The Round Table Fellowship

We’re passionate about helping pastors thrive so they can lead churches that transform lives, families, and communities through Jesus. We offer pastors a “round table” of fellowship—a place where leaders are welcomed with hospitality, forged by friendships with fellow pastors, offered space to meet with God, and encouraged by seasoned mentors. As the knights of old gathered around the king’s round table, we seek to equip pastors for the battles they are and will face in ministry. Rooted in decades of pastoral experience, we prioritize presence over programsso pastors can flourish as they build up the church and bring people to Jesus.

The Need

“Ministry is a holy but lonely calling. Who pastors the pastor?” 

Matt and Heather Woodley

 Matt Woodley currently serves as the Senior Associate Rector of Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois. He has 32 years of pastoral experience in four different church settings and spent ten years connecting with pastors as the editor of Preaching Today. He serves as a trained mentor cohort leader through Leighton Ford Ministries. Heather Woodley has a deep calling to display lavish hospitality for guests and friends on the journey. She also has a gift for helping church leaders discern and respond to the crucial cultural issues of our day.

Our Strategy: How We Walk Beside Pastors

• We gather small groups of pastors around a “round table” for meals and rich conversations to encourage, equip, and promote deeper unity in gospel work.
• We cultivate real friendships among fellow pastors so they can be known, prayed for, and strengthened for the long road of ministry.
• We offer focused one-on-one mentoring marked by attentive listening, honest counsel, and Spirit-led prayer.
• We provide practical support—including preaching in their churches and offering a preaching coaching process—so pastors can grow in the craft of preaching.
• We offer a sacred space on our property for short prayer retreats where weary pastors can meet with the Lord and be restored in soul and calling.
• We lead 2-3 day peer mentoring cohort retreats that foster vulnerability, brotherhood, prayer, and lasting spiritual transformation.

Our Story 

In 2009, my twenty-two-year pastoral ministry imploded. Burnt-out, wounded from the unending stress of the pastorate, and feeling ill-equipped for leadership, I planned to leave church-based ministry for good. A friend gently suggested, “You should call Leighton Ford.” Leighton, the brother-in-law of the late Billy Graham, had focused his life on mentoring pastors. So, I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina and spent three days with Leighton, the man who humbly calls himself “a friend on the journey.” Over the next five years, largely through Leighton’s ministry of friendship as expressed through attentive listening, prayer, and encouragement, I started to dream again.

When Leighton first met with me in 2009, he listened a lot, asked penetrating questions, listened some more, occasionally offered advice, and regularly burst into prayer. He did not offer a program or a curriculum. Leighton does not try to be a therapist, spiritual director, or a coach. As Leighton has written, “Spiritual mentoring is not a program, or a technique, or a profession. It is an art: the art of listening to others and with others in the presence of Another—the Lord Jesus himself.”

Following In Leighton’s footsteps, this ministry offers something unique—a “round table” approach rooted in deep conversations with a mentor, heart-to-heart listening with fellow pastors, and the opportunity to receive support, sharpen skills, and increase courage to lead well. As Paul said in 1 Thess. 2:17, “We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face.”  

Hence, Heather and I believe there is great power in being present, listening deeply, praying often, and advising when needed. These simple acts draw others deeper into the transforming power of Jesus. As the 12^th century church leader Aelred said about the impact of Christ-centered friendships, “Here we are, you and I—and I hope Christ makes a third.” Through every facet of our ministry, we will invite Christ to be present.