Enabling Leaders

Re: Constructive Anxiety, January

The editorial rightly notes that there are profound changes occurring in institutional Christianity in the West and encourages us all to listen for the Holy Spirit’s call to new directions to be more faithful to God. While many writers about organizational behaviour would disagree with the editor that anxiety can ever be a “good” tool to spur and sustain such change within an organization (similar to using fear to motivate Christian discipleship), the general point is correct: we in the PCC should welcome the opportunity to find effective ways to be a faithful, missional church that may lead to radically different attitudes and actions.

At St. Andrew’s Hall, the sole PCC theological college in Western Canada, we have been excited to develop over the past several years a vision and the resources for effective Christian leadership in a post-Christendom culture. While drawing approximately only five per cent of its budget from national PCC funding, St. Andrew’s Hall has been busy developing the financial, intellectual, organizational and spiritual muscle to launch a new way to equip ministers and other future leaders within and beyond the denomination. Just as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians that the one Holy Spirit distributes many different gifts to many different people, we at St. Andrew’s Hall after much consideration are convinced that limiting theological education to one institution denies the many gifts different groups and schools will bring to the future church. We are honoured to participate with many others in the denomination in educating and enabling leaders who seek and follow God’s will in the coming generations.