Hope for the City: Transforming Urban Leaders
2022-3: Hope for the City: Transforming Urban Leaders (TUL) is a project based in Baltimore, MD that addresses the need and opportunity to provide transformational leadership development training for persons (laity and clergy) serving in urban ministry contexts. The project is rooted in the premise that highly developed and skilled transformational leaders (clergy and lay) are key determinants in church and community vitality and that leadership development processes that are specifically tailored to the particular needs of persons serving in urban contexts are needed.
The specific context of TUL is Baltimore, Maryland, and is based at Epworth Chapel United Methodist Church in Baltimore, with ongoing partnerships with St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, Morgan State University, and Johns Hopkins University, also in Baltimore. Specifically, TUL is focused on providing contextualized leadership development for lay and clergy leaders serving in churches and nonprofit settings in Baltimore. Along with general leadership topics, the TUL training model is designed to address several issues that are germane to ministry in urban settings (e.g., trauma in urban communities).
The Strengthening Pastoral Formation for Ministry in the City initiative involves seminaries, theological institutions, and churches and intends to help communities and institutions explore and assess their own urban context and church life; gain clarity about their mission and programmatic offerings; and strengthen and support the design and implementation of plans to address key challenges and opportunities for pastoral formation and flourishing congregations in urban settings.
