Thriving in Ministry

Friends in Christ,

As church leaders, we have heard you asking for more tools, more support to help your church community thrive. This year, we are thrilled to invite you to an opportunity to participate in a new vitality initiative of the dioceses, Thriving in Ministry.

Last June, a small group of Eastern and Western Michiganders traveled to Virginia Theological Seminary for a one week training to serve as our initial team of mentor/coaches for this two-year, cohort-based program. Together with participants in peer learning groups, we’ll engage and build capacity around connection and bridge building, engaging the local community, collaboration and lay leadership, setting and meeting learning goals, contextualizing the Gospel, new pathways for spiritual practices, assertiveness and conflict adeptness, and bridging the gaps between churchwide patterns and ethnic realities. Logistically, we will:

• Gather in cohort groups, each composed of up to eight participants and two mentor coaches
• Meet nine times per year (monthly, with a hiatus) for approximately two hours at a time over the two-year commitment
• Meet one-on-one, participant-to-coach, for one hour of one-on-one coaching per month for nine months

This program has been considerably subsidized by diocesan congregational development funding. The cost to the participant is $425 per person per year. If this cost would impede your ability to participate, we have limited scholarship funds available–please request a scholarship on the application form.

Each peer learning group is made up of individual leaders from a congregation (you don’t have to attend as a team from one place). All gatherings will meet via Zoom unless the particular group requests to meet in-person. In this pilot year, we will accept 24 participants. The deadline to apply is April 15th and cohorts will begin meeting in early May.

As a congregational leader, we hope you will commit to this exciting program, continuing to build the congregational development capacity of our leaders and congregations. We look forward to working with you!

Sincerely,

The Thriving in Ministry Team
The Rev. Heather Barta – CR, Eastern Michigan

The Rev. Paul Brunell – Christ Church, Owosso

The Ven. Beth Drew – Archdeacon, Western Michigan

Dr. Nancy Foster – St. Mary’s, Cadillac; Former Interim Coach for Northern Collab, Congregational Development

The Rev. Pamela Lenartowicz – St. Mark’s, Atlanta and St. Andrew’s, Gaylord

With support from:
The Rev. Canon Sunil Chandy – Canon for the Central Collaborative and Coach for Digital Communities

The Rev. Canon Tracie Little, D. Min. – Canon for the Southern Collaborative and Coach for Adult Formation

The Rev. Canon Nurya Love Parish – Canon for the Northern Collaborative and Coach for Beloved Community/Creation Care

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