Supporting Local Formation
Funded by the Lilly Endowment’s Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative, Locally Grown Leaders allows diocesan schools of ministry in the Iona Collaborative network to customize their programs for maximal missional impact. While each grantee school has a unique project appropriate to their context, all Locally Grown dioceses will be connected through a shared commitment to 1) data-driven diocesan school program planning and evaluation; and 2) comprehensive student assessment keyed to common skills matrices that measure preparedness for ministry. These centralized initiatives will provide both the Iona Collaborative and the wider church with the most complete data ever on the efficacy of local formation for lay and ordained ministry.
Supporting Rural Churches
The Locally Grown Leaders project is one of 20 projects funded through the Lilly Endowment’s Ministry in Rural Churches and Small Towns Initiative. As stated in the initial request for proposals, the primary goal of this invitational venture is to “support and enhance the vibrancy of Christian congregations serving rural areas and small towns so they are better able to nurture the faith of congregants, to reach out and welcome their neighbors, and to serve as anchor institutions that contribute to the vitality of their communities.” Locally Grown Leaders aims to strengthen the capacity of the Iona Collaborative as a curricular hub for diocesan schools preparing lay and ordained leaders for ministry in rural and small-town contexts. The ultimate vision is to leverage the strengths of the Iona model more fully by partnering with dioceses to re-imagine their schools as anchor institutions serving some of the church’s smallest and most underresourced communities. In this sense, it advances a new, more strategic, and less scarcity-driven way of thinking about local formation.
Locally Grown Leaders is grounded on the premise that effective leaders are good learners, and good learners are grounded in the discipline of faithful experimentation.
Our program design models this pedagogy, providing support for microgrant teams to try, fail, and learn as we work together for local formation in each diocese.
For more information on the Locally Grown Leaders 5-Year Diocesan Microgrant Program,
please contact Iona Collaborative Director, the Rev. Nandra Perry.