Source:  International Update

The following letter from Canon Phil Ashey is from the February 26, 2013 edition of the American Anglican Council’s International Update. Sign up for this free email here.

Dear friends in Christ,

For the next three weeks and during Holy Week I will be on the road for the American Anglican Council and our initiatives in developing faithful Anglican leaders in North America and beyond, helping congregations grow in every biblical way, and to further the realignment of Christians – Anglican and beyond – around a common confession of faith in Christ Jesus and shared witness and mission.

This week (Feb 26 – March 1) I will be at The Cove (The Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, NC) for the third gathering of our southeast Clergy Leadership Training Institute (CLTI). Our main speaker will be the Rev. Canon David Roseberry of Christ Church, Plano, TX, and the theme of this gathering is “Compounding Results: Raising up and developing leaders in your ministry.” Dr. Jim Osterhaus and I will also be there to continue our talks on how clergy can effectively lead through church conflicts and the competing values that drive conflict.

For those of you who may not know about our Clergy Leadership Training Institute, the CLTI is for the development of clergy beyond seminary in the four “C’s” of leadership: Character, Competency (ministry life skills), Compounding Results (multiplying leaders) and Church Conflict. We focus especially on younger clergy and those who are in positions to disciple younger clergy. Our goal is to equip clergy leaders with healthy boundaries – spiritual, emotional and professional – and effective skills to lead growing and healthy Anglican churches in North America. We do this through three gatherings over an 18-24 month period, with speakers who have proven and fruitful ministries in the four “C’s” of leadership. We provide one-on-one coaching/spiritual direction for each participant during our gatherings, and on-site intercessors are available for prayer ministry. You can see the testimonies of this first CLTI group here.

In addition, we ask each participant to make two commitments: (1) meet with other participants at least one a month for ongoing peer coaching, mutual support, accountability and prayer, and (2) we provide Bible studies for these meetings and each participant is asked to take them back to their congregation and use them to raise up 10-12 new leaders! You can see a sample of the Bible studies we provide here.
The AAC is partnering with EQUIP ministries who have developed these Bible studies for leaders globally – approximately 3 million in 54 countries! These Bible studies (108 in all, or 9 years worth of monthly studies!) may also be printed in the native languages of any of those 54 countries, and used for short term missions.

You can find out more about our CLTI here or call me or Mary Orr at 1-800-914-2000 for more information.

We will be holding our second session of the CLTI for clergy in Fort Worth March 5-7. Our main speaker will be The Rev. Dr. Doug McGlynn and the theme will be “Competency: The ministry life of the Leader.” Dr. Jim Osterhaus and I will also be there to speak on church conflict.

On March 11-13 I will be at the Cedar Springs, WA Retreat Center to do the first session of our CLTI on “The Character of the Leader” for clergy in the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). After a short break, the clergy from the Diocese of Cascadia will join those ANiC clergy who wish to stay for our second session of CLTI on “The Competency of the Leader,” March 13-15. Our main speakers will be Bishops Trevor Walters of ANiC and Kevin Allen of Cascadia. And I will be there to assist and speak on how leaders can maintain healthy boundaries, especially during church conflict.

I hope you will keep these gatherings and dates in your prayers – please pray that all of the clergy who will be attending will be refreshed and renewed in their leadership, ministries and families!

I also bid your prayers for the second gathering of our coalition of confessing churches – Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian – at Anglican1000 in Wheaton, IL on March 4-6. This is a follow up to our October 2012 gathering in Dallas, TX, where 32 leaders from these four denominations agreed on a common confession of faith – Jesus Christ: Our Common Ground and Common Cause – and pledged to work together on theological education, engaging North American culture, church planting and social witness. The AAC continues to play a major leadership role in gathering this coalition, and it is significant that our first gathering after Dallas will be to focus on sharing best practices in church planting, and exploring next steps we can take together in the months and years ahead. You can see a description of this A1000 Summit and the Ecumenical dimension here.

Finally, I bid your prayers for a mission I will be taking March 26-April 3 to the Province of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan to assess the needs for clergy leadership development in the South Sudan. As the ACNA Canon for Special Initiatives, and on behalf of the AAC, I will be meeting with Archbishop Deng Bul and other Sudanese Anglican leaders to assess their needs for clergy development and to see how we can adapt our CLTI to those needs. I am sure we will also be drawing upon the experience and resources of other ministries such as SOMA. In any event, this represents an exciting door of opportunity and extension of our CLTI to brothers and sisters in the Global South! Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to be faithful to our mission of developing faithful leaders.
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council

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