Leadership Institute
About the Leadership Institute
Organizational Leadership
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Educational Leadership: The Bishop as Teacher
Spirituality & Personal Growth
Spirituality & Personal Growth
The College for Bishops Leadership Institute was established to provide educational resources for new bishops as well as trending informational resources for all bishops. Spirituality & Personal Growth focuses on specific resources such as:
New items are added monthly. To comment on current items or suggest additional topics and/or resources, please use the feedback form at the bottom of this page.
Faith Practices & Pop Culture
Going Viral
The desire to see your own reality mediated back to you through social media is a distinctly modern impulse, and a really weird one at that. How does anybody who’s even a very minor social media celebrity have anything approaching a normal life? How would they ever be able to view their own sense of validation through anything other than their own existence being mediated back to them by strangers?
Ten Theses on Digitally Mediated Worship
In this time of dispersion, many churches have turned to tools of digital media for worship. Mediated worship, though less than ideal, has been helpful when so many aspects of our lives are less than ideal. Since these digital tools are likely to remain after the pandemic has passed, it is helpful to ask: How do digital tools change worship?
5 Reasons Why the Church of the Future Will Be Online
Digital ministry is paradigm disruptive. As we live more fully into the digital age, there will be decreased emphasis on video presentation of the worship experiences created for a crowd gathered together physically, and more worship and interactive possibilities designed entirely for and with people on the web. Twenty-first century people are embracing relationships and interactivity with passion, even as they are becoming less engaged with passive and institutional expressions of art, education, and other cultural experiences.
Sacred Cell Phones: How to Deal with Device Etiquette in Church
These days, we adults spend an average of 3 hours, 43 minutes on mobile devices every day. And if the grouchiness of church leaders is any indication, churchgoers have conspired to make Sunday mornings at 9:15 one of those hours. Here are a few ideas to ponder about cell phone use in church.
how to handle trolls and negative feedback on social media
The internet has given a voice to the trolls, the comment hecklers, and the self-important. Of course, it’s also given a voice to those who actually have something important to say or those who have a product that will make the world better. But, as they say, “a rising tide lifts all ships,” so the wise and the foolish are both amplified. The internet is that tide. Churches must exist online to cut through the over-saturated advertisement market and get noticed—so we can reach people who are not connected to Jesus where they already exist. But in doing so, you’re going to have to deal with the comment hecklers and trolls. Here are a few pertinent suggestions from Courageous Storytellers.
Older Adults are Techier than You Think
Older adults, as much as any other generation, want to know what is going on and are turning to social media to find out.. According to a Pew Research report about social media use, their favorite site is Facebook, with 65 percent of those 60 to 64 and 41 percent of those 65 and over using it to connect with friends. YouTube has similar numbers. It is with these things in mind that churches can begin approaching how to communicate with people over 65. Building relationships is the central purpose for using digital media in a church and this article from the United Methodist Church identifies five keys.
Rejoicing and Mourning Online
Many Christian leaders want to make sure their institutions are using the right technology for ministry. But social media use is also a pastoral issue; social media spaces are places where people experience both joy and pain, writes an associate research scholar at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture.