2027 Leaders in Christian Organisations Network
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The Leaders in Christian Organisations Network seeks to equip emerging leaders to direct the continent’s Christian churches and organisations in a way that ensures the greatest impact for God’s Kingdom. This Network seeks to provide practical wisdom, useful leadership insights, and biblically-based solutions to key problem areas, as well as to encourage leaders facing key organisational challenges. This Network also addresses significant issues that new leaders may encounter, from how to deal with their own assumptions of personal integrity and virtue, to topics like strategic planning, vision-casting, time management, and delegation, prioritising organisational objectives, and assessing finances and resource development.
Each day will incorporate mixed modes of learning, combining expert input, working on live leadership issues, working through tools and frameworks that you can take away and apply back home, time for peer learning exchange, and the opportunity to pray together as fellow leaders. We hope this will enable each participant to contribute from the richness of their own experience in leadership, as well as providing space and support to apply learning to the specific leadership challenges and opportunities you face.
Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.
What Network Participants Are Saying
- "Here at ELF I have met lots of good teachers who have become my mentors and guided me through every step of ministry growth. Our youth ministry has expanded in the last few years. We learned to challenge young people to lead others closer to God, to share the Gospel with their works and words."
- Steponas Davidavicius, Youth Director, Lithuania - "I participated in ELF this year for the first time, after 28 years of full time ministry. The leadership training has been fantastic and the worship God-focused. I have connected with many like-minded brothers and sisters. I plan to come back next year, hopefully with my entire leadership team."
- Laszlo Kazar, Director of Word of Life, Hungary - "Being at the European Leadership Forum is a great opportunity to meet people who inspire me, receive information that instructs and informs my work, and to be in an environment that energizes me in so many ways. My perspectives are broadened and my heart is stretched in positive ways. This is a great help to me in the different leadership roles that I serve in in Romania."
- Adiel Bunescu, Pastor, Romania
Applicants should be leading or helping to lead in Christian organisations or churches. They should be seeking practical tools and biblically-based solutions in key problem areas of the leader's role.
Network Leadership
Network Speakers
Efrem Buckle, as Deputy CEO and Director of Training and Mentoring at London City Mission, draws on thirty years' experience in urban ministry including twenty years as church-planting pastor of ecclēsia (South London). In the early-90s he formed part of a missional music duo, Ministry of… Read more
Pastor David Fleming served the local church for nearly 30 years, most recently as Sr. Pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. Under David’s leadership, the church grew to become a large multi-cultural and multi-site congregation that also planted churches across the US and… Read more
Barbara Herrmann leads her consulting business for organisation, leadership, and strategy development. She guides marketplace, non-profit, and church leaders on how to develop their organisations. She has delivered numerous development programs and, in the last 17 years, has worked on large-… Read more
Nola Leach is a co-leader of the European Politics and Society Network and served as the Chief Executive of CARE (Christian Action Research & Education), one of Europe’s leading Christian charities, which provides resources and helps bring Christian insight and experience to matters of… Read more
Ján Máhrik is a church planter pastoring Za Kostolom church in Žilina, Slovakia. He is passionate about bringing the Gospel and truths of the Bible to the unchurched - sceptic, secular, and post-Christian. He is a host of the award-winning podcast… Read more
Dave Patty has been involved in training youth leaders and leading national and international youth movements in Europe for over 30 years. He serves as the president of Josiah Venture. He is also a founding member of Concentric, which mobilizes and equips youth ministry trainers in over 60… Read more
Peter Saunders was born in New Zealand and originally trained as a General Surgeon, before serving with the Africa Inland Mission in Kenya and completing two years mission training at All Nations Christian College in the UK. Since 1992 he has worked in full-time Christian ministry first with… Read more
John Stevens is the National Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, a family of over 500 Bible-centred churches in the UK, a position that he has held since 2010. Prior to this he was one of the founding pastors of City Evangelical Church Birmingham, which was planted in… Read more
Network Programme
Sunday, 23 May
Leadership training can often assume that leaders have the authority to make the final decision. In reality, many of us lead teams, ministries, projects, or significant areas of an organisation while remaining accountable to someone else. How do we take genuine ownership without overstepping our authority? How do we influence senior leaders, work effectively across organisational boundaries, disagree constructively and exercise initiative without becoming independent? And how do we remain ambitious for the mission without becoming consumed by ambition for position?
Drawing on three decades of leadership experience, including senior leadership as Deputy CEO of London City Mission, this session will explore practical and biblical principles for exercising faithful and fruitful influence when we carry real responsibility—but are not ultimately in charge.
I was living in a way that would have messed up my marriage or family – or both. My mentor told me this and helped me learn how to follow Jesus more faithfully and change. Many leaders struggle in isolation, unaware of the damage that can result without wise guidance and accountability. This workshop addresses why people resist being mentored and how intentional relationships can bring restoration and growth. Drawing from Scripture and lived examples, the session will unpack practical biblical principles of mentoring and how God uses mentorship to strengthen marriages, families, and ministries.
Monday, 24 May
Faithful and effective leadership includes motivating and encouraging the people we lead. How can we identify the strengths and weaknesses of the people on our teams and develop them accordingly? What strategies can we use to motivate and encourage them for their own good and the good of our ministries and organisations? This session offers practical tools for evaluating and supporting our people for fruitful growth.
Understanding cultural differences helps us see that people can interpret the same situation in very different ways. What we consider as ‘normal’ or ‘professional’ is often shaped by our cultural backgrounds. Understanding these differences can help us build healthy organisational cultures so our people and ministries can flourish. In this session, we will explore these questions and discuss biblical principles and practical tools for creating cultures within our organisations and ministries that reflect our calling as Christians to love one another and to lead by example.
Tuesday, 25 May
The battle for your attention is relentless. Every day, AI and social media invent more sophisticated methods of force-feeding you information. In these troubled times, we need ancient wisdom to guide our way. The book of Proverbs is full of short, pithy insights, but together they are designed to build four overarching ‘wisdom habits’ into your life. What are these four habits, and how can you use them to cultivate wisdom in yourself, your children, and the people you lead? This seminar will give you an overview of the core habits and help you become more deliberate at practising and teaching the path of wisdom.
Most challenges in church and organisational leadership involve navigating difficult relationships with other people. Leaders therefore need a high degree of relational skill. Technical competence alone is not sufficient for effective ministry leadership. Emotional intelligence enables leaders to understand themselves, understand others, and communicate well. We will draw on biblical examples to examine the importance of emotional skills to good leadership, and consider how we can develop them so as to become healthier and more effective leaders.
Wednesday, 26 May
This seminar will explore the biblically based and concurrent realities of servant leadership. Servant Leadership is the practice of earning the trust and followership of others by prioritising their growth and well-being above personal and even organisational gain. It is also, and equally, casting a compelling vision and modelling the values that inspire people to pursue shared goals with ownership and excellence. The ultimate measure of servant leadership isn't what the leader accomplishes through people, but what happens to people because of the servant leader’s influence. Are those I lead becoming more autonomous, more capable, and more likely themselves to serve and lead others?
The Apostle Peter calls us ‘to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.’ We are always learning as the Holy Spirit works in our lives, refining us. Our journey with God and in leadership is one of rich experiences, challenges, and snares. Looking back on 17 years as CEO leading a large Christian organisation in the UK, Nola reflects on what she has learned along the way and unpacks what she knows now that she wishes she had known then.