The $2,500 award recognizes the congregation’s work in intentionally developing leaders. Faith Covenant Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, won the award last year and judged this year’s six entries.
Applicants described how the award money would be used to further leadership development within their congregation, says Phil Wright, director of discipleship initiatives for the conference.
The conference established the award in 2008 to “honor the significant leadership passion modeled by Neil in numerous Evangelical Covenant Church ministries,” Wright says. Josephson was president of Covenant Bible College for 16 years and also had served as pastor in other denominational congregations. He currently is pastor of Married Life Ministries at Bayside Covenant Church in Sacramento, California.
Josephson, for whom the award is named, also will provide consulting services to the congregation over the next year.
Lighthouse Pastor Glenn Peterson says the award will give the church the opportunity to turn its vision into reality. “You cannot separate healthy, vibrant churches from healthy, vibrant leaders,” Peterson says. “As we pursue God’s call for Lighthouse, it demands intentionally discovering, investing, developing and growing our leaders.”
The church’s stated vision is “Love. Live. Serve.” “We support this vision through spiritual formation and discipleship, community development, strategic service and decentralized leadership,” Peterson says.
The church is seeking to further develop its leadership multi-generationally. “Depending on how you define leadership, we have been blessed with older adults who are full of wisdom and experience, younger adults with ideas, passions and convictions to pursue, and emerging leaders – our students and young adults – with energy, open hearts and the willingness to get involved,” Peterson says.
The church listed four proposals in its application:
• Develop leadership awareness through assessments and a one-day workshop
• Deepen leadership integration through an eight-month commitment in which participants engage with a book and another person about the reading, as well as interview a leader. Recommended books for participants include Sacred Pathways, Celebration of Discipline, In the Name of Jesus, The Forgotten Ways, or Under the Unpredictable Plant.
• Over a six-week period, utilize church-wide small groups to explore vocation, identity, and discipleship using curriculum materials.
• Develop emerging leadership through intentional dialogue, materials and forum.
