Survival School, the Church Leadership program which provides essential skills for effective leadership in ministry and through which St. Philip’s has trained clergy, staff, Vestry, Commissioners, and lay leaders for 6 years, traveled to Africa! For three weeks in April and May, 2014, Survival School instructors shared the program with the Zambian Province of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
Survival School team leader Norbert Zwickl with one of the members of the Zambian Province of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
The Order, active in Zambia since 1936, felt it was time to develop the leadership within their organization. The Sisters desire to cultivate a leadership structure in which all members are more empowered. Two leaders of the Order attended Survival School in Phoenix in the Spring of 2013; they felt so strongly that their Province could benefit from the principles taught, they elected to bring the program to their peers in Africa.
For over thirty years, the name “Survival School” has earned a place at the forefront of leadership training for church and non-profit professionals in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. The curriculum was developed by professionals, culled from their life experience working in church and other non-profit settings. Well-researched material, delivered with a hands-on, team-teaching approach, provide the building blocks of this highly respected and sought after program.
The graduating class of Survival School #80. Mongu, Zambia. With Norbert Zwickl, Pat Bennier and Mary Fogelson as instructors.
Norbert Zwickl, director of music and liturgy at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Phoenix (the Casa); Pat Bennier, director of volunteers at the Casa; and Mary Fogelson, director of parish faith formation at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Phoenix, presented the curriculum two times during the three-week period: first in Mongu, in the Western Province of Zambia, and again in Lusaka, the capital city.
Survival School team members saw this elephant feeding on the side of the road on the long drive to Mongu.
Following graduation, the Sisters took the Survival School teaching team to the “Tuesday Market” for a last taste of Africa before returning to Arizona.
Make plans to attend the next Survival School Church Leadership Training Event in Arizona:
Monday, August 18 through Friday, August 22, at the Franciscan Renewal Center, 5802 East Lincoln Drive, Scottsdale, Arizona 85253. Registration: registration@thecasa.org or call (480) 948-7460. For more information contact the Rev. Greg Foraker.
—The Rev. Greg A. Foraker
Photos courtesy of Survival School Church Leadership Training
Good News from St. Philip's 