Here are a few of our leadership for growth operating principles:

We affirm that local churches provide the most significant arena for disciple-making.

• So, we try to focus on this question:  Does our work help local congregations become more effective?
• The LDI believes that the local church is where the Conference’s mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ happens, and where it should happen.
• This means that the LDI is committed to developing leadership so that local congregations are better able to grow!
• This is results-oriented leadership at the local level.  

Leadership for growth happens best when clergy leadership and lay leadership work together. 

• Effective leadership for the local congregation happens at the intersection between effective lay leadership and effective clergy leadership.
  
• So, the LDI is committed to developing leadership initiatives that strengthen the interaction between lay and clergy leadership.
  
• This is a systems view of leadership that respects the organic whole of the local body.
  
• We believe that essential growth for local congregations will be experienced when clergy and lay work together.  So, our programs and training initiatives must address the laity-clergy intersection.     

Collaboration is a growth strategy!

• To be an effective leadership for growth resource, the LDI is learning betters ways to collaborate, share, and network across the conference. 
• A lot of good leadership resources already exist; many are already being utilized in the Conference.
• So, we are exploring new ways of becoming a “broker” for the Conference -- to gather, organize, and collaborate with various existing resources in order to connect them – so that local congregations will develop the leadership they need to grow.
• Many boards and agencies are already focusing on lay and clergy leadership at the local level.  The LDI hopes to establish a different kind of relationship with these groups, in cooperation with the emerging vision of the Common Table, Bishop and Cabinet.
• We hope to become an effective “broker” that connects these multiple initiatives across the Conference in order to improve collaboration and reduce expensive redundancies, all with the hope of strengthening local congregations.