Our aims are:
- To equip congregational clergy and lay leaders with the knowledge, skills and practices needed to develop their congregations into healthier and more faithful communities of faith and organizations.
- Healthy, sustainable congregations grounded in a robust identity that is rooted in an Anglican ethos and spirituality.
- Leaders that are both self-defined and connected to their communities of faith. Leaders who are both aware of and responsive to the particular challenges and opportunities before them.
- A common language and community of practice around congregational development in the Diocese. Stronger connections among congregational leaders for the purposes of learning, community, mutual encouragement, and inspiration.
- The creation of useful training programs that can be shared freely and used by others in the broader Church.
The outcomes we seek in the core program are:
- Congregations that are grounded in Christian faith and practice within a living Anglican/Episcopal tradition
- More vital, sustainable congregations capable of responding to cultural and community context and to the unique and changing opportunities and issues before them.
- Congregational leaders who are grounded in their own Christian, Anglican/Episcopal tradition, have a wider range of ways to lead and intervene in the life of their congregations and are more skilled at leading and intervening.
- The development of a common language and community of practice around congregational development. Stronger connections among congregational leaders across the Diocese of Olympia for the purposes of learning, community, mutual encouragement and inspiration.
Format and Design
The program will draw on a) organization development theory and practice, b) congregational development theory and practice, c) theory and practice related to healthy, responsive leadership and ) current and traditional understandings of Anglican/Episcopal ethos, culture, spirituality and ways of being the church today.
The training will consist of readings, presentations, experiential exercises, application activities, and back-home projects and will be offered in two formats:
- Six 1-day sessions for each of two consecutive years, or
- Two seven-day intensive sessions over two consecutive summers.