ChristianWeek

TORONTO, ON—Geri Rodman is a life-long learner. The president and CEO of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Canada (IVCF) is serious about education—both formal and informal. Even as the ministry she heads engages students, she insists that staff leaders must never stop increasing their knowledge and ability to think well.

"If you're going to keep people, you need to keep them developing for the next leg of the journey. If they get to a place where they're not growing, then they have to leave. We want the people who should stay with us to stay, and to be excited about being here," she says.

They need to be excited because the mission is large and important. "The vision of our movement is the transformation of youth and students and graduates into fully committed followers of Jesus. We want to resource people who live extraordinary lives, embraced by the person of Jesus and changed from the inside out," says Rodman. "Our ideal alumni are people who live vibrant, extraordinary lives with a missional aspect. They will have a personal relationship with Jesus that is vibrant. They need something real to witness about as they engage in their life."

"At the end of the day, we want to deliver young men and women who have the capacity to live extraordinary lives."

That kind of result is only possible if the people in the system are experiencing a dynamic spiritual reality for themselves. "Our staff are our most important asset, so we need to keep them attuned. They need to be extraordinary too."

To encourage that kind of growth through formal education, the ministry has a longstanding agreement for IVCF staff members to take courses at Regent College in Vancouver. And Rodman is currently working to establish similar arrangements at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto and at other Canadian seminaries.

"We're trying to get formal education plans for staff who stay more than seven years."

Rodman's own experience is instructive. She earned a BA at the University of Toronto, studying physical and health education and was accepted into a PhD program in anatomy at a university in the U.S. "I thought that would be my life," she says.

But her plan to pursue a graduate degree was delayed when she took a job with the municipal government in Toronto. "I took a pass for a year and ended up loving what I was doing." She stayed seven years.

During that time she met some people from Colombia "whose life intrigued me." She went for a visit and stayed three years. "I was really in an apprenticeship relationship with the Colombian IVCF leaders. After Bible studies we would have deep discussions about how what we were reading really mattered to our lives now."

When Rodman returned from Colombia she was ready to continue her formal education. But the trajectory had changed and she went to Wheaton College where she earned a master's degree in theology and com-munication.

"I'm glad I waited 10 years before I got into theological studies," she says. "It gave me a chance to live life, to work through how my faith is integrating with rest of my life. I had some life experience to bring to bear."

Always advancing

And that's the kind of learning experience she'd like others to have. "Formal education can really help. I want young staff to work for a three- to five-year period and then get into more leadership training. We like to have a series of next-steps in mind and be able to raise the bar at an appropriate time."

Rodman firmly believes that people learn a lot more from training opportunities when they come in the context of work and ministry experience—"intensive periods of life to have discipline and conviction to facilitate development and growth as a leader."

Formal education is an important part of the process. "Any formal education that creates an avenue for developing strategic thinking and a breadth of awareness is helpful," she says. Better knowledge and better awareness enable leaders to make better, more strategic decisions.

Studying church history, for example, "helps us understand how God works" through people across a broad span of human experience. "It helps us to see the big picture, to see how human realities and God realities have integrated over time." Education helps us develop that bigger perspective, she says.

"Theological education in either marketplace or full time ministry is helpful," she says. "It aids the integration of the sacred with the secular."

Rodman is also clear about some of the limitations of formal studies. "Education cannot replace an apprentice model of training," she says, observing that schools often seem to try to do that.

IVCF makes extensive use of the apprentice-model programs for all their leaders-in-training, whether at camp or on campus. "Staff must take our internship program. It helps them to see if this is really the place for them. It provides a place for people to truly check it out. They commit for a year. We need to determine if each individual has the capacity to do the job, and they need to discover that for themselves as well.

"The goal is to see people drawn into a calling."

Rodman's personal calling and her professional goals are increasingly integrated. While major events and administrative headaches are part and parcel of her workload, she comes to the task with a clear sense of direction.

"Right now our top priorities are developing leaders, building Christian witness in communities, cultivating partnerships at home and abroad and increasing organizational capacity," she says. "We aim to engage a vibrant Christian witness in our postmodern reality."