by Aaron Buttery | Jul 12, 2024
We, the youth delegates of Assembly 2024, love the Anglican tradition and find depth, beauty, and meaning in the Anglican way of formation, mission, and worship. We value the high emphasis on scripture and the way the cross is central. We look forward to ways that young people can continue to connect with other Anglicans, with local churches outside our denomination, and those in our communities for the sake of the Gospel.
We value what unites us and we want to be intentional to persist in love when we disagree. We want to stay in fellowship with each other and not allow our differences to divide us. Our generation is watching the way conflict is being handled and needs to see healthy ways of moving forward together. We are thankful for all the ways ACNA leaders practice shared leadership and healthy conflict.
We see the need for more young people to be a part of the church. We believe involving young disciples in our churches, dioceses, and province as leaders creates the next steps for them to live out their discipleship and influence within the ACNA during their adolescence and into adulthood. We are looking for places to share our voice and to contribute to the mission of the church.
We believe that the Anglican Church is the best place for a young person to meet Jesus and be welcomed as a leader in His image. We know there are other young people who can find a home in the ACNA. We, the youth delegates, believe we are representing the heart of our generation when we say we desire to be part of how the gospel of Jesus reaches North America.
Thank you, Bishops and members of the Executive Committee, for your leadership in our dioceses and the province to discover, develop and deploy us as the next generation of Anglican leaders.
The Provincial Assembly 2024 Youth Delegates were led in this process by the Student Leadership Network, including Anna Burden and Rev. Melissa Lewkowicz, under the direction of Rev. Cn Aaron Buttery. As the delegates themselves are minors, all questions should be referred to info@nextgenanglican.com.
by Aaron Buttery | Jun 2, 2023
NGLI Vision & Mission
The vision of the Next Generation Leadership Initiative is to raise up the next generation of leaders for the next generation of the ACNA.
The mission of the Next Generation Leadership Initiative is to support dioceses as they discover, develop, and deploy leaders and ministry resources for the Anglican Church in North America.
NGLI Core Values
The Next Generation Leadership Initiative is a key ministry of the Anglican Church in North America, a church that is faithful to the Great Tradition, just in its concern for the needy, and multi-ethnic as the Kingdom is.
2022/23 Review
The Next Generation Leadership Initiative (NGLI) continued serving the province, refocusing our work to be directly available to both parishes and dioceses. In the fall of 2022, the Rev. Canon Aaron Buttery was selected to lead NGLI. In this transition, we added the Access Leadership Network (AcLN) in 2023 to raise leaders with special needs and support churches who are serving them. We began piloting a network to directly support rectors, the Rectors Leadership Network, and expand their capacity to lead and raise new leaders. During the remainder of 2023 we are working to relaunch our Campus Leadership Network. Here are some highlights of what NGLI leadership networks have accomplished in the last year:
- Each network has produced parish accessible resources to support their ministries and raise local leaders;
- Each network is trained to coach ministry leaders and parishes to develop strategic plans for discipleship and leadership;
- Rectors from 5 different dioceses participated in our first Rectors Leadership Cohort. Two different coaching organizations, GiANT and Spiritual Leadership, Inc, facilitated this cohort;
- NGLI gave 5 presentations at New Wineskins, including a pre-conference offering by Kathy Ayres, Director of Access Leadership Network (AcLN);
- AcLN has trained over 125 people in welcoming, discipling, and inviting persons with special needs into the full life of the church;
- The Women’s Leadership Network (WLN), led by Rev. Virginia Musselman, hosted multiple online events intended to give space for ACNA members to face tough topics through their Imago Dei series, mentoring, spiritual direction, and small group discipleship events each month;
- The WLN is serving 300 women leaders from across 16 dioceses and hosted their first retreat;
- The Student Leadership Network (SLN), directed by Rev. Cn. Aaron Buttery and coordinated by Anna Burden, expanded their support of local student ministry leaders through Learning Cohorts and Formation Cohorts. Respectively, these are aimed at increasing the professionalism and spiritual health of our Anglican student ministry leaders. We have added 101 newly supported student ministries this year;
- The SLN has dispersed nearly $30,000 in Champion Grants to further student ministry in our Province;
- The Antioch Leadership Network (ALN), under the guidance of the Rev. Taylor Ishii, is supporting 53 unique individuals participating in zoom learning and discussion around themes of practicing multiethnic ministry in an Anglican context;
- The ALN saw 2 clergy of color ordained who have been supported by Antioch mentored ministry.
- The Family Leadership Network (FLN), led by the Rev. Liz Stewart, has continued to grow the network to almost 300 ACNA family ministry practitioners who meet regularly for training, resourcing, and soul care;
- The FLN is launching Anglican specific resources for parish Family and Children’s ministry in Fall 2023;
- Multiple diocesan bishops have sought and received direct support from NGLI for their synods, clergy gatherings, leadership training, and event hosting.
NGLI Stories from Parish through Province
NGLI is more than numbers. We are helping current leaders raise the next generation of leaders.
STUDENT: Our team helped a new student minister, Nelson, better understand his context and clarify his ministry values through our Ministry Assessment and coaching follow-up. Nelson was also able to receive financial assistance through the Champion Grant for a student retreat. Fruit from this retreat included more students engaging in general and a deeper level of engagement from other students.
ANTIOCH: During one of our Antioch network gatherings, a person of color on staff at an Anglican Church shared how they were very encouraged to be hearing from other churches that desired to engage with the diverse communities around them. They had never shared these joys and struggles in ministry with an ethnically diverse group of Anglicans because they had never met any in their geographic area. A small group stayed on after the call to share about how they saw God working in their ministry contexts and exchanging ideas about how to reach out to groups of people not well represented in their churches.
WOMEN: Kayla is a lay leader from the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast who was praying about how to start a Fourth Day ministry at her church. Through some conversations at Lay Connect, WLN’s monthly online gathering for Lay Leaders, Kayla met Ann, from the Diocese of Cascadia, who was already doing a Fourth Day ministry at her church. They started meeting and are now sharing resources with one another for this important ministry. At Lay Connect, women lay leaders grow in their gifts and callings to be the leaders God has called them to be.
ACCESS: Through a monthly virtual gathering sponsored by Access Leadership Network, one of the AcLN team members on the autism spectrum connected with two other women from two different dioceses in ACNA, one who is on the autism spectrum. The other woman is a youth leader, struggling to integrate some female students on the spectrum into her youth group. We set up a separate meeting to pray for each other and share ideas on how that integration might be accomplished. It was wonderful to meet fellow Christians who have struggles similar to mine and to learn about how they deal with those struggles so we can support one another through prayer and conversation.
FAMILY: A church-planting couple who recently became Anglican, and are planting an Anglican church were thrilled to know of a wider network of support for Family ministry. Past experience helped them know something about what is important for children in their church plant, but she was longing for Anglican resources. Finding out about the Family Ministry Network, where she could meet people willing to share resources and offer guidance, was exciting to her. She is soaking it all up as their planting team begins to sort out what will work best for them in a new kingdom building venture.
RECTORS: In our pilot Rectors Leadership Cohort, one particular leader discovered the power of focusing on his own God-given strengths and wiring, while making room for a team around him to utilize their complementary strengths to address their church’s challenges and move more effectively into the mission and calling that God has given them.
by Aaron Buttery | Oct 16, 2021
The Anglican Church in North America brings together biblical orthodoxy, missional entrepreneurship, artistic beauty, and vibrant teaching. Our worship is rooted in the history of the church, with stable and flexible liturgies highly accessible and relevant for today. We are a church, a people, propelled by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, that our continent may know and live in the love of the Father. Each Sunday we gather, bridging racial, cultural, economic, and community boundaries because we are living in the already-not-yet of the Kingdom. Some of us gather in store-fronts and YMCAs, others in cathedrals and chapels; we sing from our rich hymnody and from our current songwriters; we swing toddlers and thuribles; we live in time while marking the calendar of the Kingdom; we proclaim the mystery and the glory and the presence of God.
We are a church, a people, propelled by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, that our continent may know and live in the love of the Father.
This is why, across our nations and towns, we are the best place and people to invite the next generation into life with Jesus and the church. We are built for the needs, desires, and joys of this current moment and today’s middle and high school students. Raised in the digital and social media revolution, our students are hungry for something more stable than the latest iPhone update, something that lasts longer than an Instagram story, and something that responds to the deep longing of being known and loved. The wide variety of expressions, unified in Scripture, worship, creed, and sacrament, meets the wide variety of needs this next generation seeks to explore the faith, meet Jesus, and be a home. Our church has the tools to introduce them to the one who offers the bread of life and meets their hunger in ways that the world cannot.
Our youth care deeply about the marginalized, the forgotten, and the oppressed. As a generation, they are looking for both a new solution to these old challenges and for people with whom they can be part of a solution. In a cultural moment of unrest and uncertainty, our common prayers give us the language and framework to respond, seek justice, and be a people of peace. Our church is committed to the Imago Dei in each human, and we can offer young people a safe, formative, and dynamic community where they can be empowered as holy influencers.
We are reaching North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. We cannot do this fully or with integrity if we leave out the generation that is presently being catechized by Netflix and newsfeeds. As part of the Next Generation Leadership Initiative, the Student Leadership Network led by Rev. Aaron Buttery and a team of thoughtful, passionate, and creative leaders, exists to serve the parish and the province so that our young people are effectively reached by the transforming love of Jesus Christ.
NGLI is providing the relational connection and resource creation needed to discover, develop, and deploy the next generation of mature disciples and spiritual leaders for our churches, communities, and culture.
To join the province in mission and movement alongside the next generation of Anglicans, consider making a financial gift to this effort.
To learn more about how your church is ready to design and lead a robust Anglican Student Ministry, contact Fr. Aaron Buttery.
Provincial Canon for Next Generation Leadership Initiative
