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Component 3: Advising Relationship

The close relationships among Covenant clergy have been a traditional Covenant distinctive. This advisory relationship is designed to connect pastors with a veteran pastor willing to listen to their experiences, answer their questions, lend advice, and help them become more firmly rooted in their local Covenant context. 

Bernd Strom                                 Carlo Furlan   The Well Covenant Church   Corvallis Oregon

Choosing an advisor

1. Applicants choose an advisor with their application for Covenant Orientation or may use the advisor selection card.
2. Advisors must be active, ordained or commissioned Covenant ministers with at least five years of service in a local Covenant Church. Retired pastors are suitable advisors. It is best if the advisor has ministerial experience similar to that of the advisee.  The Covenant Orientation office or a conference super- intendent can often help with finding a suitable advisor.
3. The card is returned with both the advisor's and advisee's signatures.
4. The Department of the Ordered Ministry approves the advisor choice.
5. Then the office will send the advisor an explanation of the Covenant External Orientation Program, guidelines for the relationship, and a Report on the Advising Relationship to complete and return signifying the fulfillment of the requirement. 

Length of the Relationship
The relationship should last at least one year and include at least three evenly spaced meetings, i.e., one meeting every three or four months. (Three meetings held during a two-week period would not fulfill completion of this requirement.) 

Relationship Content
The guidelines sent to advisors by the Covenant Orientation office will include a brief suggestion for each meeting. These suggestions are not meant to control the course of the advising, but rather to provide a starting point for discussion. 

• Meeting one: get acquainted, share why each has chosen the Covenant. 
• Meeting two: debrief a specific Life Experience and discuss your life in the Covenant. 
• Meeting three: review a Covenant Orientation class and discuss how it relates to your ministry.