We exist for the sake of others. That’s why the Very Rev. Victor Schreffler and the Sacramento Valley Deanery didn’t host a training for their clergy alone. Instead, they held an ecumenical two-day leadership training event in Rocklin, California, led by the Rev. Canon Dr. Tony Baron, to bring together and resource all the churches in their area.
“We wanted to begin to position ourselves as a resource to the larger Christian community,” Schreffler says.
Seven denominations, including Independent and Episcopal, joined the Deanery’s six churches at The Sacramento Valley Leadership Training. Together, 63 attendees explored the theme “Doing Vision and Mission Within Sacramental Theology” in the Bernardoni Lecture Hall at William Jessup University. The Deanery advertised to other denominations online and in the Sacramento Bee, as well as through the cooperative efforts of William Jessup, who asked them to consider starting an Anglican community church plant on campus next year.
Baron—an acclaimed leadership consultant, executive coach, psychologist, theologian, professor, and author who also serves as C4SO’s Canon for Clergy Care—provided attendees with conceptual constructs for doing vision and mission within the context of sacramental theology. He also addressed how an Anglican posture uniquely informs vision and mission, building a foundation for the Deanery churches and making the Anglican treasure chest available to the larger community.
On Friday, the sessions concluded with the Eucharist, which Schreffler says “united them on an ontological level.” On Saturday, attendees divided into workshop groups to do assigned exercises. Schreffler spent time with each group, talking with attendees as they began to understand how the ideas would impact them.
“Everyone enjoyed the fellowship,” he says. “It got conversations going and people were beginning to take the material and flesh it out.”
The Training fleshed out one of the Deanery’s foremost purposes: advancement of the gospel by crossing diocesan and denominational lines in the Sacramento Valley. In the midst of building these relationships, the Deanery clergy formed new bonds. Schreffler says the training helped cultivate their identity as a deanery—not just loosely affiliated congregations.
“I wanted us to get the sense that we’re in something together,” Schreffler says. “I always get feedback that it’s heartening to see that we’re something bigger than our small congregations.”
Learn more about the Sacramento Valley Deanery.