens, or when a community glimpses a possibility it could not have imagined alone.”
When I shared with Debbie the theme for our first annual conference is The Leadership Moment, she said it names the questions she is living. Debbie goes on to say that she values “the conference's attention to how leader, follower, relationship, and shared vision and mission converge.” I also shared that all four of our workshops will begin with storytelling. Debbie responded that “Our stories reveal how we have been formed, what we carry, and where God may be inviting us next. Listening to one another is itself a formational practice.” Finally, Debbie defined church leadership in this way: “Church leadership asks us to attend to what God is already doing among us and to cultivate conditions in which people can recognize and respond to that movement. This is shared work. The wisdom and gifts we need are distributed throughout the community.”
Debbie hopes our time together at the 2027 Pastoral Leadership Conference offers “room to breathe, to tell the truth about the demands of leadership, and to listen for the summons within this season. We need companions for that journey, and I look forward to being among you.” The Rev. Dr. Deborah Rundlett’s bio and picture follow below.
On a personal note, Debbie was the EP of Muskingum Valley Presbytery when I first became a member of a PCUSA congregation. Debbie encouraged me to be involved in presbytery leadership and invited me over 15 years ago to join the CRE training program. Her leadership, mentorship, and friendship (all the ships!) are a major influence as my development of a pastor. I am so grateful she can join us at the conference!
“Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name”
3 John 15
Tim Pollock
CRE Coordinator of the Synod of the Covenant
740-624-2351
Bio: The Rev. Dr. Deborah Rundlett is founder and designer of Poets & Prophets: A Formational Journey for Change Leaders committed to the flourishing of people and planet, and architect of the Formational Set, a framework for whole-leader formation. Working at the intersection of leadership, change, and human development, Debbie integrates perennial wisdom with decades of experience across the arts, business, ministry, and the academy, including designing and teaching doctoral courses in leadership and organizational renewal. She serves as Founding Director of The Meetinghouse and holds degrees from Sweet Briar College, Yale Divinity School, Case Western Reserve University, and Wesley Theological Seminary. Her forthcoming books include The Meetinghouse: 21st Century Sacred Commons (Pilgrim Press, 2028), The Summons: Now I Become Myself, and Poets & Prophets: A Formational Journey for Change Leaders (in developmental edit). Learn more at www.PoetsProphets.net.
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