[Press Release] Pre-Council meetings highlight connection and mutual encouragement

Taking stock of a journey that began with the first Men’s Pre-Assembly in Kraków in 2023, the men’s meeting offered space for male Council members to reflect on their own leadership journeys, not principally as representatives of institutions, but as individuals shaped by faith, context, and personal experience.

“In our understanding of how to be transformative leaders, we often speak about formal leadership,” reflected Bishop Steven Lawrence of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia, who was part of a core planning group for the men’s pre-Council meeting. “This year, instead, we are trying to bring out our own personal experiences. We realize that growing together is more important than just focusing on individual growth, so how can we share our experiences and grow together, learning from each other’s experiences,” he said.

Dirk Stelter of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, Germany, highlighted the theme of the LWF Council which opens today: “Be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Romans 1:12). “It’s important to start with Paul’s writing about mutual encouragement, because this presupposes that there’s a common ground among us. It also presupposes that I myself am not complete, yet there are others who can help me to become complete,” Stelter reflected.

“Leadership has to do with gifts, realizing that we all have our different sets of gifts: it’s about helping people to discover and develop their gifts. It also has to do with trust and humility, meaning I have to be trustworthy as a leader, but I also have to put my trust in others and in what they do, accepting that they may do things in a way that I might not myself have imagined,” he concluded.