Leaders in the church face the deep challenge of cultivating Christian identity, practice, and community in a pluralistic, divided culture in which people tend to seek the good without God. They must lead their communities through processes of adaptation, learning, and innovation in mission.
Meaningful engagement with complex challenges like these functions best in communities of peers who mutually encourage, support, challenge and deepen one another, while being held accountable to a disciplined structure of action and reflection under the guidance of experienced mentors and coaches.
The Missional Leadership Cohort is a structured learning community that offers teaching, mentorship and accountability for church leaders in partnership with committed peers and faculty and staff. It offers the promise of intensive, transformational leadership development for a missionary church with flexibility and accommodation for the demands facing full-time, working priests.
Outcomes
- Understand more deeply contemporary cultures and the challenges and opportunities they pose to the formation of Christian identity and practice.
- Gain biblical and theological insight into the triune God’s mission and the church’s missionary identity.
- Engage key social science literatures in organization and leadership in relation to church life and leadership.
- Reflect critically on specific missionary challenges of the participants’ contexts.
- Engage in action/reflection experiments intended to address those challenges.
- Articulate a renewed understanding of one’s pastoral identity and practice for 21st-century ministry.
How Does It Work?
Learning community participants commit to a 12-month training process.
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Three in-person gatherings
There are three in-person gatherings of three days each.
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Regular video coaching
Go in-depth with a trusted mentor, without leaving your office.
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Portfolio
Learning and growth will be showcased by gathering artifacts over the course of the program.
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Selected reading and study
Between retreats and coaching sessions, enter both the biblical text and expert material to discover new paradigms for ministry.
Eligibility
There are spots for up to eight participants who can commit to this 12-month learning journey. Candidates from minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
The 2022 Missional Cohort Program for Episcopal Priests seeks ordained priests who have established basic pastoral competence yet hold promise for outstanding leadership in the church, with a significant time horizon in ministry ahead of them. Cohort candidates will therefore:
Possess at least three years of ministry experience following seminary
Be willing to take risks—personally and in their contexts—to learn and innovate in mission
Commit to participating in three three-day retreats and an estimated average of 2-4 hours/week of experimentation, study, and peer engagement outside of the retreats for the life of the 12-month program