Resilient Leaders Project

Helping leaders cultivate flourishing lives in the midst of demanding ministries.

A leader is someone with the capacity to influence others. That capacity may come from a job title, or it may come only from relationship and respect. A leader might be the head of an organization, but there are certainly leaders at other levels of an organization — even those who have no supervisory responsibilities.

If you influence others, you are a leader.

We focus on leaders in ministry—a word we understand broadly, but not loosely. Ministry is anything done in service to God and neighbor. It is the means by which you impact others in response to the desire God has placed on your heart. It may be as the pastor of a congregation, or it might be as a manager in a nonprofit, a social entrepreneur, a counselor, an active volunteer, an artist, or a for-profit manager looking to use their role to make a difference. Ministry is the ways in which you serve God and neighbor.

Ministry is increasingly demanding.

Christian ministry always happens in a context, in specific times, places, and cultures that shape the meaning and expression of the message. In a digital age of global communication, the context changes rapidly on global, national, and local levels, and ministries must read and respond to those changes constantly. In addition to that, high demands on roles,ambiguous expectations on the job, and events and transitions in our personal lives increase stress as we seek to achieve the aims of our ministry.

Ultimately, ministry is demanding because leaders love the people they serve.

It’s vital for leaders to take care of themselves—their full selves—in their work. The health of a community and the health of a leader are bound together. In a rapidly changing context, leaders who can manage the stressors, crises, and complexities of ministry — leaders who are resilient — are no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Resilient Leaders Project helps leaders to become not just personally healthier, but to have more health, wholeness, and holiness together as a community.

Certificate in Resilient Service

We’ve designed a multi-month program that trains pastors, changemakers in non-profits, social entrepreneurs — leaders doing good work on behalf of their community — to restore their inner resilience and live into their purpose regeneratively.

Resources & Research

Our primary goal in Resilient Leaders Project is to learn with and about Christian leaders. We work to find ways to listen more deeply to the challenges ministry leaders face, to the skills and practices that help them thrive, and to the ways those skills and practices can be developed.

Christ & Cascadia

Christ & Cascadia’s mission is to serve Christian leaders and communities serving in the unique cultural space of Cascadia — the bioregion extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Continental Divide, spanning the US Pacific Northwest and the Canadian West. In the online journal, articles are written exclusively by local leaders in the academy, church, and culture to equip the church to better know and love this region. Originally founded by Fuller Seminary, Resilient Leaders Project is proud to house this offering.