About NCIL
THE MISSION OF NATIONAL COLLABORATIVE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP
National Collaborative Institute of Leadership exists to continually research and study African American historic churches and para-organizations for the purpose of advancing the vocational practices of executive and key leaders in ecclesial organizations, ecumenical non-profit businesses, as well as their schools and ministries, by providing systematic information enabling its leaders professional development and transforming them from solely local mindsets into global perspectives in their communities. NCIL exists to bridge mission and vision with practice that will be relevant to the 21st Century.
THE HISTORY OF NATIONAL COLLABORATIVE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP
The path to the development of National Collaborative Institute of Leadership began in 2012 as Maryland Christian College (MCC), on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in a township called Easton, Maryland. In a series of conversations commending their pastor of his works in serving the church, participating on local boards, and leading local churches' leadership conferences, a few members of a small Methodist church alongside their "specially appointed" Baptist Pastor noticed the need for the vocational training of ministers and clergy across their Maryland Eastern Shore region. While these clergy/pastors surely possessed giftedness in articulating inspiring Bible sermons, the changes in their local region and broader society called for church leaders' increased entrepreneurial, non-profit business, as well as fundraising capacities. This type of training would provide their organizations with continuity, increased forms of community outreach efforts, as well as lift the effectiveness of their congregations' ministries/humanitarian services in their local contexts. Therefore, MCC was organized and opened for training church leaders.
Maryland Christian College, Easton, Maryland
Interestingly, after 2 years of opening MCC, the organization's leadership was increasingly called upon to respond to the demand of training/catechizing ministers and deacons for their ordinations alongside the need for instructing in the indigent African American Bible Colleges and Seminaries in the Baltimore City and Howard County region. This need gave birth to additional ministry departments and publishing, whereas books and training manuals were authored and published solely for training ministers and deacons, and teaching in colleges such as Sojourner Douglass College, which had campuses across the state of Maryland (Baltimore, Annapolis, Cambridge, and Salisbury). Some of the indigent seminaries included United Baptist College & Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Washington Baptist Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. In reflection, the stationary MCC had transformed to an itinerant Church Leadership Training/Christian Education movement.
Sojourner Douglass College, Baltimore, Maryland
Then during the most recent 3 years approaching the year 2020, conversations with fellow pastors and Christian business colleagues across the United States regarding upgrading church leaders' ministry to include executive leadership perspectives, non-profit organization works, as well as cross-cultural church leadership in historic churches, all came into fruition in the month of early March, 2020. This conversation highlighted how many pastoral, ecumenical business leaders, and Christian School leaders, whom are credentialed and have served their churches and businesses for numbers of years, but as the postmodern and globalized society emerge, topics of cross-cultural populations and social diversity began surfacing, as well as how younger generations not of African descent and cultures have increasingly populated into Black peoples' traditional communities and began affecting the normal attendances and participation in their in their organizations. So, these leaders continually stressed the need for professional development on an experienced/ executive level. Consequently, these conversations gave birth to National Collaborative Institute of Leadership in March 2020, and became a named "Institute" in the District of Columbia in April, 2020. Part of the name "Collaborative" came about due to the cross-denominational as well as secular leaders' desires to engage in Christian-based professional development and continuing education that will increase their capacities in leading their organizations as the 21st Century's postmodern and globalized communities rise across the U.S.
On May 1, 2020, National Collaborative Institute of Leadership was incorporated in D.C., and NCIL's Board of Directors began a feasibility study inquiring and leading the Institute through the process of acquiring Federal non-profit organization status. NCIL is a research institute that study's and research's the collective leadership effectiveness in African American churches, with emphasis on the historic churches, for assisting these institutions and para-organizations in their revitalization efforts for engaging and building relevance with emerging postmodern and globalized communities that are increasing/populating the former predominantly Black neighborhoods, in the 21st Century.