About Church Leadership Center
Helping people become more fully human in Christ—together.
Why CLC Exists
CLC exists to strengthen the local church by helping “people in the pew” become more fully human in Christ.
For CLC, Christian formation concerns the whole person. It is not simply about knowing more or preparing for a role. It is the lifelong work of allowing the life of Christ to shape what we believe, who we are becoming, and how we live and love.
This work belongs to the whole church and takes place in community. CLC comes alongside pastors and congregations with sustained learning communities where people can grow into the fullness of who God created them to be in Christ.
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Rooted in God’s story.
Scripture gives us more than information. It draws us into the story of God and helps us understand our own lives within it.
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Becoming more fully human—together.
Formation reaches the whole person and happens with others through teaching, conversation, reflection, practice, and spiritual friendship.
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Living and loving in the way of Jesus.
What takes root within us becomes visible in our relationships, choices, work, service, and presence in the world.
Why Sustained Partnership Matters
Formation takes time, intention, and relationship.
The local church is where this work is lived. Research also shows why churches benefit from sustained ways of recognizing people’s gifts, sharing spiritual life, and connecting participation with deeper formation.
1 in 5
People grow when their gifts are recognized.
Only one in five Gen Z churchgoers strongly agrees that they can use their gifts in church. This presents an opportunity to help younger Christians recognize how their gifts can strengthen the shared life and mission of their congregation.
American Bible Society, 202556%
Faith is formed through relationships.
More than half of surveyed Christians described their spiritual life as entirely private. Yet 82% agreed that friends should challenge one another toward healthy growth. Local churches are uniquely positioned to cultivate relationships where faith is shared, encouraged, and practiced together.
Barna, 2022Participation → Formation
Participation can deepen into formation.
Church participation creates important conditions for growth. When biblical depth, formative relationships, spiritual practices, and opportunities to serve are intentionally connected, people are supported as they grow and take faithful next steps.
State of the Bible, 2026These findings do not diminish the essential work local churches are already doing. They help illuminate where sustained partnership can support the lifelong work of becoming more fully human in Christ, together.
This vision—people becoming more fully human in Christ, together—has shaped CLC from the beginning.
Continue to Our StoryOur Story
It started with a vision to activate the people in the pew.
Church Leadership Center was born from the conviction that the mission of Jesus is carried not only by professional clergy, but by ordinary Christians faithfully serving, leading, and witnessing in their churches and communities.
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A vision for the people in the pew
Church Leadership Center traces its roots to a growing conviction within the Church: many ordinary Christians sensed a call to serve, lead, teach, disciple, and participate more deeply in the mission of Jesus — yet often lacked accessible pathways for meaningful formation and support.
The vision behind CLC was never simply about training clergy. It was about helping ordinary followers of Jesus become more grounded in Scripture, more confident in their faith, and more equipped to serve faithfully within everyday life, local churches, neighborhoods, and workplaces.
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A different kind of ministry formation
In response to this need, leaders connected to the Commissioned Pastor initiative of the Reformed Church in America and the Ralph and Cheryl Schregardus Foundation began imagining a different approach to ministry education — one rooted not only in information, but in formation, community, practice, and real-life discipleship.
Rather than requiring people to leave their churches, jobs, families, or communities in order to grow, the vision was to create learning experiences that could form people within the contexts where they were already living and serving.
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CLC begins to take shape
In 2008, that vision led to the founding of Church Leadership Center under the leadership of Dr. Burt Braunius, with Dr. Wayne Brouwer helping shape the curriculum and theological direction of the learning experiences.
What began as an effort to equip emerging lay leaders and commissioned pastors gradually developed into a broader vision for Christian formation — helping people connect Scripture, theology, church history, and faithful living in ways that were deeply practical, relational, and spiritually grounded.
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A growing movement of faithful participation
Over time, CLC began serving participants across multiple states, denominations, and ministry contexts. Pastors, teachers, nurses, business leaders, ministry volunteers, church planters, caregivers, and everyday Christians found themselves drawn into learning communities centered on deeper faithfulness in everyday life.
Today, CLC continues to grow as a movement of Christian formation focused on helping people participate more intentionally in the life, witness, and mission of the Church — not only through what they know, but through who they are becoming and how they live.
Knowing. Being. Doing.
Formation is a living cycle.
People do not all enter Christian formation the same way. Some begin with questions. Some begin through community. Some begin by serving. At CLC, each part keeps shaping the others.
Entry Point: Knowing
Some enter through questions, learning, and deeper understanding.
For some, formation begins with a desire to understand the Christian faith more deeply. They bring questions about God, Scripture, the Church, faith, and life.
At CLC, knowing is not treated as information alone. It becomes part of a larger movement of formation — shaping identity, strengthening discernment, and leading toward faithful practice.
Entry Point: Being
Some enter through community, belonging, and a desire to grow.
Others enter formation because they are longing for deeper rootedness. They may be seeking spiritual maturity, clarity of calling, or a stronger sense of who they are in Christ.
CLC creates learning communities where people are shaped through conversation, reflection, encouragement, and shared faith.
Entry Point: Doing
Some enter through service, leadership, and lived practice.
Many people begin because they are already serving. They are teaching, leading, caring, praying, organizing, visiting, mentoring, or showing up where their church or community needs them.
CLC helps connect those practices to deeper understanding and stronger formation.
Knowing shapes Being.
Being shapes Doing.
Doing deepens Knowing.
The cycle continues as people grow in faithful participation in the life and witness of the Church.
How We Are Formed
Learning happens in community, over time, and in real life.
CLC is not built around passive content consumption. We create guided learning communities where teaching, conversation, reflection, and practice work together.
Guided Teaching
Participants engage thoughtful teaching that opens up Scripture, Christian faith, and the life of the Church in accessible and grounded ways.
Shared Conversation
Learning moves into discussion, where participants process what they are hearing, ask questions, and listen to others in the community.
Reflection & Practice
Each learning experience invites people to connect faith with daily life through prayer, reflection, service, hospitality, leadership, and witness.
Continued Formation
Formation continues as participants live, serve, worship, lead, and grow within everyday life. CLC helps people engage those spaces with deeper roots and more faithful participation.
The CLC Difference
Not really a class. A learning community.
Our approach is relational, accessible, and designed for adults from varied backgrounds. People are not asked to step out of real life to be formed. They are invited to bring their real life into the learning.
Foundational Beliefs
Rooted in the historic Christian faith.
CLC joins with Christ followers through the ages in affirming the faith once handed down, centered in Scripture, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Foundation
Faith that forms life.
We believe God is still forming people and communities through the witness of Scripture, the grace of Jesus Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the calling of the Church to live as a faithful sign of God’s renewing work in the world.
Our learning communities are grounded in the historic Christian faith and shaped by a vision of formation that connects belief, practice, discipleship, mission, and everyday life.
Scripture
We believe God is revealed to us in the Old and New Testaments, the inspired Word of God and our final authority in matters of faith and life.
God
We believe in one God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — sovereign Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all creation.
Jesus Christ
We believe Jesus Christ is fully divine and fully human, and that he saves his people through his life, death, resurrection, and reign.
The Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit gives new life, indwells believers, forms Christian character, gives gifts, and empowers the work of ministry.
The Church
We believe God gathers people into communities of faith for worship, discipleship, fellowship, mission, and faithful witness until Christ returns.
Renewal
We believe Christ is ruling now through his Word and Spirit and will return to judge the living and the dead and renew the whole creation.
Historic Reformation Witness
Five historic affirmations that help anchor our faith.
Scripture Alone
Scripture is our highest authority for faith and life.
Christ Alone
Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
Grace Alone
Salvation is God’s gift, given by grace and not earned by human effort.
Faith Alone
We receive salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
To God’s Glory Alone
All of life is lived before God and for God’s glory.