Articles

Faith And The City Leadership Institute “Graduates” Inaugural Class

Faith And The City e.Letter
June 15, 2005

They are black, white, Latina, Asian, and “other.” Each has a strong affiliation with an established faith tradition – Jewish, Muslim, Bahai’i, or Christian. Each plays a significant leadership role in a faith community. They are an interfaith blend of – to borrow Christian terminology – ordained and lay leaders. They are actively engaged in a wide range of professional and personal pursuits. In short, they are a group of 23 women and men that is arguably as diverse as the Atlanta metro community of the 21st century.

On the surface at least, the members of this group might seem to have little in common with one another. Yet, they chose to spend a full day together during each of the first six months of this year. Why? Because what they do share is a commitment to – in the phrase they crafted together – “strengthening the Atlanta regional community across faith lines, through faith ties.”

They are the inaugural class of the Faith And The City Leadership Institute, and they recently completed a 6-month “intentional learning experience” to enhance their skills as people of faith – as public religious leaders working within their own faith traditions and working together for the greater good of the regional community.

The Leadership Institute’s goal is “to identify, encourage, and support 21st century public religious leadership for the 20-county Atlanta regional community,” according to the organization’s founding director, Rev. Elizabeth Mitchell Clement. That commitment tracks with the mission of the Leadership Institute’s parent organization, Faith And The City, established in 1999 by former Ambassadors James T. Laney and Andrew Young to “nurture a spirit of mutual community, shared responsibility, and common destiny among the citizens of the Atlanta metropolitan region.”

Stated metaphorically, Rev. Clement explained, “We provide a container [the Leadership Institute experience] in which relationships can grow, dialogue can risk going beyond what was already known, and where these faith leaders can imagine the kind of community we would like to create together.”

Developed over a three-year period, the Leadership Institute is the product of an ongoing partnership that includes Faith And The City and four Atlanta-based seminaries – Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Columbia Theological Seminary, the Interdenominational Theological Center, and McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University. The Leadership Institute is funded in part by a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation.

The lead curriculum designer and lead facilitator was M. Frances Baldwin, Ed.D., a consultant who brought to the process more than 30 years of organizational and leadership development experience. Rev. Clement collaborated on curriculum design and served as co-facilitator.

The Leadership Institute was officially launched in January 2005 with the first of six monthly retreats for its participants, who are, in Rev. Clement’s words, “an extraordinary group of citizens and leaders whose commitment to this effort is humbling.”

Each retreat employs an action-learning process designed to: 1) nurture a sense of community, shared responsibility, and common destiny; 2) foster breakthrough thinking and action on complex regional issues; and 3) generate new strategies and approaches to decision-making and problem-solving in faith communities and in the public arena.

Although session descriptions focus on speakers and topics, Rev. Clement emphasized that every gathering heavily stresses, and is designed to maximize, dialogue between Leadership Institute participants and presenters, as well as among the participants themselves in small and large group settings.

“These conversations and a range of other activities are grounded in the Leadership Institute’s philosophy that ‘the sum of the participants is greater than the whole,’” Rev. Clement explained. “They are intentionally designed to engage participants in one another’s growth and development as well as in that of the presenters, the facilitators, and the program itself.”

Dr. Baldwin further underscored participant engagement as an essential component in the process. “Our participating faith leaders became a ‘temporary society’ on any day together – a society with a twofold purpose,” she explained. “First, they functioned as a model of how communities might see Atlanta’s reality together, in its diversity and complexity. Second, they practiced learning conversations that can lead to breakthroughs for collaborative action and decision-making that serve a wider public good. Our final retreat in June was given to capturing that experience.”

The end result will serve the metro area community through an entire generation, according to Rev. Clement. “At the end of the day, we hope to develop ‘an extended family of faith leaders’ who possess enriched capacities to lead and develop leadership within and beyond any single congregation or community,” she said. “They will also be inspired to lead and nurture leadership in the public arena in metro Atlanta and to stand together in support and solidarity for the work of strengthening the community as each new class grows the extended family.”

For more information on the Faith And The City Leadership Institute, click here, or contact Elizabeth M. Clement at emclement@faithandthecity.org or 404.523.5554, ext. 231.