Our Story

In July 1994 the Australian committee of the Lausanne movement held a conference for emerging Christian leaders in Melbourne. It was led by the Rev Stephen Hale and the Rev Karl Faase. The conference brought together 300 key emerging and senior leaders from around Australia.

Arising out of the conference was the conviction that there was a need for an ongoing training program for young emerging leaders that could assist them to keep developing as leaders as they continued in ministry.

It was decided to explore the model of the Arrow Leadership program in North America that had been developed by Leighton Ford for just this purpose and see how it might be adapted for the Australian context. Karl and Stephen visited the American program and on their return in 1995 Arrow Australia was set up with The Rev Peter Corney invited to become the first director to develop the program. The first director of mentoring was The Rev John Mallison and the first Chair of the Board was The Rev Stephen Hale. The first Arrow cohort graduated in 1996 with The Rev Leighton Ford sharing as the guest speaker at the graduation.

In 2002 Peter Corney retired and Karl Faase became the new director. Sandy Jones replaced John Mallison as director of mentoring. In 2007 the Board conducted a major review and redesign of the curriculum and decided to extend the program. The Rev Julian Dunham was then appointed as the full time program director to implement the new curriculum and enable the expansion of the program. In 2011 George Savvides became the Chair of the Board and planning began to develop a business and professional leaders stream.

Today, Arrow Leadership has seen over 900 Arrow Leaders experience the ministry of Arrow through one of our leadership development programs, coaching or supervision experiences and coach or organisational training.

Arrow has 5 independent programs committed to identifying and developing Christian leaders in a variety of expressions from a number of sectors including the church, NFP and Education sectors. Our focus is on developing transformational leaders, who are capable of engaging their context to bring renewal and transformation, so their organisation is stronger and more connected to the community it desires to reach and serve.

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