Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives (DLd)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Mario Hood, DMin

Second Advisor

Karen Tremper, PhD

Third Advisor

Jason Swan Clark, DMin

Abstract

I have served as a local church pastor for 28 years. In my current service on a denominational team that supports 500 Licensed Workers and 115 churches within the Western District of The Alliance Canada, I identified the following Need, Problem, or Opportunity (NPO): “Many leaders in The Alliance Canada lack collaborative skills, inhibiting participatory leadership, stifling innovation, and diminishing congregational empowerment to engage in God’s mission.” My research highlighted the limitations of heroic leadership in complex and rapidly evolving ministry contexts. Leadership approaches that were once effective in the church no longer align with current relational, cultural, and organizational realities. However, many pastoral leaders often default to familiar heroic models of leadership. This tendency did not appear to arise from ill intent, but from habit, formation history, and unexamined cultural assumptions about leadership effectiveness.

Furthermore, the heroic model persists largely because there is little intentional formation within The Alliance Canada to cultivate alternative leadership approaches. Without formation that affirms collaborative leadership, leaders struggle to imagine and occupy a different way of leading. This gap points to the need for intentional formation that supports the emergence of post-heroic leaders who can lead faithfully, sustain healthy ministry, and empower communities for shared mission.

This project is the development of a facilitator’s guide for The Thrive Collective, a two-year, cohort-based leadership formation initiative designed to form and support post-heroic pastoral leaders in the Western District of The Alliance Canada. Grounded in an integrated framework of Identity, Posture, and Skill, the cohort combines individual learning, monthly peer-coaching circles, and four immersive retreats. These elements work together to cultivate personal formation, relational maturity, and practical leadership capacity. The Thrive Collective aims to form leaders who can practice collaboration, co-create vision, empower others, and sustain long-term, life-giving ministry within a complex and changing church environment.

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