Planning Momentum Increases as Leadership Team Takes Shape
November 19, 2019 by Laura Aase
Beginning with an organizing retreat in August 2019 and over the course of the fall, the planning momentum of the Continuous Growth Pathway has steadily grown as the leadership team has taken shape. “The leadership structure is an intentional and critical part of the design for the Continuous Growth Pathway.” said Rev. Grady St. Dennis, who leads the new offering and whose vision served as the imagination catalyst that created the partnership between Gustavus and the ELCA Southern Minnesota Synods. “Every event and experience planned is the result of a careful process of listening to our rostered leaders and engaging them in the very design of each offering. We will not offer a resource, if our rostered leaders have not asked for it or had significant input in the design of it.”
The leadership team consists of four clusters that are organized around stage of ministry: First Call, Early Career, Middle Career, and Late Career. Each cluster has a Steering Committee made up of 8-10 rostered leaders in that stage of ministry and two Liaisons, who manage the overall planning work for the cluster. “Created by you. For you.” is more than a tagline for the Continuous Growth Pathway, it is the very thing that makes it all happen and relevant to our particular ministry context in Southern Minnesota!
From an overnight retreat to day-long gatherings to numerous Zoom meetings, the leadership team of nearly 40 rostered leaders has diligently met to discuss and plan the 2020 Continuous Growth Pathway program year. Susan Lange, who serves as the external evaluator for the program, pulled together the top ideas from the leadership team planning and put them into a survey format that was used at both of the synod Fall Theological Conferences to incorporate the input of the broader group of rostered leaders. The 2020 Continuous Growth Pathway schedule is the result of a robust planning process and an engaged network of colleagues.
Continuous Growth Pathway is a comprehensive leadership development and ministry support outreach of Gustavus Adolphus College in partnership with the Southeastern and Southwestern Minnesota Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for the rostered leaders of the synods and made possible by a generous grant from the Thriving in Ministry Initiative of the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Created in 2019, the Continuous Growth Pathway is an expansion of the Pastor-to-Pastor Program which Gustavus Adolphus College established in 2004 in partnership with the Southern Minnesota synods as a part of the Office of Church Relations outreach ministry of the college.
