The Convergence Leadership Project (CLP) is an online, on-demand small group program for clergy and laity who want to strengthen their church while preparing for the cultural changes that impact ministry. Throughout this program, we work together to build a church that is welcoming in new people and younger generations to become spiritual activists to care for the planet, seek justice for the poor, welcome vulnerable people, and work for peace across racial, religious, political, and cultural divides.
CLP provides self-guided intensives to equip and inspire you and your congregation to be long-term contributors in a vital spiritual movement taking shape around the world. Participants are eligible to receive a Certificate in Convergence Leadership with the purchase and successful completion of the full online course package.
Goals of the Program:
- To liberate participants from ignorance, superficiality, blame, and shame by helping them understand the complex causes of decline in “organized religion.”
- To inspire participants with a fresh vision of Christian faith as “organizing religion” – a movement of spiritual activists organized for mission in their homes, neighborhoods, professions, communities, economies, and political arenas.
- To train participants in what instructor Brian McLaren has called “a generous orthodoxy” or “a new kind of Christianity” – a shared Christian ethos that can be expressed in a variety of denominational and cultural contexts.
- To equip senior ministers and others to develop a unified public voice to speak pastorally and prophetically into the life of their region, nation, and world.
- To articulate a shared vision for their region and develop a shared strategy for “seeking first the commonwealth and justice of God” (Matthew 6:33) in their region.
- To help the cohort agree upon and embody a shared ethos of “just and generous Christianity” that they will practice through their various congregations.
- To help regional cohorts build collaborative alliances with other like-hearted faith communities (Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, etc.) and secular groups, and to equip cohorts to interact creatively with faith communities whose vision and values differ.
- To link regional cohorts with their counterparts in other regions to build a long-term movement of just and generous Christianity in North America and beyond.
