Eads completes leadership development program
Jan. 20—ELKHART — Greg Eads of northcentral Indiana completed the Journey Missional Leadership Development Program of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 2023.
The undergraduate-level certificate program develops leaders centered in Jesus Christ for ministries in local churches and communities, according to a statement from AMBS. It's designed for pastors, those exploring a call to ministry, church planters and lay leaders. The program consists of online study, biweekly meetings with a mentor, and face-to-face gatherings twice a year.
Eads is actively involved in ministry in multiple settings. For four years, he has been a full-time volunteer as a hospital chaplain for Goshen Health. Through the Elkhart County Jail Ministry, he helps provide transportation for people leaving incarceration. He has been training with Kairos, a prison fellowship program that has connections with the Indiana State Prison, and he has volunteered with The Way Goshen (theway2him.org) and SPA Women's Ministries. His home congregation is Christian Center Church — a nondenominational/Spirit-filled charismatic church in South Bend — where he serves as a greeter and is involved with the daycare ministry and CARE Ministry.
Eads entered the Journey program in the fall of 2020 at the suggestion of Dennis Miller, a fellow volunteer chaplain at Goshen Health and a 2018 Journey graduate. He said he had been looking for a faith-based leadership development program. He described the assignments as "challenging and rewarding at the same time" and said he especially enjoyed the essays and open forums.
"The work in the Journey program and the others going through it alongside me gave me an outlet for unburdening as well as the filling of the heart with knowledge in the Lord," Eads reflected. "Not being Mennonite/Anabaptist was a challenge in the studies that I welcomed and relish."
Eads' mentor in the Journey program was Jim Martin of the Church of Jesus Christ of Argos. His parents are the late Jim and Virginia Eads, and he has three young adult children.