Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter

Bishop Thomas

A newly created leadership organisation in Jamaica has as its prime mission, the honing of leadership skills and character in the nation's boys and men.

A newly created leadership organisation in Jamaica has as its prime mission, the honing of leadership skills and character in the nation's boys and men.

The new organisation, The Centre for Leadership Wisdom (Jamaica), is the brainchild of Bishop André Thomas, a certified trainer and partner of EQUIP - one of the leadership development organisations of expert, John C. Maxwell.

Bishop Thomas, 40, was born in England and raised in Sierra Leone. He became a born-again Christian in his pre-teen years. At 19 he was a minister of the gospel. At 20 he relocated to England and became a pastor, church planter and civil servant. Though not formerly schooled in theology, he has read extensively, a range of books on theology, and has received on-the-job training from a number of spiritual mentors.

A vision

At about 20, he said, the Lord gave him a vision to go and work in the Caribbean .

After a fact-finding trip to Barbados in 1994, Bishop Thomas decided to settle there in 1998 with his goal being to help the Caribbean people "move from bondage to greatness."

After years of ministry in Barbados, he became a pastor and the founder of an educational institution - Harvesters Christian University, a satellite of Life Christian institution which has its main campus in Virginia, United States.

In the last five years, Harves-ters has trained between 400-500 persons in theology and/or counselling.

But as he ran the affairs of the university, Bishop Thomas began to notice an anomaly.

The institution was graduating students with great vision but little ability to execute such.

Object of frustration

"I knew that their problem was their ability to lead," he told The Gleaner. He believes: "If your vision is greater than your leadership wisdom, your vision will become the object of your frustration."

He refocused his energies and became totally engaged in leadership training. He wanted to provide the highest levels of leadership training, not just to church folk but also persons in business, and the social sector. Thus was birthed The Centre for Leadership Wisdom (Barbados). That school has been around for about a year and has so far graduated 1,500 in Barbados.

Following the successes experienced in Barbados, Bishop Thomas now wants to plant such centres in every, territory within the Caribbean.

The training offered at these centres are steeped in the teachings of John C. Maxwell and complemented with the leadership wisdom gained by Bishop Thomas in doing ministry.

From the writings of John C. Maxwell, who is himself a former pastor of a Wesleyan church in the United States, Bishop Thomas has crafted a leadership development curriculum for Barbados. It includes leadership and citizenship.

The curriculum manual integrates the Barbados Strategic Vision as well as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The course is designed to be taught in one year. It is presently being used in few schools in Barbados.

Just before the last general election in Barbados, he reported that the Owen Arthur government had bought into his curriculum and had signed off on making the curriculum a staple in every school. However, with the changing of administration, the David Thompson administration, he said, has dissolved the arm of government that was to influence the adoption of the curriculum in schools.

Series of camps

Beginning in August, Bishop Thomas will be convening a series of camps where he will be introducing the curriculum to Jamaican boys. This time, it will be augmented with an addition to the syllabus - the seven laws of manhood.

Bishop Thomas explained that the seven laws of manhood seeks to promote a biblical concept of maleness in ways that will resonate with young men.

The boys will be trained in a three-week residential setting, which he calls Boys to Men. The camps will carry with it, a rites of passage ethos. Boys will be taken through the signposts they need to pass on the journey into manhood. Bishop Thomas explained, "There are three signposts boys need to pass on the road to manhood. First, taking responsibility for your own achievement. Second, taking on the responsibility of being family leaders. Third, getting an understanding of your place in life. The rites of passage camp will be a training of boys in manhood; it will teach them how to lead; and there will also be times of personal interaction between the boys and a mentor/coach."

First such ministry

When the camp gets under way it will be the first such ministry to boys organised by Bishop Thomas for the region.

For adult males, Bishop Thomas' strategy will be to get churches to buy into his manual on the seven laws of manhood and teach it to their men. He will also be establishing an organisation called male Mentorship Institute where the seven laws of manhood and other useful material from the teachings of John C. Maxwell will be shared. The Male Mentorship Institute, he explained, will seek to work not only with men in the church, but also men in business and the social sector.

According to Bishop Thomas, "If you want to create a new generation of leaders, you have got to manufacture them - the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government and the nation in the next generation."

Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.