Leadership & Community Development Course at Timeless Theological Academy, Ballymena // starts 24th March 2025
Leadership & Community Development is the title of a new course which will run at the Timeless Theological Academy, 41-43 Larne Street, Ballymena BT42 3AL from Monday 24th March 2025. It will continue every Monday evening for 6 weeks.
This short course will be taught by Ian McCammon, who is s specialist in this field, so anyone who enrols for this module is certain to really benefit from it. Here is a short overview of what will be taught:
LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – BRIEF INTRODUCTION AND OVERALL OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
Leadership is not only about being a director and manager, but also about taking the initiative when a need and/or opportunity arises for action. The Bible is full of leadership examples, so along with Biblical analysis, other contemporary examples will also be studied.
This course will look at leadership in the context of Christian ministry, for example Christian calling, character and influence (skills and styles). These are necessary components/criterion for any leadership duties in Christian service. Other key areas, such as Christian disciplines (plus structures)
needed for resilience and sustainability in leadership will be highlighted, for these are vital, no matter if the result/outcome is successful or is a failure or both.
Leading in the context of the Community Development environment brings extra requirements.
These challenges will be discussed as questions, such as what is a community and what is integrated mission? Will need to be addressed. Again, this will be done primarily from the Bible, but there is a rich quantity of resources and experiences from other areas that should be reviewed and appraised.
Organisational behaviour, management (including governance) and practice, mostly within the local community context will be analysed, along with some references to the global/international
environment. A brief reference to both national and local government agencies and departments should
also provide the broader approach to understanding the complexities of leading into the community.
LECTURE 1 = INTRODUCTIONS AND BACKGROUND TO LEADERSHIP
LECTURE 2 = LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
LECTURE 3 = LEADERSHIP = APOSTLE PAUL / SPIRITUAL WARFARE + Connections to Community
LECTURE 4= COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – what is it?
LECTURE 5 = COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – Preparation and Planning
LECTURE 6 = OVERVIEW DISCUSSIONS (CASE STUDIES) & CONCLUSIONS
The latest course marks a welcome return to the classroom at Timeless Theological Academy following a review of the timetable there. Joe Boyd, Communications Officer at the college, is looking forward re-opening the doors.
He said: “Having completed a review based on the forms submitted by members of our student body we are back on Monday 24th March 2025 from 7.30pm-9pm. Our hope is to run a short six-week course with only one seminar each evening.
Each tutorial will be a combination of a seminar plus more interactive components to allow time for discussion and feedback without the same pressure on time. This will obviously include the now standard requirement of tea/coffee and biscuits during the entire night”, explained Joe.
He went on to say: “If you are interested, please complete the online registration form and we will reserve a space. We are really looking forward to this, please make sure you spread the word.”