Transforming Church

OVERVIEW OF CENTRAL ELEMENTS

The above factors have helped determine some key pieces of the kind of learning that is needed for twenty-first century missional leadership. In the section below, some of these are defined. The process of delivering TLi is structured as a three year journey:

Shaped significantly in order to enhance “passionate spirituality” within leaders, the emphasis the first year will include significant content and development in the area of spiritual disciplines. Participants will learn and work in order to gain a strong personal base for growing in their own spirituality. They will also develop the skills needed to begin to cultivate stronger spiritual lives for others.

Shaped in part by work in “need-oriented evangelism,” the emphasis the second year will build in the skills needed to better engage congregations and their surrounding contexts. These skills will be the basis for contextual engagement and to strengthen the leader’s ability to lead in more relevant and connected ways as ministries serve as evangelical outposts in their communities. In addition, one regional gathering will emphasize the ongoing need for healthy self-care and balanced attention to health as good stewardship for strong leadership. This has been a source of ongoing concern within the ELCA.

With an eye toward putting the pieces together for long term change, the third year will expand attention to a larger vision of ministry in the world, with attention on multicultural and global realities, church planting and multiplication, and developing long term and sustainable ministry.

As a result of participating in this three year journey, pastors will learn to:
• Clarify mission, vision, values, and beliefs as Spirit-led disciples
• Lead healthy change while managing anxiety
• Grow a healthy body of Christ through the gifts, callings, and people that God gives
• Create teams of spiritual leaders focused on missional outreach
• Welcome diversity and adapt to changing contexts
• Engage the world in healthy missional ways with an emphasis on vocation of the laity/priesthood of all believers
• Coach & encourage healthy leaders while helping neighboring leaders move towards better health as well

This work will be delivered through a network of learning that will allow participants to gather in regional centers at sites throughout the country. Use of accessible and helpful technology will allow participants to engage information and resources between gatherings. It will also foster ongoing cohort communication and monthly peer coaching. The development of a significant online social network for the TLi community is envisioned and a contract has been entered into that is establishing the web platform for that network to be well served with appropriate technology and support.

Leaders are expected to offer theological reflection that is missional in nature throughout this three-year cycle. This will include a missional attitude and worldview that is engaged and energized, contagious at its core, and positive about how God’s people can share in God’s work.

SOME KEY DEFINITIONS:

Regional Gatherings: Groups of participants will gather in regional centers for onsite training. These locations will allow students, primarily from a 250 mile radius, to gather for face to face facilitation, content delivery, shared learning, fellowship and support, and group work.

Cohorts: These will be groups of six (6) participants who will make the journey through the three year process together. They will spend in depth time together at regional gatherings, choose Signature Ministry sites for visits (see definition below), and engage in phone and online support and communication at key times throughout the process.

Coaching Triads: Participants will be trained in peer coaching skills and organized in groups of three - two triad groups per cohort. It is in these groups that per coaching will provide monthly accountability and support to each participant. Use of online coaching tools and the phone will allow triads to meet monthly with good effectiveness. This well tested method has been used with good success in some segments of the ELCA as well as in some other denominations.

Signature Ministry Visits: These sites will be selected based on effectiveness in their missional practices. Key elements will involve quality of pastoral leadership, involvement of lay leadership, missional effectiveness (health, growth, vitality, missional impact, collegial connections, etc.). Visits will allow pastors and other leaders to see and learn from the best practitioners of missional ministry.

Pastor’s Mission Support Team: This group of 4-6 lay leaders will serve as a personal board of directors for the participant as he or she goes through the process. They will help the pastor learn and apply team behaviors, help process learning, and help provide accountability for the pastor to apply the work in the program in their setting. The Mission Support Team will join the participant on the Signature Ministry Visit each year to provide a format where lay leaders can see and learn effective practices and process the work in partnership with pastors – this providing the base for an ongoing learning organization.

OUTLINE OF LEARNING JOURNEY

These components of the program will be woven into the following timeline for delivering material and facilitating growth within the participants over a three year journey. Each year of this journey is laid out as follows:

Year One: The Leader
Focus: Spiritual leadership in developing personal spirituality, discerning and clarifying vision, and facilitating teams
Curriculum Issues: Seeking vision that comes from God, the development of spiritual disciplines will be stressed so that faith is deepened and vision is discerned (personally and communally). Because leadership is refined within community, emphasis will be given to team-building (cohorts and congregational lay leadership team) as well as coaching and accountability.
Four Key Events:
Regional Gathering I-A (fall): Initial Cohort groupings, which will be geographically formed, will meet in regional locations to form initial relationships and learn the key skills for peer coaching and accountable peer-to-peer learning. These cohorts will be strengthened by engaging in team-building exercises, using various assessment tools, being trained in coaching skills, and developing accountability structures. In addition, each participant will be trained in missional thinking, Bible Study, use of passion and gifts in shaping ministry, and vision development – both personal and with teams.

Regional Gathering I-B (winter): This event, delivered at regional locations, will invite spouses who desire to share in this process to be present. Content will focus primarily on teaching personal practice of spiritual disciplines. After being rooted in basic spiritual disciplines, participants will build a plan for spiritual health – as individuals, with their spouses if applicable, and as part of a cohort. Ideas about engaging parishioners in deepening their spiritual disciplines will be explored.

Signature Ministry Visit (spring): The pastor, along with the pastoral Mission Support Team of lay leaders, will visit a ministry site that has demonstrated good leadership, engaged laity, spiritual health, and vision clarification. Particular attention will be paid to how passionate spirituality has been encouraged and how the discernment of spiritual gifts has shaped a vision at that Signature Ministry Site.

Congregational Leadership Event (late spring/early summer): This local event will synthesize, articulate, and share what has been learned during this first year about the passionate spirituality, teamwork, and vision. It will be co-led by the pastor as well as the lay leaders from the team that share in the Signature Ministry visit. This will provide a chance for pastors to practice functioning in peer ways of working with lay leaders and also to teach what has been learned – often one of the most useful ways to integrate new material into cohesive ways of working.

Year Two: Effectively Leading Congregations to Engage Their Context
Focus: Healthy interaction between leaders and the congregation in engaging their context
Curriculum Issues: Knowing that God has asked us to live the Good News with others, emphasis will be given to assessing contexts and building relationships beyond the congregation’s walls. Given that anxiety is often raised with change, mature ways to handle the process of transformation will be explored.
Four Key Events:
Regional Gathering II-A (fall): Cohort participants will work on leading transformation by understanding the process of change, seeking to maintain a healthy presence in the midst of anxious situations, and discerning next steps. Also, leadership issues as related to congregations adapting to changing circumstances and engaging the people and needs of their contexts will be explored. Cohorts will continue to review progress on plans and commitments—promoting courage, action, and accountability.

Regional Gathering II-B (winter): This will be a Healthy Ministry Retreat and spouses, where applicable, are invited to participate. Delivered geographically in regional centers, this event will focus on holistic health and seek to root participants in leading a healthy balance that includes all aspects of life. Time will be given for individuals, couples (if present), and cohorts to process the content and help to build helpful and accountable plans for better health as well as ways to encourage better stewardship of life among congregants impacted by the leader’s ministry.

Signature Ministry Visit (spring): Pastors and lay leaders from the pastor’s \Missional Support Team will visit a ministry site that has demonstrated strong effective congregational leadership in engaging their context (need-based evangelism) in a healthy and effective manner. Sites will be visited by the whole cohort and chosen for how cohorts see applicable and interesting learning being available at the site they choose. The emphasis will be to see how congregations have connected with their settings, developed relevant ministry that is evangelical and builds bridges between the institutional church and its neighbors, and have done so in ways that respect and honor the gifts and assets present in the context.

Congregational Leadership Event (late spring/early summer): This local event will synthesize, articulate, and share what has been learned during this first year about the passionate spirituality, teamwork, and vision. It will be co-led by the pastor as well as the lay leaders from the team that share in the Signature Ministry visit. This will provide another chance for pastors to practice functioning in peer ways of working with lay leaders and also to teach what has been learned – continuing to integrate new content into cohesive ways of working.

Year Three: Leading Vibrant Ministry in a “Glocal” Context
Focus: Missional work through multiplication of leaders and ministries within today’s “glocal” (local/global) realities
Curriculum Issues: Being commissioned by God to go and make disciples, the multiplication of leaders and ministries will be stressed. Being a part of God’s world, emphasis will be given to continuing local contextual engagement and expanding it to include today’s global realities.
Five Key Events:
Regional Gathering III-A (fall): Cohorts will explore maintaining momentum as a servant leader and developing long range strategies for leading a nimble church. Besides raising a “glocal” missional consciousness, participants will gain skills and insights into passing leadership onto others as well as multiplying leaders, resourcing and funding sustainable initiatives, and starting ministries in both similar and cross cultural settings. Attention to multicultural and racial issues will be given specific attention here. Cohorts will continue to learn and work together.

Signature Ministry Visit (winter): This site visit, which will include lay leaders, will be to a ministry site that has demonstrated a focus on developing servant missional leaders through a strong, hands-on engagement with the world. These places will have developed strong missional awareness in multiple settings, have high effectiveness and awareness of multicultural and cross cultural realities, and have some elements of long term engagement in both local and global contexts. The goal of this visit is to see and experience congregational ministry that is both aware and effective in a multicultural and global world.

“Glocal” Experience (spring): Cohorts will participate in a grass roots “glocal” (global/local) ministry experience to expand awareness about ministry with a different context and a different base for resources. Spouses, as applicable, will be invited to participate in this experience and share insights gleaned from these settings. These settings will be selected by the cohort and involve significant exposure to ministry in different contexts, engage the head and the hearts of leaders, and provide teaching from grass roots ministry to help participants learn to receive insights and ministry from others doing work in a variety of contexts – many of which are not common to most ELCA pastors’ experiences.

Congregational Leadership Event (late spring/early summer): This local event will synthesize, articulate, and share what has been learned during this first year about the passionate spirituality, teamwork, and vision. It will be co-led by the pastor as well as the lay leaders from the team that share in the Signature Ministry visit. Content for this event will be shaped by the pastor and lay leadership team as they draw upon the specific “glocal” experience as well as their ongoing work. It will allow the leaders to synthesize what they have learned and present it in coherent and helpful ways for others.

Regional Gathering III-B (fall): Participants will present projects that will be part of their work during the third year. These projects will synthesize the material that has been engaged over the three year period and help participants to assess what they have learned and what they will be doing different as a result of the learning. In addition, this gathering will provide an important opportunity for them to receive certificates and celebrate! This gathering will take place at the same time when an incoming first-year class will begin their journey (it will be Regional Gathering I-A for this new group). This will help the new participants see what those graduating have learned and inspire them for the journey they are beginning.

SOME FINAL FACTS (IMPLEMENTATION, COSTS, AND TIMELINE)

The work described above is outlined in a variety of pieces in more detail. This summary is to provide a basic overview for interested parties in order to help understand the nature of the work ahead and see the commitment of the Transforming Leaders Initiative to bring creative and cutting edge leadership training to change the face of leadership in the ELCA. The results of the Pastoral Leaders Institute within the LC-MS have provided for significant change within many segments of that church. We are confident and excited that the work detailed above, which has included consultation with the leadership of PLI, is shaped to meet the needs of this new day and does so in a way that fits the culture and character of the ELCA.

TLI is planning to begin to accept applications in the fall of 2008. Initial applicants will be sorted and admitted to cohort groups that will most likely meet in two regional sites in 2009 (Nebraska and Ohio are likely first locations) and expand to two additional sites in the next year (we are seriously exploring adding learning centers in Illinois and Minnesota by 2010). We hope to admit 36 students in the first year and expand to 54 in the next class. A long term enrollment goal is for 72 students per year to be admitted to cohorts that will meet in four locations.

Costs to get this program up and running will include between $250,000 and $300,000 from now until the first students are admitted in fall 2009. This includes the staff costs for program development, recruitment, development and organizational development. In addition there are a variety of development costs, software and hardware needed to build the infrastructure, the development of a highly functional web site for content delivery, social networking, and development/recruitment work.

Resources have come from private donors, the ELCA churchwide organization (including the EOCM unit and the Office of the Presiding Bishop), and congregations who believe that this is an essential step to changing the face of leadership in the ELCA.

The final operating budget will most likely be about $500,000 to $600,000 per year once the program is up and running and has admitted three classes over the first three years. Projected costs for participants include tuition of $1500/year plus travel costs to and from events. With 72 students in each class that will mean 216 participants in the program when it is fully developed. This will generate $324,000 toward the program costs. It is believed that the approximately $200,000 to 250,000 of ongoing financial support can be fully generated from private donors, committed congregations, event sponsors, and other support sources. This amount is far less than the sustaining financial support needed to maintain the PLI work in the LC-MS and will allow the Transforming Leaders Initiative to remain viable and nimble for several years into the future.

The above plan is the current rough outline. As details are determined there may be some adjustments to the above plan. But this outline is the basis for the development and recruitment work that is happening and is the basic vision that is being pursued by TLi board and staff. We are ready to go!

To see and learn more about Transforming Leaders Initiative on its home website, click here.