Leadership is key (humanly speaking) in seeing the growth, life and health of the church. The challenges of leadership are many and varied. From leading fluctuating volunteer teams, leading both the operational and visionary aspects of parish life and motivations, to managing and sustaining ourselves in ministry. All of us fail at one point or another, but when we learn from that we get to take steps forward to lead better next time.
In its purest sense, leadership is about how we work with others to collectively and individually flourish and build God’s kingdom. As Christians and church leaders we are on a continual journey to mature and grow in all areas of our life. Effective leadership and discipleship are the trellises on which healthy churches grow.
Develop your leadership
Because leadership is so important to supporting our churches, teams and communities to thrive, we have developed leadership training and resources for leaders in most areas of church life.
Occasional preachers, worship leaders and lay pastoral visitors and assistants can dip their toes into church leadership with theological and skills training for their specific roles. This includes aspects of leadership development such as understanding the spiritual responsibility that comes with leading others in worship or preaching the word and following the example of Jesus in caring for others.
For those who want to explore their calling more, our new Foundations in Ministry programme exists to further develop lay leaders for the local church and discern areas of specialism that they feel particularly called to serve in. This is a vital new route to releasing more lay leaders who are passionate about serving in their local context. The programme reflects on leadership, explores theological thinking and nurtures participants in the leadership they are passionate about.
Licensed Lay Ministers explore what it means to lead others in the church, their community and in their everyday lives and callings. Through an accredited programme of theology and biblical studies, LLMs are equipped to lead both inside and outside of the church, contributing to the wider community’s spiritual life. Their leadership is enriched by their continued involvement in the secular world, through work or voluntary activities.
Using personality types testing, like Myers Briggs, Ordinands explore how they see the world and make decisions, how they can use their strengths and combat their weaknesses to lead well. Working closely with training incumbents, our IME programme explores the key relationship between church leaders in growing a healthy church.
Our Transforming Leaders Programme for First Incumbents is specifically designed to give new incumbents the tools they need. It covers all the elements of leadership, and specifically dives into parish, team and empowering leadership, whilst exploring self-leadership and practices to sustaining themselves in ministry.
Our School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is open to all lay and ordained leaders. It is designed to equip church leaders to lead out of their inner life with Christ so that their doing for God flows from their being with God.
The Ministerial Development Review happens once every two years for clergy and has three focuses: review, affirmation and development. The process has been built around 13 core leadership competencies and through the review there is support for all aspects of parish leadership and training opportunities to support development needs are identified. All clergy are encouraged to own their continuing ministerial development and are supported by a range of in-person or self-directed learning opportunities and a personal allowance to part-fund any training.
Finally, our Clergy Wellbeing Covenant and Clergy Mentoring scheme are great places to start when thinking about self-leadership. All licensed clergy are welcome to have a mentor to walk alongside them in their ministry.
Find out more about these roles and training opportunities on our website. We’d love to support you as you grow your leadership skills.
