Christian Leadership Foundations
Lead from who you’re becoming—not just what you’re doing.
Leadership is more than a title, position, or personality.
If people are influenced by the way you live, work, serve, parent, communicate, or make decisions, you’re already leading somewhere.
The Christian Leadership Foundations Certificate (CLF) is a two-semester experience built to help you become the kind of person God can trust with influence. Through spiritual formation, personal growth, biblical teaching, and practical leadership development, you’ll learn to lead more like Jesus wherever God has placed you.
Your Leadership Starts With You
It’s easy to focus on becoming a better leader without paying attention to the person doing the leading.
But healthy leadership works from the inside out.
Before strategy comes character.
Before influence comes trust.
Before leading others comes learning to follow Jesus well yourself.
CLF helps you examine the person you’re becoming while also developing practical tools for the situations every leader eventually faces—relationships, conflict, decisions, change, uncertainty, priorities, and difficult conversations.
Because the goal isn’t simply to make you more effective.
It’s to help you become a more Christlike leader.
What You’ll Learn
The 20-week CLF experience moves from your internal formation as a leader to the practical responsibility of leading other people well.
Fall: Becoming the Leader
The first semester starts beneath the surface.
You’ll explore:
What Christian leadership actually is
Why trust comes before influence
Spiritual rhythms and your connection with Jesus
How real personal change happens
What pressure reveals about you
How your story shapes the way you lead
How God can redeem your story and use it
Choosing faithfulness over frenzy
Examining your motives as a leader
Building rhythms that make leadership sustainable
You’ll have opportunities to reflect on your habits, priorities, experiences, motives, and relationships—and make practical changes as you go.
Spring: Leading People Well
The second semester turns outward toward the people and responsibilities God has entrusted to you.
You’ll explore:
The weight of influence
People-first leadership
Leading with clear direction
Turning conflict into growth
Navigating necessary conversations with truth and grace
Leading in uncertainty
Making wise decisions
Recognizing when change is needed
Leading people through change
Identifying your mission field and leading with purpose
These aren’t abstract leadership theories. They’re situations you’ll encounter at work, at home, at church, and anywhere else you have influence.
Leadership You Can Practice Right Away
CLF is designed around application.
Throughout the certificate, you’ll be challenged to take what you learn in class and put it to work in real life—strengthening trust in a relationship, practicing a new spiritual rhythm, addressing conflict, making a difficult decision, changing a commitment, or preparing for a necessary conversation.
The goal is to close the gap between knowing what good leadership looks like and actually becoming a leader who lives it out.
What You’ll Walk Away With
By the end of CLF, you’ll be better equipped to:
Lead from a growing relationship with Jesus
Build trust before trying to build influence
Understand how your story, motives, and character affect your leadership
Develop healthier and more sustainable rhythms
Communicate direction clearly
Navigate conflict and difficult conversations
Make wise decisions through Scripture, prayer, and counsel
Lead people through uncertainty and change
Recognize the places God has already given you influence
Use that influence with purpose
Your home can be a place you lead.
Your workplace can be a place you lead.
Your church can be a place you lead.
Your community can be a place you lead.
You don’t need a title to start becoming the leader God has called you to be.
Program Details
Length: 20 weeks across two semesters
Format: In person
Location: Lafayette, Colorado
Class Night: Tuesdays
Class Times: 6:00 PM or 7:15 PM, based on assigned section
Tuition: $1,000 total / $500 per semester
Application Fee: $50 non-refundable application fee
Classes run during the Fall and Spring semesters and include weekend intensives.
Instructors
CLF is taught by leaders with experience applying these principles in ministry, organizations, teams, and everyday life:
Mark Jenkins
Stason Ikenouye
Scott Bloyer
Mike Nunan
Paul Lucks
Karl Shackelford
Alan Briggs
Your Influence Matters
You can keep relying on instinct and natural ability, or you can intentionally develop the character, wisdom, and practices necessary to lead well.
Take the next step toward becoming the kind of leader people can trust and Jesus can use.