Anglican Perspectives

Developing Faithful Leaders

Canon Ashey

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

The future of our Anglican realignment here in North America will depend in many ways on the calling, character and competency of the leaders that we prepare and equip right now. The American Anglican Council is at the heart of this preparation in two important ways.First, we are working with clergy leaders throughout the Anglican Church in North America in our Clergy Leadership Training Institute. During these gatherings, we focus on four dimensions of leadership in the life of any clergy leader– all of which can be found in Psalm 144! Our first gathering focuses on the character of the leader (the first of four “C”s, Psalm 144:1a, 2-4). We need clergy who are listening to the Lord for direction, developing Christlike character through spiritual “habits” or disciplines, and with healthy relationships in their marriages, family life, within and outside the church.

We also address a second “C” of leadership-conflict- by identifying in this first gathering what it means to be a healthy leader who does not personalize inevitable conflict in the local church, but is rather enabled to keep people focused on the vision, mission and goals God has for the church. This dimension of leadership can also be found in Psalm 144:7-10 and 14b. In all three of our gatherings we address this critical dimension of clergy leadership so that clergy will be prepared to help the local church grow through conflict.

In our second gathering, we address a third “C”, the competency of clergy leaders, which one can find in Psalm 144:1b and Psalm 78:72. Here we enjoy bringing in clergy speakers who can share from many years of experience leading a local church and growing it through a wide variety and adaptation of skills for ministry. We encourage our clergy to meet every day in our gatherings with one of our three speakers for personal, one-on-one discipleship, coaching and spiritual direction. We also have and on-site prayer team available to address the needs that often surface in the lives of our clergy participants as they reflect on their lives away from the busyness and distractions of local church ministry.

In our third and final gathering, we focus on the fourth “C” of leadership, compounding results. What we mean here is the role of a clergy leader in identifying, raising up and multiplying other leaders. Multiplication, rather than mere addition, is a Kingdom principle of growth (see Mark 4 and the parable of the sower). Here we like to call in a recognized clergy leader who has experience in multiplying both lay and clergy leaders within their local church, and can help impart those skills to our participants.

One of the key dimensions of our Clergy Leadership Training Institute (CLTI) is that we ask each participant to meet with others in their diocese or other regional cluster around Bible studies that we give them at the very first gathering. These Bible studies focus on the four “C”‘s of leadership and are a platform for continued sharing, mutual support, discipleship, and prayer for each other. This is one area where we believe consistency is essential. Our goal is to have our CLTI participants continue to meet together for ongoing support and growth even after the third gathering is finished. Also, in keeping with “compounding results,” we ask each clergy participant to take these same small group Bible studies back to their own congregation and use them to raise up and disciple lay leaders… again, following the kingdom principle of multiplication. By giving clergy leaders a practical tool to help multiply leaders in their own context, we believe we will also be multiplying ministry through the local church through healthy, holy and mission-focused leaders.

I bid your prayers for a brand new CLTI group that will be meeting this Monday, November 18-Thursday November, 21 at a monastery in Conyers, GA with Bishop Steve Breedlove (our featured speaker on “the character of the leader”), Dr. Jim Osterhaus and myself. These 15 clergy from the Anglican Diocese of the South and the Gulf Atlantic Diocese will be joining over 60 ACNA clergy who have already finished, or are in the process of completing, the CLTI. Please pray that the Lord will refresh their vision for ministry in the local church, give them new vision and a new infilling of the Holy Spirit as they come home, a new support network of clergy to encourage them along the way and healing from those things that would otherwise limit their ability to lead all God’s people as Jesus himself would.

Yours in Christ,
Phil+

PS: I didn’t forget the second dimension of our AAC Leadership development ministries – our Lay Advisory Board is also developing a Lay Leadership Institute for vestry and other key lay leaders and influencers within every local church. We hope to launch this new Lay Leadership Institute here in the Anglican Diocese of the South in the first quarter of 2014 – with the intention of making it available thereafter for every diocese in the ACNA. Stay tuned for more details!

 

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