Leadership

Equal opportunities for women and men

What guides Lutheran leaders today and how are LWF’s shared vision and values applied in church leadership? The LWF leadership program invites church leaders and people in leadership positions to explore and reflect on leadership together and enhance their ability to uphold a strong sense of identity as leaders in the Lutheran communion.

The program seeks to inspire lifelong learning and nurture LWF’s values — dignity and justice, compassion and commitment, respect for diversity, inclusion and participation, transparency and accountability—in leadership. As a communion of churches, LWF strives for equal opportunities of all women and men to access leadership positions while promoting their meaningful participation in the church. Accompanying each other in leadership development, fostering mutual learning and sharing enables all people to utilize their full potential in the Lutheran communion.

church-leaders-closing — A group of recently elected Lutheran church leaders took part in a week-long program at the LWF Communion Office to learn more about LWFâs work and exchange ideas from their respective regions. Photo: LWF/S. Gallay

Leadership Accompaniment and Continuous Learning

Church leadership is a calling and at the same time an ongoing vocation that needs to be practiced and developed. There is always more to learn and explore for everyone. Diverse contexts and changing circumstances in which leaders carry out their ministries require willingness to develop skills and acquire knowledge. The LWF leadership program invites member churches to participate in a continuous journey of leadership and life-long learning.

Management and Good Governance

The LWF Communion Office supports member church initiatives in management and good governance. Rather than facilitating or granting financial support for one-time training the focus is on organizational development processes, which aim at sustainable results including changes in church structures, policies, practices and models in decision making. This kind of transformation goes beyond performing tasks and is often a matter of changing mindsets, attitudes and organizational cultures.

Newly Elected Leaders

This is a leadership development process for newly elected church leaders, namely bishops and pastor presidents. The program consists of biblical, theological, leadership and management learning/sharing modules, which are implemented through a combination of individual and peer learning, online workshops and in-person retreats in Geneva and in Wittenberg, Germany. The retreats are organized in collaboration with the LWF Center Wittenberg.

Lay Leaders

The leadership development process is aimed at non-ordained leaders of LWF member churches. The program consists of biblical, theological, leadership learning/sharing modules, which are implemented as a combination of individual and peer learning, online workshops and in-person seminars in Geneva and Wittenberg. The program is organized in collaboration with the LWF Center Wittenberg.

Youth

The LWF Youth Program empowers and supports youth leaders across the communion and works with the member churches to include youth more fully in leadership as well.

This cross-cutting work is done in collaboration with partners across the LWF, and is currently coordinated primarily through the work of the following programs.

Programmatic Subsites

Member church projects

The LWF supports member churches to enhance their participation in God’s holistic mission and to improve their ability to plan, monitor, implement and report on projects in a professional manner.

Applications for LWF Member Church Projects

Women’s Participation and Leadership

Standing for gender justice is essential to LWF’s identity as a communion of churches. The LWF seeks to promote the equal dignity of every person created in God’s image through the empowerment of women’s leadership

Programmatic Subsites

Diakonia and Development

Diakonia refers to the call to respond to human suffering and injustice. It is a central pillar of the holistic mission of churches in the world. The LWF Communion Office supports the member churches in different areas of their diaconal engagement for the wider community. Besides supporting churches’ own local diaconal initiatives through project support (see member church projects), the Communion Office coordinates global initiatives focusing on different themes