Change at CPAS

It's interesting to see that CPAS are giving a major boost to the leadership development side of their work. Their vision over the next 5 years has some pretty ambitious goals:

• developing 25,000 men and women to become more effective in leadership
• equipping churches to train a generation of children and young people for leadership
• helping 600 18-25 year olds aspire to and prepare for leadership
• inspiring 150 leaders under the age of 30 to offer themselves for ordination, including pioneer ministry
• equipping 8,500 leaders to be effective in reaching and discipling children and young people through Ventures and Falcon Camps
• working with our 500 patronage churches to develop effective leadership
• promoting research and sharing expertise on issues of church leadership.

Having been through the Arrow Leadership Programme, run by CPAS, I can vouch for their expertise and commitment to excellence in all this. One day theological colleges and clergy training may start to take leadership training more seriously than ticking boxes for universities, but that day hasn't arrived yet. For me, Arrow filled a yawning hole in my training, and because it ran alongside day-to-day responsibilities in the parish, it could be applied and worked through in real life.

If you are looking to develop as a leader, or to find a good training package for full-time leaders in your church, I would thoroughly recommend Arrow. There is a lay training equivalent, 'Growing Leaders', which can be run in a local setting over a year or so. The training pack costs quite a bit, but the good news is that if you're anywhere near Yeovil you're welcome to borrow mine. I can also recommend the book of the same name, by James Lawrence, which distils much of the wisdom of Growing Leaders/Arrow into 1 volume. Alongside Hybels 'Courageous Leadership' it's one of the best single volumes on Christian leadership on the market....

(...though I picked up a copy of 'Leading out of Who You Are' by Simon Walker on our clergy conference, which looks very good and is getting a lot of good reviews)