Faith Leadership Campus

The Rev. Tony Tian-Ren Lin, PhD speaks to members of the inaugural cohort of Trinity Leadership Fellows as they sit in the audience. He stands in front of a step-and-repeat that features Trinity Church Wall Street branding on it.

Welcome to Faith Leadership Campus, Trinity’s digital education platform.

Faith leaders who serve their congregations and communities may sign up and take any course, free of charge. We encourage all users to follow the order in which the courses are listed and, if possible, go through the program as a group. If you have a group of leaders you wish to take these courses with, please submit a request and we will create a learning space on this platform for your group to learn and grow together. 

TLF Core Courses

  • Faith, Values, and Leadership: Understanding Yourself as a Leader

    This course will help faith leaders reflect on the ways that their faith and values shape the way they lead. In many ways, this course is foundational for the other courses offered on this platform. Much of what we do and the reasons why do them are shaped by our personalities, beliefs, gifts, passions, pains and sorrows. Through six guided sessions, users will engage in various exercises of introspection to help them articulate the ways their faith and values influences the way they lead others. 

  • Community Organizing

    This course offers a theoretical and theological framework for addressing social needs through community organizing. It begins by discussing the world as it is and the world as God designed it to be and covers multiple theories of change, giving particular attention to community organizing. It covers practical strategies for building and exerting power by combining people’s interests and resources. 

    The material also addresses the importance of leading and developing leaders and using strategy to turn resources into power to achieve collective goals. In addition, it highlights the effectiveness of storytelling and the power of narratives to bring about social change. The course ends by mapping out a pathway for putting community organizing into practice.

  • Narrative Approaches to Conflict Transformation

    This course provides a systematic approach to conflict transformation utilizing narrative theories and practices. The course offers simple working frameworks for conflict, distinguishes between conflict management, resolution, and transformation, and introduces narrative theory as a theoretical and practical framework within which to understand and approach the transformation of conflicted contexts.  It includes several practices that support conflict transformation employing narrative theory. The practices can be applied in congregational and community contexts.

    Participants will learn to recognize the long and short-term organizational impact of different approaches to conflict. The course is presented on three levels: theoretical, personal, and communal. Materials include short videos, self-assessment and reflection, and readings.

  • Change Management and Organizational Development

    Effective leaders understand the importance of being able to manage change in the organizations they lead. This requires a high level of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and the ability to manage oneself amid anxiety and conflict. 

    Change management focuses on the techniques and skills of a leader, while organizational development focuses on culture change and identifying root causes of institutional dysfunction, considering how systemic shifts can take place that leads to institutional health and change.

    This course will help faith leaders become better equipped to effectively lead through change with confidence and integrity. Participants will work through eight sessions comprised of readings, video lectures, examination of case studies, self-examination, and practical application.

  • Non-Profit and Church Administration

    This course will examine the essential elements of management in ministry and non-profit organizations with an emphasis on church administration. These seven sessions will guide you through an exploration of the unique nature of leading and shepherding in the collaborative, interdependent body known as the church.

    Overseeing a church calls a person to many of the tasks and responsibilities of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  We assume that money, stewardship, human resources, technology, and organization are all critical aspects of the ministry of the church and non-profit organizations. The course will examine those aspects of ministry that go beyond preaching and teaching to administration management and finance in religious and non-profit organizations.

  • Adaptive Leadership and Systems Thinking

    Structured in six sessions, this course provides an overview of the building blocks of adaptive leadership and systems thinking. Participants will acquire diagnostic tools, intervention strategies, and resilience skills, enhancing their capacity to lead change and manage conflict in their organizations and in broader contexts.

    In each session, participants will analyze in depth a personal leadership case of their choice, putting into practice the lessons acquired throughout the course, overcoming personal obstacles, and reflecting on the values that guide their leadership practice. The materials of the course include short videos, slides, readings, and personal reflection exercises.

  • Social Entrepreneurship

    This course offers the participants the opportunity to explore how social entrepreneurs living their faith can cultivate community, economic progress, joy, and abundance for the common good.  It will explain the concept of asset-based community development, how it is practiced in communities, and how it relates to social entrepreneurship and enterprise. Successful entrepreneurs must learn to build and leverage community relationships with all stakeholders.  In this course, participants will learn specific skills to:

    • Develop methods for selecting projects 
    • Build effective and meaningful collaboration with stakeholders.  
    • Develop and implement effective fundraising methods
    • Discover social enterprise in communities
    • Define five types of social currency and how to use them within social enterprises
    • Use data to insure a return on investment and a return on community

Elective Courses

Faith and Finance

Instructor addresses Trinity Leadership Fellows.

This course teaches skills and strategies for reading and preparing financial statements and reports for a congregation. Participants will learn how to lead discussions that include the community in the congregation’s financial decision-making. This allows the church’s practice of shared possessions and authority to become an opportunity for Christian witness and formation, equipping disciples to carry out the mission of the church.

Introduction to Mission Real Estate Development

Secondary still camera photos from the MRED Workshop in Dodoma, Tanzania in September 2023.

Mission Real Estate Development (MRED) is the development of church property in a way that is both income-generating and missionally-aligned, to enhance the mission work of the church both programmatically and financially. This course provides an overview of the steps involved in a Mission Real Estate Development project and important guidance to follow for those interested in investing in an MRED project for their own church.
 

The Difference Course

Difference. The power of faith in a conflicted world

Difference is a five-session course developed by the Most Rev. Justin Welby, 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, that explores what it means to follow Jesus in the face of conflict and see transformation through everyday encounters. This course is designed for both large and small groups, meeting online or in person. It has been run in churches, home groups, prisons, and pubs to help followers of Jesus find their part to play in God’s story of restoration.

More about the Difference Course

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