Lead with Courage and Confidence

By Renee Ruchotzke

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Our church needed a new roof and we didn’t have the money to pay for it. We had a member who yelled at people during coffee hour. New members weren’t stepping up to volunteer, let alone be leaders. When new people did step up, their ideas were ignored.

These were the kinds of challenges that I faced when I first stepped into a leadership position. I went to every local workshop offered by the UUA, and read every book in the church’s small library, but I kept making mistakes. Other leaders suggested I attend EAGLES, the Eastern Great Lakes Leadership School, but I didn’t have the money nor the vacation time.

That was over 20 years ago.

Since then, I felt a call to the ministry of Leadership Development, with the vision of having EAGLES-caliber leadership development available to all leaders, not just the ones with the money and vacation time.

The result? The UU Leadership Institute.

Your national UUA Congregational Life staff now offers a series of core leadership courses to equip your leaders with tools and wisdom so they can lead with courage and confidence.

  • Centered Leadership Part 1 focuses on what it means to be a part of a faith community grounded in covenant, both practically and theologically.
  • Centered Leadership Part 2 helps to widen leaders’ understanding through thinking systemically about the interconnected web of relationships that makes a congregation. It also helps leaders understand how their functioning in the congregation can impact the health and vitality of the congregation.
  • Strategic Leadership describes how good governance, strategic planning and feedback loops can enable the congregation to develop habits that reinforce health and vitality.
  • Adaptive Leadership provides a more nuanced understanding of systems thinking which is essential in the ever-changing world of the 21st century.

Each 8-module course is offered at a low cost of $30 each. Registered participants receive notifications every two weeks as each new module opens. Participants who register later can access “released” modules and catch up with the rest of the class.

In faith and service,
Rev. Renee Ruchotzke

About the Author

Renee Ruchotzke

Rev. Renee Ruchotzke (ruh-HUT-skee) is a Congregational Life Consultant and program manager for Leadership Development.

For more information contact .