Vocational Development Pathways Workshop

Please note

Applications close three months before the workshop to allow the completion of the Pario feedback process.

Why a VDP Workshop? 

The purpose of the workshop is to assist you to review, reframe and refresh your ministry. It is designed to be an emancipatory process, creating a safe and open space to engage with God, encouraging development in a flourishing and fruitful ministry. 

The workshop is built around Isaiah 54:2: 

Enlarge the place of your tent,  
stretch your curtains wide,  
do not hold back;  
lengthen your cords,  
strengthen your stakes. 

The scriptural foundations provide the framework for content in planning, delivery and evaluating the workshop. 

The workshop is designed around the four scriptural intentions from Isaiah 54:2: enlarge, stretch, lengthen, strengthen.  They describe the ethos and the purposes of the workshop.  The workshop itself becomes a camp where tents of ministry are pitched for a while, where leaders can take time to meet with God and have time to reflect on the living word dwelling amongst them. 

Expand the place of your tent – for individuals, and for the VDP workshop, and the Army as a whole, an opportunity to realise and grow in the God-given privilege of ministry in which we are to be fruitful and flourishing.  

Widen the curtains – to see more of yourself, your ministry and God through feedback and formation. It is expected a considerable amount of insight will come as you share with other delegates in both formal and informal learning activities. The meal table is as much a place of learning as the classroom.  

Strengthen the stakes – what is your spiritual leadership rooted in?  
Your call, covenant, undertakings and daily relationship with God.  
Personal holiness, relational holiness, social holiness are the stakes identified in the leadership framework. 
How do I deepen my ministry as a Salvation Army spiritual leader?  
How do I become increasingly aware of and stronger in my vocational identity? 

Lengthen your cords – space is given to be challenged, to take risks, to come out of your comfort zones, increase in confidence.  

There is a tension in that, living in ambiguity/confusion –  what does it mean about change?  Sometimes we outgrow our present situation but still trying to use the same ropes.

How do I see who and where I am from a different perspective and then how do I lengthen my cords?  

The workshop activities should be seen as part of a whole process: 

• The experience you as a delegate bring to the workshop. 
• The time taken by your respondents to give you feedback.  
• The insights and learning generated within the workshop by learning from each other. 
• The environment of the workshop giving you space to hear self, others and God.  
• Partnership with divisions and services in preparation for the workshop and in follow-up. 
• Partnership with Personnel and Wellbeing at the workshop.  

Purpose 

• To give insights into self-management 
• To discern what entangles and what inspires in ministry 
• To make space for Kairos moments and deeper digging 
• To provide a place for affirmation 
• To provide a place for measurement 

Who Should Apply

All active officers and territorial envoys in UKT. Applications close three months in advance of the workshops to allow time for the completion of the online Pario feedback process.

Note: Should an employee/officer book a place on a course but subsequently fail to attend or complete the course, repayment of cost of the course will be charged to the department/appointment concerned (recoverable from the individual) (Policy CS04 Sect 6.5).

Cost

£481 (Residential)