Rectors
A place to connect and collaborate with Rectors across the Province around this shared calling to lead and shepherd God’s people.
We propose to connect and collaborate in two primary ways:
Learning Lab Balcony Sessions
First, through monthly Learning Lab Balcony Sessions that meet on third Thursdays from 11-12:30 CT. The Learning Lab is a space for Rectors to bring their greatest adaptive challenges (those with no known solutions) to collaborate with coaches and other Rectors as they discern pathways and solutions.
Hefeitz and Linsky in their book – Leadership on the Line observe :
The single most important skill and most undervalued capacity for exercising adaptive leadership is diagnosis…. When you move back and forth between balcony and dance floor, you can continually assess what is happening in your organization and take corrective midcourse action.These are open forums to get on the balcony and process with others. Come once, or come monthly. We will be there for you during this time to listen to ask thoughtful questions as you work through your particular challenge. We don’t propose to fix, throw best practices, nor solve them. Instead, we hold this space for you to explore the next faithful step you can take. Join our monthly sessions on Zoom here! Our next meeting is November 14 from 1-2:30pm CT.
Cohorts
Second, we are curating cohorts with Rectors around needs that you identify, which you can share through this link. We will gather experts around the areas flagged and offer 4-6 week sessions to share insights, strategies, and tools. These are concurrent 90-minute sessions held quarterly.
Our first cohort will be on all things regarding church finances (stewardship, church finances, management, etc) led by the Rev Canon David Roseberry in October (2,9,16,24) from 11am-12:30pm (Central Time). Please sign up via this JotForm link.
We are here for you any way we can be to resource, connect, and collaborate with you as you lead your parish!
OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Bryan Sims
Pioneer, Coach, Writer, Professor
Bryan D. Sims is a pioneer, coach, writer, and professor and is the author of Leading Together: The Holy Possibility of Harmony and Synergy in the Face of Change (100Movements Publishing, 2022). He is also co-author of Creating Space: Cultivating Environments for Disciples of Jesus to Thrive and Multiply (Invite Press, 2024). For more than two decades, he has been a Leadership and Change Coach with Spiritual Leadership, Inc. (SLI) where he has walked with leaders, teams, churches, and organizations to bring spiritual awakening and missional effectiveness. Bryan is an Anglican Priest, and has coached in Anglican, Methodist, Free Methodist, Wesleyan, Baptist, Presbyterian, and non-denominational settings.
Bryan has also been a professor of Leadership and Lay Equipping at Asbury Theological Seminary since 2011. His teaching expertise relates to team leadership, equipping, leading change, adaptive spiritual leadership, and the link between leadership and discipleship.
Bryan also serves on the Next Generation Leadership Initiative (NGLI) team within the Anglican Church in North America in collaboration with the Rev. Canon Aaron Buttery. On this team, Bryan is the director of the Rectors Leadership Network. NGLI exists to come alongside dioceses, parishes, and ministries to discover, develop, and deploy next generation leaders and resources for the Anglican Church in North America.
Bryan is a graduate of West Texas A&M University (1998) and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2003) and has a Ph. D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University (2009). He and his wife MyLinda have been happily married since 1997 and have four children: Isaiah, Luke, Silas, and Lydia.
Andrew Petta
Andrew is the Rector of Saint Barnabas Anglican Church in the Diocese of Fort Worth where he has served since 2011. The congregation has moved from mission to parish status during his tenure through prayerfully seeking the Lord in collaboration with lay leaders. Several of these have gone on to use their gifts in full time lay leadership roles, staff positions, and two men into the ordained ministry.
He works with colleagues and churches around the diocese in his capacity as the Chair of the Revitalization Pillar and is concluding a doctorate in ministry under Tod Bolsinger, the author of Canoeing the Mountains and Tempered Resilience.
“At the heart of adaptive leadership for the church is this conviction: The church is the body of Christ. It is a living organism, a vibrant system. And just like human bodies, human organizations thrive when they are cooperating with the wisdom of God for how that system is designed, how it grows and how it adapts to changing external environments…That is what adaptive leadership is all about: the way that living human systems learn and adapt to a changing environment so they can fulfill their purpose for being.” Canoeing the Mountains – Tod Bolsinger
Join a Cohort
Our first cohort will be on all things regarding church finances (stewardship, church finances, management, etc) led by the Rev Canon David Roseberry in October (2,9,16,24) from 11am-12:30pm (Central Time).