Partnering with the LIFT Project

A few weeks ago, Willow Creek Association tweeted out to folks looking for partners to collaborate with them in the next round of classes being offered as part of their LIFT Project. LIFT (Leadership Institute for Transformation) is teaching ministry leaders to learn and lead in ways that are intended to be transformational for ourselves and our ministries. Class began today with introductions and I will be blogging about my experiences as a participant in the LIFT Project.

One of the reasons the project attracted me was because it was a new model for how churches can use social media to talk to people they might not see inside their buildings. Willow Creek is based out of South Barrington, Illinois and I’m almost 700 miles southeast of there, so I don’t think I’ll be darkening the church’s doors this Sunday. While some of my classmates are in Illinois, several more are on the East Coast and in Canada and one is on another continent. Through social media (#chsocm), faith communities can join in conversation about ministry and leadership despite the distance, and it widens that conversation so that we have larger group of us talking asynchronously about the challenges and joys we encounter in ministry.

Another reason I dove into the project is because Willow Creek offered a class called The Leader’s Soul that is focused on caring for ourselves as ministry leaders, recognizing how our health and wellness affects our leadership. Throughout the four years of my seminary education there has been a consistent emphasis on the importance of balancing the emotional, spiritual, financial, physical and intellectual demands and passions in our lives and achieving, or at least pursuing, wholeness in these areas. It remains a challenge and I am excited about the accountability and structure that being part of a class provides.

Last but not least, I like learning! As a distributed learning student at Luther Seminary, I’m comfortable in online learning environments but this course provides me with a new experience in a system other than the one we use for my MDiv studies.  I enjoy the opportunity to think through the elements that strengthen the educational experience and the new perspectives that are brought to the table when you bring people together from different parts of the country and the world.

If you'd like to join the conversation, I hope you'll share how you care for yourself so that you can both listen and lead, too.