Historical Origins

Historical Origins:
The Academy is funded by A Time to Grow initiative, which is connected to the Congregational Development Fund, Inc. To date, 63 donors have pledged $1.6 million, with a goal of $5 million. The Time to Grow initiative came originally from an effort for planting new churches started by Bishop Marion Edwards. In 2003, Dr. Mike Ward, Rev. Leonard Fairley , Mr. Larry Coats, the Honorable Mr. Norris Tolson and others worked to expand this vision, primarily from a focus on land to leader development. During this time, a concept of developing leaders by creating an academy began to grow and funds were solicited.
At the time of Bishop Gwinn 's initial visit to our conference, a group of lay persons met with the Bishop to share their evolving vision and dream. They found in Bishop Gwinn one who embraced, championed, and expressed ownership in this vision and the establishment of an academy.

Historical Context:
The creation of a leadership academy in our annual conference is a faith-based, Spirit-directed event. Over the last three to five years a group of lay and clergy leaders have prayed, discussed, studied, and discerned an opportunity where clergy and laity can learn together through a series of short-term and long-term courses that provide practical and relevant learnings to be applied in local congregations, as well as other leader development activities.
The earliest documentation about the Academy identified a desire to develop a leadership academy to train leaders "for new churches, struggling churches, and other areas of need for the conference."
In 2004-2005, a visioning team of seasoned pastors; business, educational, and governmental leaders; church leadership authors and experts; new church pastors; and divinity school leaders gathered for eight months to begin the work of charting a plan of action for leadership development for our conference. Looking at the research, literature, and also the best practices in religious practical leadership education, as well as secular, they made the following recommendations which involved an expansion of their early description:

•  The identification and assessment of persons for a leadership pool for new church starts.
•  The equipping of congregational lay and clergy leaders through excellent educational events     facilitated by the best national, regional, and local leadership.
•  The creation of a coaching and mentoring network.

The Academy is not just a leader/leadership program, but rather a leader development process. The Academy will be instrumental in the creation of a system that will enable clergy and lay church leaders to be resourced and supported throughout their ministry. We are not seeking to create programs for leadership, but rather to utilize the best adult-learning methodologies and opportunities to develop leaders, create ongoing-transformational environments, and to build in a process of continual learning.

The Academy is not a place of remediation and reform with regard to clergy leadership and the evaluation of effectiveness.

The Academy is rooted in the foundational concepts of leader development and leadership development:
Leader development is the expansion of a person's capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes. Leadership roles and processes are those that facilitate setting directions, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment in groups of people who share common work.
Leadership development is the expansion of the organization's capacity to enact the basic leadership tasks needed for collective work, setting direction, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment.
The following is a vision for how the Academy and the Office of Congregational Development will work together. Borrowing from the research findings of the Center for Creative Leadership, individual leader learning and transformation at the Academy level is about expanding a person's capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes; while congregational leadership development is about expanding the church's capacity to enact the basic leadership tasks needed for collective work: setting directions, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment.