Training Leaders
The year long conversation across our
synod continues this month under the topic “Training Leaders.” You and your
congregation council are invited (as well as other groups within your
congregation) to spend 15-30 minutes in your meeting discussing the topic of
leadership development.
A proposed outline for your conversation:
1. Ask your pastor(s) (or other
full time staff leaders) to share who it was in their lives that “nudged” them
toward considering a call to full time church work.
2. Have someone prepared to
describe the training we provide and expect of our pastors, associates in
ministry, diaconal ministers and deaconesses. How does this compare to other
callings or professions – in terms of time, expectations academically, etc.?
3. What would you consider the
most important gifts for someone who might become a pastor? Who do you know who
seems to have those gifts? Who will tell them that you perceive they have these
gifts?
4. We are called to do the work
of the church (ministry) through our baptism. We have also all been given gifts
for particular ministries. Who was influential in each of your lives in helping
you to sense your own calling and vocation?
5. How does our baptismal call
guide us into our daily calling – our vocations and occupations?
6. Name those whom you know who
might have the gifts for leadership in church service and ministry leadership.
Consider how you can encourage them to “listen to the voice of God’s Spirit” in
considering such a call—either to full time ministry or as a core volunteer
leader in the church.
Please note: The topics in the coming months for this year long
conversation include: Public Church; Worship; Role of the Synod; Role of the
Bishop; Money and The Great Commission. This will lead us up to the Synod
Assembly and the election of a new bishop. The question we’ll be posing in the
spring of the year relates to what kind of gifts the next bishop should have in
order to address the mission of our synod as we’ve discerned it in these
conversations together.
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