On this fifth Thursday of the month, we want to take that opportunity to share with you what is going on around Living Leadership, where we see God at work and what we are seeking him for going forward.
We’re praising God for….
…time spent as a team
At the end of September, the Living Leadership Network met in Derbyshire for its Annual Gathering, bringing together staff, Associates, and Trustees from across the UK and Ireland for two days of reflection and fellowship. This important event in our organisational calendar offered an opportunity to reflect on the past year’s successes and challenges while refocussing on the vision and mission of the ministry as we head into this new ministry year.
We engaged in meaningful discussions, sharing updates on the ministries we are all involved in, where we have seen God at work through this ministry, and we thought through future activities we could do locally and nationally to support more leaders and spouses in the coming year.
It was also an encouragement simply to be together. As a growing team scattered across the UK and Ireland and who only usually meet monthly online, the Annual Gathering offers us plenty of time to chat over a coffee or dinner; meeting new people and catching up with those we haven’t seen properly since the year before.
We are so thankful for such a precious time together and look forward to seeing what God will do with many of the ideas sparked there.
…our recent Formation Residential Conference
September is a busy time for Conferences for Living Leadership. In addition to the gathering, we also held the first Formation Residential Conference for this academic year.
Formation Residential Conferences are designed for new leaders to complement the training offered by the church. It is focused on helping those starting out in ministry to ask “What does healthy Christian leadership look like?”.
We were delighted to be joined by 25 leaders at our September Conference, looking at the book of Philippians and topics such as ‘enjoying God’s grace’, ‘living in the love of God day-by-day’, and ‘loving the Church’. As team, it was also such an encouragement to be able to meet one-to-one with the delegates and pray for them for the upcoming year.
We look forward to reconnecting with many of these delegates, and any additional delegates, at the March Conference.
…the launch of Sabbaticals Toolkit
Earlier this month we launched a brand-new Sabbaticals toolkit, available to purchase through our online shop (or free to those churches signed up to the Leadership Commitments Scheme).
This 40+ page toolkit is designed to help individuals and churches plan, prepare and get the most out of a sabbatical.
Sabbaticals play a vital part in maintaining the spiritual health of Christian leaders and enriching and sustaining their leadership. That is the conviction behind this toolkit. Living Leadership Associate Richard Underwood puts it like this:
"By setting aside a few months for sabbath rest we are able to dramatically disconnect from life and work as usual and bring ourselves more fully to God and his call upon our lives."
For this to happen, a leader needs to be released; that is, given permission and support by others in the church or organisation so that the sabbatical season can be guilt-free and well-resourced. This toolkit was written to help organisations and churches to do this.
We have been so encouraged by the many leaders already purchasing this resource and hope the Lord will continue to use it to support and resource many.
We’re praying for…
…upcoming events we’re attending
Next week several of our team will be out on the road meeting people from across the UK.
Some of our Northern Irish team will be manning a stand at the Northern Ireland Ministry Assembly (NIMA) and others of our team will be manning a stand at the FIEC Conference, where Marcus will also be leading a seminar stream for those early in ministry.
If you plan to be at either of those events, pop along to say hello to our team.
We’d love for you to join us in praying that we might be able to connect many more leaders and spouses with support through these events.
…Refreshment Days & Pastoral Refreshment Conferences
We are looking ahead to several more Refreshment Days happening in South East England, Moorlands College and Dublin, and our Pastoral Refreshment Conferences in February, in Hertfordshire and the Lakes. These are brilliant opportunities for those in ministry and their spouses to take a day away to receive from the Lord.
We're praying that these spaces might be an oasis for church leaders and their spouses to rest, recuperate and rediscover the wonder of God's grace in Christ.