Christian churches are facing increasing challenges to their vitality, including a declining interest and participation among young people and an increasing number of people who claim no religious identity, as well as broader cultural challenges to their existence and vitality. While some leaders are successfully addressing these challenges, others are searching for ways that they might develop programming and ministries to better meet the many challenges they face.
Our project will identify a diverse group of 15 Christian church leaders in Southern California and invite them to be a part of a multi-year project in which they will develop learning relationships with each other and focus on how they can develop new or newly adapted priorities and programs that build on their core teachings, practices, and traditions within Christianity, while taking into account current challenges and opportunities. Through group activities such as experiential learning and retreats, as well as individual learning and mentoring, the project will prepare church leaders to identify, understand and contextualize both the challenges and the opportunities they and their congregations face. The program will provide opportunities for participants to critically evaluate their own leadership skills and the state of their congregations in order to lay a strong foundation from which to develop new perspectives on their work. In turn, leaders will be equipped to gain a better understanding of the needs of their congregations and the communities they serve, and to determine how they might more creatively respond to those needs, whether through new, or newly adapted ministries and opportunities for their congregations. By creating a space for leaders to engage with and learn from each other, and to develop mutually supportive relationships, we intend that the project will serve to create a community of learning, resources and support among this cohort of church leaders in Southern California that can serve as a model for other church leaders in the region.