CDI Trainers is a network of trainer/consultants in the committed to strengthening the skills of clergy and lay leaders for developing healthy, faithful congregations.  CDI Trainers do this primarily through training programs conducted in partnership with dioceses that increase the capacity of dioceses for congregational development.  Additionally, a group of CDI Trainers conducts national training programs for those whose dioceses are not currently engaged in a diocesan CDI. Our focus is primarily in working with parishes and dioceses in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Church Development Institute (CDI) is the primary program that CDI Trainers offer.  The Institute is an intensive leadership training program in congregational development and includes 110 workshop hours, common worship, a course of readings, projects completed in the participant’s parish or diocese, and involvement in a learning team between sessions. Diocesan CDI's have taken place in the dioceses of Western New York, Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Southwestern Virginia, Rochester, Southwest Florida, Newark, Colorado, and Milwaukee.  An open registration CDI (with open registration for people from any diocese) is conducted in Seattle during the summer.

Mission of CDI Trainers

Our primary mission is to strengthen the capacity of dioceses for congregational development by providing:

• A way for dioceses to offer a complete Church Development Institute (CDI) in partnership with CDI Trainers
• Additional resources, such as, Diocesan Leadership forums in congregational development, assistance in creating consultant networks, and workshop designs for training congregational teams.

We also seek to provide clergy and lay leaders whose dioceses do not offer a CDI with training in congregational development.

Orientation: Beliefs that Guide our Efforts

1. We believe that congregations of all sizes can live a full Christian life. The task is to create a fit between their size, resources and vision for ministry.

2. We believe that the congregation is a local expression of the Body of Christ, the People of God. The task is to build the congregation’s life and future on a deep appreciation of its distinctive qualities and strengths.

3. We believe that congregational development involves our striving as a community of faith, toward God. It is not primarily something we do, or create, or make happen. It is more the way in which a congregation shares in the Divine Life; enters into and reflects the unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity of the Church. It is living the Christian life, not simply as individuals, but as a people. The task is for the congregation to discern and act on the Spirit’s movement in its life.

4. We believe that there is much to learn and use from the research and experimentation of secular organizations. The task is to appropriately adapt those resources to the Church’s nature and mission.

5. We believe that the relationship between congregations and the diocese is important in the work of congregational development. The task is to build a higher level of trust between congregations and dioceses and to help dioceses better organize themselves to enable congregational development.

6. We believe that it is through the diocese that most congregations can best be resourced for their congregational development efforts; not through national programs providing expert advice. The task is to build the capacity of dioceses for this ministry; to establish a significant number of skilled leaders, consultants and strategists in the diocese who are supported by a broader network of prayer, coaching, training, research and learning.

A Brief History

The program was developed in 1978 by Robert Gallagher and has continued to develop in collaboration with colleagues in the Order of the Ascension and training programs in the dioceses of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arkansas, Western Massachusetts, Western New York, Southwest Florida, Washington, North Carolina, Virginia, Rochester, Southwest Virginia, Milwaukee, at GTS and in the CDI’s at Sewanee, on Deer Isle and in Seattle.