This year, we are thrilled to invite you to an opportunity to participate in a new vitality initiative of the dioceses, Thriving in Ministry. 

Last June, a small group of Eastern and Western Michiganders traveled to Virginia Theological Seminary for a one week training to serve as our initial team of mentor/coaches for this two-year, cohort-based program.

Together with participants in peer learning groups, we’ll engage and build capacity around connection and bridge building, engaging the local community, collaboration and lay leadership, setting and meeting learning goals, contextualizing the Gospel, new pathways for spiritual practices, assertiveness and conflict adeptness, and bridging the gaps between churchwide patterns and ethnic realities.

Logistically, we will:

• Gather in cohort groups, each composed of up to eight participants and two mentor coaches

• Meet nine times per year (monthly, with a hiatus) for approximately two hours at a time over the two-year commitment

• Meet one-on-one, participant-to-coach, for one hour of one-on-one coaching per month for nine months