OD751 Leading and Managing Your Ministry

Leith Anderson; 8 units

January 14 - 18, 2008

Pasadena, CA

Leadership is made of a thousand good decisions. Leadership is what the leader does. Living in an era of high expectations the leader must understand the context of leadership, the approaches to church leadership and how to turn leadership goals into everyday practice. Special focus will be on the leader in context—how to lead in a specific church at a specific time.

 

Leith Anderson’s many interests involve him in pastoring, teaching, writing, speaking, and leadership. Most important is his ministry as senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota since 1977. Wooddale Church not only ministers to thousands in metropolitan Minneapolis, but also serves as a teaching and laboratory church to others across the nation. Faith Matters is the daily radio program of Leith Anderson and Wooddale Church, heard in cities across America and overseas. Leith is the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Washington, DC, and board chair of Bethel University, St. Paul, MN.

 

Leith’s education includes Bradley University, Peoria, IL (BA in Sociology); Denver Seminary, Denver, CO (M.Div.); and, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California (D. Min.). His articles have been published in many periodicals and he has written numerous books including Dying for Change, A Church for the Twenty-First Century, Winning the Values War, Praying to the God You Can Trust, Leadership that Works, Becoming Friends with God, Jesus - An Intimate Portait, and How to Act Like a Christian. Leith and Charleen have known each other all of their lives and have been married to each other most of their lives. They have four children and make their home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. 

 

Note: Due to the imminent nature of this course, please notify us immediately if you are interested in attending, as you may still be able to audit. Call 626.584.5315 or email Julia Speck.

OD718 Beyond Hierarchy: Leadership as Co-Creation in the New Millennial Church

George Cladis & Sally Morgenthaler; 8 units

February 18 - 22, 2008

Littleton, CO

This class explores the theological and cultural support for "flatter" church organizations and includes a thorough examination of practical examples.  Former views of leadership as defined by position and micro-management are giving way to the concept of leader as one who leads by influence and serves as the catalyst for new possibilities.  Participants will learn the theoretical basis for this shift into a more co-creational, collaborative oriented model of ministry.  Leadership practices essential for releasing system-wide innovation - untapping the immense creative potential in their congregations – will be offered as practical resources for church leadership in the New Millennial Church.

 

Sally Morgenthaler, President of SJM Management Co., Inc, has been a major influence in the worship world for fifteen years.  Known best for her book, Worship Evangelism, her current work focuses on missional practices that emphasize a strong community presence and worship that reflects a congregation's servant, outward identity.  As part of her missional focus, Morgenthaler consults with congregations on the collaborative leadership styles that help them move from the maintenance patterns of organization to the innovative dynamics of organism.  Morgenthaler has taught graduate courses at Fuller Theological Seminary, Yale University, Asbury Seminary, Bethel Seminary, Texas Christian University, George Fox University, Mars Hill Graduate School, and Denver Seminary.  She is co-author of The Emergent Manifesto (Baker, 2006).

 

George Cladis is Vice President of Operations for T3 Micro, Inc., Bespoke Labs Equity Holdings LLC, and the Bespoke Labs Foundation.  He plays a key leadership role in operating a multi-million dollar global consumer products company headquartered in Venice, CA and most recently has taken the position of Executive Pastor at The New England Dream Center In Massachusetts.  He is author of Leading the Team-Based Church:  How Church Staffs Can Grow into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders, the first book in Leadership Network’s Religion in Practice Series with Jossey-Bass/J. Wiley.  Cladis spent the first part of his career leading churches that grew significantly.  Perplexed by church management issues, he pursued further research in the area of innovative leadership methods and models from a biblical and theological perspective.  He has taught his team-based approach, based on Scripture and the perichoresis of the Trinity, at seminaries, judicatories, conferences, churches and other institutions.  The founder of Cladis Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in new leadership methods, Cladis went to work for one of his business clients in 2005, being asked to bring his theologically based team model into the workplace where he continues to develop cutting-edge leadership models for meaningful labor.  Cladis earned his B.A. in Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary and D.Min. from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  He recently completed a three-year Pastor/Theologian program at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton, relating theological research to contemporary leadership patterns. 

 

Note: Due to the imminent nature of this course, please notify us immediately if you are interested in attending. Call 626.584.5315 or email Julia Speck.

MG731 Growing Churches in a Post-Christendom World

Eddie Gibbs; 8 units

April 7 - 11, 2008

Houston, TX

This seminar seeks to identify the key characteristics of the contemporary, post-Christendom ministry and mission contexts and address the challenges they present to the local church. With the contemporary scene, “traditional,” “modern” and “postmodern” mindsets prevail. The "modern" context refers to the self-confident, highly secular, rationalistic and humanistic worldview, whereas the "postmodern" reflects the collapse of the Enlightenment paradigm, and abandonment of the search for objective truth and meaning, and its replacement by a therapeutic and survival mentality, in a decentralized world of competing interests. It will identify and assess the moves being made towards a “missional” understanding of the Church and of the Emerging Church conversations currently taking place.

 

Eddie Gibbs is a Senior Professor in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California and Director of the Institute for the Study of Emerging Churches in the Brehm Center.  Dr. Gibbs also previously occupied the Robert Boyd Munger Chair of Evangelism and Church Renewal at Fuller.  He has forty-four years of experience in the ordained ministry in the Anglican Church. He served for three years as Associate Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills as well as with the South American Missionary Society in Chile, later acting as their Home Secretary.  Dr. Gibbs was for five years the Program Director responsible for the Church Growth ministries of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was for three years on loan to Mission England as National Training Director for six Billy Graham missions.

OD724 Misisonal Leadership: Character, Context and Challenge

Reggie McNeal; 8 units

August 4 - 8, 2008

Oahu, HI

It’s A.D. 30 all over again. The church is having to play catch up to the Spirit. Enter the missional church. The emergence of the missional church is showing signs of being the largest realignment of Christianity since the Reformation. This course explores the distinguishing contours of the missional church revolution as well as the leadership required by it. Major course attention will center on three primary shifts underway: the shift from an internal to an external focus, the shift from program-driven to people development as the core activity of the missional community, and the shift from church-based leadership to apostolic-era leadership.

 

Reggie McNeal is the Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network of Dallas, TX. His books, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church (Jossey-Bass 2003), A Work of Heart (Jossey-Bass 2000), Revolution in Leadership (Abingdon 1998), and Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders (Jossey-Bass, 2006) target issues critical to the formation and development of Christian leaders in North America. Dr. McNeal draws his insight from twenty years of local congregational ministry (10 years in various staff roles; 10 years as senior pastor), as well as from over a decade of consulting and speaking for denominational groups, para-church ministry organizations, seminars, and hundreds of local church leaders. He is married to Cathy and, together with their two daughters, lives in Columbia, South Carolina.