sustain:if:able kiwi

Mastering Missional Leadership: A new training initiative

I wrote the following article for New Times, the South Australian Uniting church monthly magazine, who kindly gave me permission to reproduce it here, for readers not earthed South Australian soil.

Tim Costello, World Vision Australia CEO, noted recently: “Our leadership issues are not to do with our denominational structures. They are more to do with both our spiritual and our emotional intelligence.”

Uniting College has a mandate from Synod, to develop effective leaders for a healthy, missional church. For those beginning their formal training a new BMin has been devised that will focus on missional leadership.

But what about church leaders who have already concluded their training?

This question explains the launch, by Uniting College, of a Missional Leadership cohort within the Master of Ministry course. Participants can take all the components of the existing Adelaide College of Divinity Master of Ministry degree – coursework, guided reading, programme seminars and a ministry practice project – and approach them from a missional leadership focus.

Joining this stream is an invitation to work on missional change within one’s own ministry context. Growth as a missional leader is then foster by a combination of coaching, guided reading and peer cohort support.

In 2010, the College offered a short-course on Missional Church Leadership. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. “The Missional Leadership Course offers great participatory learning and course content that encourages thinking outside the square” noted one participant. Another described the course as “some of the best study time spent – linking the Bible with theory and practice.”

As the course ended, a realisation was shared that the missional leadership learning journey had only just begun. Leadership development requires both intentionality and companions in a shared pilgrimage. From this awareness arose the idea of forming a Missional Leadership cohort within the Master of Ministry programme.



If you are a person whose initial training did not include a focus on mission and leadership, if you want to enhance your missional leadership skills, and if you understand the value of collegial support in cultivating change in your ministry context, this Missional Leadership stream is for you.

 The plan is to pilot this course in 2011. Prompt expressions of interest are required for this to happen. For more, check out page 3 of the (1 meg) PDF download



Side bar article: 
A typical Missional Leadership cohort track 



Year one

Leadership 360: A confidential assessment of individual leader strengths and weaknesses. Insights are taken into the Coaching through years 2-4. 

Research methods: skills and practices for researching people and communities as “living libraries”

Peer support: A cohort that continues over the duration of the learning experience 



Year two
Coaching: To guide each individual in leadership development and mission planning
Missional Change project: An individual change project commences and continues in years 2-4
Mission as theology: Reading groups in recent theologies of mission 


Year three

Coaching, Peer Support and Missional Change project continue

Mission as change: Reading groups in leading change 


Year four

Missional Change project concludes: Portfolio of learning is submitted as a practicum thesis 
Mission as practice: Reading groups in mission life