What Would Make Your List for a Perfect Church Leader?
What do you think an ideal church leader or church planter looks like? What qualifications (character), skills and attitudes are needed as they train for future ministry? Questions like these have been rolling around my head the past few months. This isn’t just an academic exercise for me. Sure, I have been in discussions like this in seminary or with friends but right now this is different. Let me provide a little background and explain.
Even though the Evangelical Academy has been around for about five years we are continually learning and improving the way things are done. We have had quite a steep learning curve in learning the ropes in higher education. We have something really good that is meeting an immediate and future need but we could be better.
One way we are improving ourselves is by asking a series of questions from a variety of the schools stakeholders like, the school’s faculty, the school’s leadership board, the mentors of the students, Church leaders etc… Each group will discuss the same set of questions that will help gain a 360 view of what needs to be taken into prayerful consideration as we prepare the school’s curriculum.
Here are two of the first questions we are asking:
- What are some of the things that are hindering the spread of the gospel, and nurture of churches in Austria? This question is broken down into 1) external hindrances produced by the culture and context unique to Austria and 2) internal hindrances produced by the evangelical churches and It’s sub-culture.
- What type of person will it take to meet these hindrances? What skills, behaviors and character is needed? What can be developed through training, mentoring and practice?
The answers will be analyzed and synthesized in providing a graduate profile, a detailed description of what a graduate from the Evangelical Academy will be able to know, feel and do.
I have already done this myself identifying a number of unique things that pertain to Austria specifically. I believe this is of little help if one person provides a document like this. Ultimately, the document will be short sighted; having gaps in different areas and robs the leaders and stakeholders of gaining ownership of something they are all heavily invested in. That is why I am excited about starting this process with the schools leadership board toward the end of September.
After completing the graduate profile process, the next project is to look at our current curriculum to see if it addresses the necessary issues Austria is facing. My guess is many of the classes we already have are good but there will need to be some adjustments as to the content and approach for teaching. I also am excited to see if any new classes or emphases are needed.
As you can see I am excited about this and am glad to be a part of this process. Many of the things I am learning in my doctoral classes I am able to put into immediate use. I am indebted to Robert Ferris and Perry Shaw for the time they took in teaching and talking with me this past year.
I will keep you posted on the process. I am sure it will be interesting to see how this plays out in real life. Making plans on paper always seems so simple yet when it leaves the table and enters the real world it takes on a different life.
EVAK Kick-off Weekend
EVAK Faculty, Students and Families Hiking
Two weeks ago the Evangelical Academy had a kick off weekend for all the students, faculty and family members. It was great to see everyone all together in one place since our classes are held at nights and some weekends and at any given time we only see a handfull of people.
We had times of singing, prayer and were challenged with a thought provoking devotional. The EVAK is a strategic tool in building up God’s church and spreading the gospel in Austria. In recent years long term missionaries are retiring and returning home and are not really being replaced. This provides a great opportunitiy for Austrians to take their rightful place in leading the church in Austria. Unfortunately, according to a collegues research there has been a decline in Austrian church leaders. One of our desires is to see many of our students be equipped and carry on the work.
A week ago, before the first night class all the students gathered to hear announcements for the coming school year. Our library has moved in to the basement providing more space for new books and freeing up the old library room to be our main classroom. We had 32 students and the room was full. I was standing outside the door it was so full. It was really encouraging to see what was going on. We had new people show up we didn’t even know about who signed up for classes.
Pre-accreditation visit here and gone
Last week was pretty busy with all the meetings we had with the Pre-accreditation team. They worked all Tuesday afternoon and late into the evening amongst themselves going over what they had read about our academy and the different interviews they conducted in the day and a half they were here. On Wednesday morning they presented their findings to the leadership team before they flew back to their homes and ministries.
I am really pleased with their evaluation as I think they were able to really able to understand what we have accomplished in the last five years as well as understand our ministry context.
Here is the bottom line as I see it. We have to have a few students to complete our whole program even before they think about granting accreditation so we are looking at maybe two more years (this fall we should have our first graduate). In the mean time we can work on the areas that they recommend to get up to standard and I think we would be granted accreditation to at least two of the three programs rather quickly upon their next visit.
One strong recommendation they gave was to concentrate on the program that is on the level of a BTh. Right now we have a one year certificate and a two year program that is on the level of an MTh. All of the core teachers we have are pursuing their doctorate in their fields. The EEAA stipulates that the teachers have to already obtain their degrees to be considered in compliance.
Here is the breakdown of their review of our school.
14 areas with 90 sub-points
- 48 sub-points are in full compliance
- 19 sub-points are in partial compliance
- 16 sub-points that work needed
- 5 sub-points that much work needed (all having to do with graduated students and alumni which we don’t have any yet not)
- 2 N/A
My work in this was affirmed in the report as well. It is encouraging to know that my contributions are recognized in their report they said that the “Management and organization of daily operations are in very capable hands (Michaela K., Werner W., Eric McCauley).”
I find it exciting to be on the cutting edge of training Austrians for ministry and leadership positions in churches. Thanks to all who have been praying for this and continue to pray that we in leadership would know how to best teach, train and mentor those who want to serve our Lord in ministry.
Pre-Accrediting Visit from EEAA
Well after a year and a half the European Evangelical Accrediting Association (EEAA) has sent a team of three people from different theological schools to come and evaluate us at the Evangelical Academy (EVAK).
I have been the project manager for this and have put many hours into this as we are seeking to have three programs accredited.
Christy says I need to tell what this all means in a way that people’s eyes don’t glaze over when I try to explain what this actually is. Basically the accrediting association evaluates us to see if 1) we have clear goals and processes to achieve these goals and 2) if we are reaching these goals we have set.
In order to do this efficiently we have prepared about 300 pages of documentation on requested material and sent it to them last October and now three people are visiting for 2 1/2 days. In these days they are here they basically do interviews with everyone that is involved in the Academy. We have had meetings with faculty, office staff, the leadership team, board of trustees, church leaders in groups and then they have talked individually with some of us to see how things really work.
As I type the three that are visiting us are writing the report and will give us a presentation tomorrow morning at 10. I haven’t done a big project like this in years and it reminds me of a big school project only this means much more!
Just in their questions I have already identified some areas that I think we need to improve and in others I feel we have done a really. Now I guess I need to wait and see what they say tomorrow.
