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| Susan Townsley |
by Rev. Susan Page Townsley
Are gifts for leadership God-given or learned skills? Yes!
Yes, some people seem to be especially gifted for the work of leading God’s people through challenges of our times. Yes, others have learned skills as they have loved the church of Jesus Christ, and labored on its behalf. In my new work on Transformational Leadership I hope to engage people in the work of learning and honing leadership skills.
Leadership for the church requires faith, self-discipline, organizational understanding, theological grounding and the company of others engaged in the work of building the kingdom. Keeping an eye to the variety of ways that people learn, I hope to equip leaders - lay and clergy - with new skills, to strengthen existing skills, and to envision what gifts are needed for the ministry into which God is calling us.
My work is both to resource my Regional colleagues as they work with local churches and to keep an eye to offerings for the whole conference. Your Regional Minister is equipped to offer programs for deacons, for example in the local church, even while we are working on a deacon’s gathering. We are especially pleased to be offing a two-day program on Systems thinking and leadership skills for clergy and lay leaders November 4th and 5th, with leadership by the widely respected Lombard Mennonite Peace Center.
Even as God’s grace transforms us from no people into God’s people, leadership skills transform faithful church members into able church leaders, who in turn transform our churches into vibrant communities of faith.
Rev. Susan Page Townsley is Regional Minister for the Fairfield County Region of the Connecticut Conference, serving Fairfield East and Fairfield West Associations.
