Growth is fundamental in the natural world and in the spiritual life. When vitality is lagging, whether in the lives of leaders or congregations, the spiritual work needed is revitalization. In this cohort, Asbury’s Doctor of Ministry Program partners with FaithWalking to offer their widely-tested “Congregational Transformation” process that helps leaders master a retreat-based formation process. The process is replicated throughout a congregation to as many who are willing to engage in this discipleship renewal process. The experienced faculty for this cohort believe that if leaders can find safe places to surrender masks, reinvest in spiritual intimacy and avail themselves freshly to the Spirit’s leading, everything changes.
Participants in this cohort: • Experience a series of FaithWalking Leadership Renewal Retreats (See: 101-401 Retreats at FaithWalking.us). • Reflect theologically and socially on the transferrable implication of formation principles experienced during pre- and post-residency coursework. • Diagnose revitalization opportunities and obstacles in the systems and practices of congregational communities represented. • Replicate this renewal process in the communities they lead, conducting evidence-based ministry transformation research projects as they do.
Faculty Bio Rev. Jim Herrington is a pastor of 41 years. He has served as a denominational executive and has worked with hundreds of congregations from a variety of traditions around the challenges of personal and congregational transformation. He is the co-author of three books, and currently serves as the Team Leader for Faithwalking, a multi-year spiritual formation process that equips individuals and congregations for missional living. Rev. Trisha Taylor is a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a licensed psychotherapist. Along with Jim Herrington, she is a co-author of The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation and is a co-founder of the discipleship process FaithWalking. Together, they have worked intensively on fostering personal and congregational transformation in multiple locations. Dr. Bryan D. Sims is Associate Professor of Leadership and Lay Equipping and the Director of the Center for Lay Mobilization within the Beeson International Center at Asbury Theological Seminary. He has worked since 2001 as a Leadership and Organizational Change Coach with Spiritual Leadership, Inc. (SLI) where he has trained and coached leaders, teams, churches and organizations over extended periods of time to bring spiritual awakening and missional effectiveness.
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“Unless a grain of wheat be planted and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24 Class Descriptions I. Leadership that Transforms Congregations: Spiritual Formation This course equips participants to become highly effective change agents. Through critical reflection upon theory, theology, practices and models, participants develop an understanding of the nature of the work of spiritual formation. These foundations contribute to the vitality of leaders and the development of a contextualized plan that produces leaders with the capacity to embrace change.
III. Leadership that Transforms Congregations: Adaptive Leadership Skills Participants explore the use of diagnostic leadership practices, learning organizational principles, examining change theories, and evaluating congregational dynamics. As a result, participants will distinguish between operational leadership and situational leadership, demonstrating an understanding of adaptive leadership skills and developing a plan for establishing an effective learning organization in their context.
II. Leadership that Transforms Congregations: Managing Yourself in Anxious Systems Change produces anxiety; anxiety undermines leadership initiatives. Through a critical examination of systems and theological reflection, participants will learn to lead through change. As participants learn to integrate theory into practical strategies, they will be equipped with a process to develop other congregational leaders, yielding an environment for successful change initiatives in their context.
IV. Leadership that Transforms Congregations: Understanding the Context Existing congregations generally have a high internal focus. Developing the capacity to understand and engage the missional field - the context in which the congregation exists - is essential to the transformation of the congregation. In this seminar, students will explore the emerging and rapidly changing culture to develop contextuallyintelligent transformational agents within their congregations.
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY Leading a Legacy