Growing Leaders


Empowering Christlike leaders for mission and ministry in the North East.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Growing Leaders is a year-long leadership development journey designed for Christians who are either stepping into leadership or growing deeper in the leadership they already carry. It is one of the most practical, personal and grounded leadership programmes available to the Church in the North East today.


Growing Leaders brings together over 150 people every year across multiple locations throughout the region, across Wearside, Tyneside and Teesside. Each course is rooted in its local community, hosted by and in partnership with local churches, and shaped by the real leadership challenges people in the North East are actually facing.


Since the first pilot course launched in 2022, Growing Leaders has gone from strength to strength. What started as a single cohort of 44 delegates has grown into a regional movement, equipping and encouraging Christian leaders right across the area  and across a wide range of church traditions and denominations.


This is not a conference you attend once and forget. It is a sustained, structured investment in you, as a person, as a follower of Jesus, and as a leader. Over the course of a year, you will be taught, challenged, supported and mentored in a way that goes far beyond what any single event or short course can offer. By the end, you won't just have a set of new tools, you'll have a clearer sense of who you are, why you lead, and how to do it in a way that is both effective and sustainable.


Whether you are just finding your feet as a leader or you have been serving in leadership for years, Growing Leaders offers something genuinely valuable: a community of people on the same journey, a framework that actually works, and the personal support to make it stick.


Event presentation in a brick hall with purple lighting, screen on stage, and seated audience.

Inspiring teaching

Providing a framework to become a leader more like Jesus in today's world.

Modern building courtyard with tall beige walls and large reflective windows viewed upward

Character building

Developing character and resilience for the pressures of modern leadership.

Four people smiling outdoors on a narrow street, wearing colorful coats and standing by old buildings.

Mentoring support

Monthly meetings with an experienced mentor to help land your learning into life.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Growing Leaders is for anyone who leads, or senses they might be called to lead, within a church or Christian community context. Past delegates have included small group leaders, youth workers, worship team leaders, pastoral carers, lay ministers, curates and church planters. What they all had in common was a desire to grow, not just in skill, but in character, confidence and calling.


Whether you are newer to leadership or have been serving for years, the programme meets you where you are. It also draws together people from a wide range of church backgrounds, including Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, independent evangelical, charismatic and more. That breadth is intentional, and learning alongside leaders from different traditions is one of the things that makes Growing Leaders such a rich experience.

MORE THAN JUST SESSIONS

Alongside the taught programme, every delegate works through four practical projects during the year:


  • A leadership style questionnaire to help you understand how you lead
  • A spiritual health check to reflect on the foundations of your inner life
  • Developing a personal life statement to give you clarity and direction
  • Actively developing another person as a leader, putting learning into practice in real time


By the end of the year, you won't just have covered the content you'll have lived it.

Group of people standing in a church or chapel interior beneath an arched stained-glass window.

HOW THE COURSE WORKS

The programme runs across 10 sessions per year ( one Saturdays and nine evening sessions) giving you the space to engage seriously with your development without it taking over your life.


The course is structured in three parts:

Part 1: Firm Foundations

Before you can lead others well, you need to know who you are and why you lead. The opening sessions explore what leadership really means, ground your identity in your relationship with God, help you discern your calling, and build the kind of character that sustains leadership for the long haul.


Part 2: Key Skills

With the foundations in place, you move into the practical heart of leadership. Sessions cover vision and direction, how to develop other leaders around you, and how to lead teams and groups well — including navigating the inevitable challenges that come with leading people.


Part 3: Keeping Faithful

Great leaders don't just start well — they finish well. The final section is honest about the cost of leadership and helps you build the rhythms and resilience you'll need to keep going, keep growing, and keep leading with integrity over the long term.


The course content is built on material originally developed by CPAS, one of the most trusted names in Christian leadership development, through which over 10,000 people have been trained worldwide.


Questions? Get in touch

Find out more about upcoming Vision Evenings, course dates, and how to register at the Growing Leaders website or by emailing our team at growingleaders@durham.ac.uk.

For further information about how Growing Leaders connects with our broader training programmes at Cranmer Hall, please get in touch with our team.

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