Program length: September 2025 – June 2026
Cost: Proposed cost: £2000 including flights to Zimbabwe. We want to make this as accessible as possible, so we will be working with applicants to fundraise for the program. We will commit to raising 50% of these costs, we ask all applicants to commit to £1000.
If finance is an issue, please contact Alex Ellish [email protected]
Location: UK and Zimbabwe
Why join the Emerging Leaders Program?
The Emerging Leaders Program aims to bring together a small group of young adults to embark on a 9 month leadership development program. The program will include a residential weekend to kick off and a learning journey visit to Zimbabwe to conclude. Aside from the travel elements, this ‘internship in daily life’ allows emerging leaders to learn, grow and connect with others without leaving home or taking time off work. The trip to Zimbabwe will include visiting BICC peace and reconciliation projects and churches, as well as connecting with local Christians involved with faith-based community development work.
The Emerging Leaders Program seeks to equip and develop emerging leaders to respond with creativity and courage to our changing and unpredictable times. The program aims to equip participants to grow as catalysts, peacemakers and leaders embodying a Jesus-centred presence in their faith communities, fields of interest, networks or local neighbourhoods.
The program will be delivered through a blend of online meetings, in-person gatherings, peer-mentoring and a visit to Zimbabwe. Topics covered will include:
– conflict transformation and restorative justice
– peace church tradition (particularly Anabaptist history and convictions)
– holistic community development
– Jesus-centred discipleship
– leadership and change management
– peacemaking and ecology
Each participant will have the support of a mentoring group, to reflect in between modules on their own context. As part of the program, each applicant is encouraged to create a contextually appropriate ‘action at home’, drawing on their learning from the program. Support will be offered to participants from the program leaders and other relevant practitioners.
Learning values
As a project of the Anabaptist Mennonite Trust, we have several values that underpin all of the modules and gatherings of the program. The Anabaptist Mennonite Network’s core convictions and common practices are the key values and orienting principles for the program, and teaching will include time considering how these convictions and practices can shape and inspire action and thinking for leaders and peacemakers today.
Additionally we are committed to:
1. Relationship: Seeking to deepen our relationship with God, each other, the world around us and ourselves. This will include times of prayer, reading Scripture, silence, and different ways of connecting with God.
2. Listening and holding space for difference: We will honour each other’s stories and be willing to listen to each other. We believe that conflict is inevitable in human relationships and can be approached in healthy ways and resolved with gentleness and honesty.
3. Developing skills: Through sharing stories, learning from practitioners and experimenting with new tools, the program aims to offer new ways of approaching problems and creating change.
What you’ll experience:
5 – 7 September 2025 – the journey begins with a residential weekend at The Greenhouse, Birmingham. https://greenhouseatbarnesclose.org.uk/
8 online modules which will offer a mixture of theory and practical application, and contribution from a practitioner. Each module will explore a different tool or practical skill. We will meet online from 7:30pm – 9:00pm
– 9 October
– 6 November
– 4 December
– 8 January
– 5 February
– 5 March
– 16 April
– 14 May
– Potential trip dates: 23 May – 3 June 2026
– Alumni gathering in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2027
The support you get will include:
1. Monthly conversations with a mentoring group and/or leader.
2. Support from the Incarnate project steering group, BICC leaders and AMN trustees.
3. Connection to Incarnate partners including Urban Expression (including Urban Life, Curbs – Children in Urban Situations, Coastal Expressions) Rural Ministries, Scottish Network Churches, and Red Letter Christians.
4. Support to organise a spiritual accompanier or mentor to journey with you through this year if you don’t already have one.
Entry requirements:
We are looking for young adults (18 – 30 years old) actively involved in a Christian community, church or mission organisation who are seeking to deepen their experience and practice of peacemaking, leadership and justice work.
You’ll need:
– a real passion in growing as a Christian leader in your area of ministry/ vocation/ field
– to show you can work in a team
– to be innovative, self-aware and creative
– to demonstrate a commitment to the core convictions and common practices of Incarnate (a project of the Anabaptist Mennonite Network)
– be willing to reflect on your practice through regular journaling, or other reflective practices.
– demonstrate your learning from the program with a ‘local action’ project in your own network or community. (You will be given support to do this.) We encourage creativity and exploration!
Applying for the Emerging Leaders Programme:
Applications open in early February 2025 and close on Friday 14 March. All applicants need to complete a form and provide 2 references (one from a leader in your faith community). Priority on the program will be given to those who can attend all the modules (in person and online).
The application form can be found here: Emerging Leaders Program Application Form
We will conduct online interviews in the week of 24 March 2025 (timings to be confirmed.)
Applicants will hear by the end of March whether they are joining this cohort of emerging leaders.
For more information please contact: Alex Ellish [email protected]