Leadership Matters will help your church become aware of its strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership, providing a snapshot of leadership health throughout the church, which will then help you address these areas and become more effective.
Mission check-up, worship audit, Growing Healthy Churches: many churches have used a variety of such tools in recent years. Like regular medical check-ups, 'diagnostic checks' on aspects of a church's life can help you to rejoice in areas of good health and to spot weaknesses that could become serious.
Leadership is a key area. Bob Jackson, the former Archdeacon of Walsall, concludes from research in several dioceses: 'It is widely agreed that leadership is the single most important key to the growth of the church.'
Leadership Matters is about leadership rather than the overall leader. Leadership is corporate, and research suggests that effectiveness in mission is closely linked to effective leadership at every level of a church's life.
Using ten questions, the audit looks at Christian leadership: not just at some of the competencies which leaders, between them, need to have, but also at the Christian context in which this leadership operates.
To make best use of such a 'health check', most churches find that a friendly external consultant, who is a trained facilitator, can bring a degree of objectivity, ensuring the best, honest and realistic results.
The process
Your CPAS regional leadership development adviser will facilitate the audit and liaise with you throughout the process. They will provide a detailed outline of the process which may be summarised as follows:
- Preparation: the facilitator introduces to the importance of leadership as part of the main audit session. You may also want to spend time, as a church, exploring aspects of leadership before using the audit.
- Selection: you can choose who will be involved: a mixture of leaders and non-leaders, in order to ensure a wide perspective.
- Audit session: this is planned to last around two hours. It will include an introduction to leadership, the use of the audit tool to 'score' aspects of leadership, and a debrief.
- Follow-up: this will vary, depending on the outcome of the audit.
For more information, please contact Carol Kennedy on ckennedy@cpas.org.uk or 01926 458454.
