Programs: Sustaining Pastoral Excellence

With support from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Lewis Center for Church Leadership has initiated a variety of different cohort groups that provide ongoing leadership development for church leaders. These peer-learning cohort groups address special challenges that come when clergy face critical junctures in ministry, such as entry to ministry, stepping into denominational leadership for the first time, or beginning ministry in a new setting. These junctures present the kind of challenges that require a leader to grow. They are "teachable moments”" for leadership development.

Similarly, congregations also face leadership challenges that come at critical junctures in ministry, for example when a congregation is seeking to take the next step toward congregational growth.

In the first phase of its Sustaining Pastoral Excellence work (2004-2008) the Lewis Center created eleven peer-learning cohorts for clergy leaders. In the second phase of the program, the Lewis Center is currently sponsoring two types of peer learning cohorts – The Lewis Fellows program for outstanding young clergy and a series of regional Lewis Learning Communities, which are affinity groups and peer learning communities for clergy and lay leaders focused on the goal of increasing worship attendance.