Since embarking on a strategic reorganization in April, C4SO has made progress toward a strong center and a distributed leadership model. To best serve our growing, geographically diverse diocese, Bishop Todd is pleased to introduce the new C4SO Ministry Team. After the decision was made to eliminate the position of Canon to the Ordinary in favor of a distributed leadership model befitting a diocese of national breadth, several of these individuals are taking on a role or responsibility to cover that work in a more specialized capacity.
Ministry Team
Assistant Bishop: Leadership Development: The Right Rev. TJ Johnston
Bishop TJ is the Rector of Saint Peter’s in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. With many years of experience cultivating leadership inside and outside the church, Bishop TJ will create various settings to facilitate the growth and formation of C4SO leaders.
Canon for Church Development (Planting and Adoptions): The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Kris McDaniel
Kris is the Rector of Trinity Anglican Church in Atlanta, a congregation that has trained many church planters and planted multiple new congregations. He will help potential church planters complete processes to discern calling, context and future plans. He will also help established churches in another denomination or space complete processes to discern whether C4SO would be a good home for them. Kris will be assisted by a Church Planting Coach, to be announced soon.
Canon for Ordinations: The Rev. Canon Trish Nelson
Trish is the Executive Pastor at Christ Church Overland Park. She has extensive experience in coordinating ordinations both pastorally and logistically. Trish will help guide men and woman through the steps along C4SO’s Path of Discernment to Holy Orders.
Chair of Finance Team: The Very Rev. Patrick Wildman
Patrick is the Rector at Christ Church Overland Park and also serves as Regional Dean of the Midwest. Patrick is a trained accountant and will head up a team that oversees all of C4SO’s finances.
Volunteer Bishop: The Right Rev. Mark Zimmerman
Bishop Mark is a retired bishop in the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest, a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. He will provide C4SO a greater capacity for ordinations and confirmations.
Volunteer Bishop: The Right Rev. Dan Scott
Bishop Dan is a retired bishop in the Anglican Mission in the Americas. He will provide C4SO a greater capacity for ordinations and confirmations.
NextGen Leader: The Rev. Aaron Buttery
Aaron is Student Minister at Christ Church Cathedral in Plano, Texas. He leads C4SO’s five-person NextGen Leadership Team to encourage local churches how to discover, develop and deploy the next generation of spiritual leaders.
Chaplain to the Bishop: The Rev. Canon Dr. Tony Baron
Over the course of his career, Tony enjoyed being an author, speaker, pastor, president of Servant Leadership Institute and an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University. Now retired, he draws from many years’ experience creating servant leaders and transforming churches and corporations.
Bishop Todd chose the individuals on the Ministry Team because of their long, intuitive, demonstrated alignment with his vision and values. To many in C4SO, they are well-known, trusted friends. Each of them is a seasoned leader, bringing years of ministry expertise to the diocese.
Regarding each of their respective areas, the individuals on the Ministry Team will regularly interface with Bishop Todd and the Franklin Hub—as well as with C4SO’s Deans, Rectors, and Canons—as needed. To complete the Franklin Hub, Bishop Todd plans to hire an Operations Manager in Fall 2020 to oversee the day-to-day functionality of the diocese. The Franklin Hub and Ministry Team will both seek to support and facilitate the ministry of C4SO churches in their local missional context.
“Our diocese is our churches,” Bishop Todd says. “That’s where the real action takes place. For me, being a bishop calls for cultivating a missional diocesan culture in which fully competent clergy and laity interact with the Spirit and their local context to design ministry and worship practices. This aligns with Roland Allen’s notion of self-propagating, self-supporting and self-governing churches rooted in the life, culture and modes of expression of [their city].”
As part of C4SO’s strategic reorganization, Bishop Todd has reimagined how each function of the diocese is situated within a comprehensive picture of C4SO’s vision and values. First, the Kingdom and the Spirit create the Church. The local church, then, cooperates with the Spirit by announcing, embodying and demonstrating the Kingdom, and pursuing formation and mission as it is nourished by word and sacrament. The Ministry Team finds its rightful place supporting this pathway.
“I believe that a flexible, distributed leadership model exhibited by C4SO’s new Ministry Team will help us continue pursuing our defining characteristics of: Kingdom. Spirit. Mission. Formation. Sacrament,” Bishop Todd says. “I am excited for the days ahead.”
Visit our updated Team page.
