tony fotsch

Tony serves as Pastor for St. James UMC in Tampa, Fl. He has a passion to connect people’s real lives with the real love of God, for their transformation into disciples of Jesus Christ who will transform the world. He loves connecting people into generative teams, within an environment of loving, learning and leading together, where their unique God-given gifts & abilities combine to strategically accomplish God’s creative & innovative designs toward adaptive challenges.

Tony’s first career was actually in Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering, with a desire to design large yachts and ships. In pursuit of this career, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master’s in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Tony considers himself another example of our Lord who works in mysterious ways. After just a few years into a career he loved, he found an even greater love in God’s calling to be a Pastor.  He received his MDiv from Asbury Seminary – Orlando, and serves as an Elder in the Florida Conference of the UMC.

Tony is married to his wife, Debbie, and they’re blessed with two middle-school aged boys. In addition to keeping up with their boys’ activities, Tony enjoys time at the beach or pool, fitness activities, reading or just watching a movie with the family on the couch.

tampa, FL

Some of my Projects

District Operational Team

Recruited as a member of a newly formed District Operational team that was being coached by SLI to discern a new mission and vision for the District leadership team, to give clear focus & strategy for our work, and cohesion & purpose as a team. We carried out a number of experiments through the Ministry Action Plan, most of which exceeded the goals and metrics, and were received by the clergy and laity with great appreciation. We launched a few child-teams for ongoing and generative leadership into strategic areas of ministry within the District.

Local Church “Foundation Phase” Visioning Process

Apprenticed as an SLI coach within my new appointment to a church. Prior to my arrival, the church had been in steady decline, had a lot of pastoral turnover, and an underlying spirit of mistrust and even animosity among a lot of the church family. While there was a lot of good ministry activity, it was not focused and often based in the desires of individual staff or congregation member. Bringing together a team of staff and lay leaders to focus on loving God & each other and to grow as spiritual leaders helped to address many of the cultural concerns. Developing a new set of core values, along with a new mission & vision gave a renewed sense of identity and purpose for the congregation. Building a Ministry Action Plan, based upon a faithful analysis of internal and external context, allowed the church to “be real” with its challenges, but brought hope through strategic focus to ministry activity, and an increased level of buy-in. Aligning our ministry structure to the MAP helped utilize our reduced resources for greater effectiveness, and to start building child-teams as we began a transformation to more truly live and serve as a Church body.

Tony Fotsch

Tony serves as Pastor for St. James UMC in Tampa, Fl. He has a passion to connect people’s real lives with the real love of God, for their transformation into disciples of Jesus Christ who will transform the world. He loves connecting people into generative teams, within an environment of loving, learning and leading together, where their unique God-given gifts & abilities combine to strategically accomplish God’s creative & innovative designs toward adaptive challenges.

Tony’s first career was actually in Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering, with a desire to design large yachts and ships. In pursuit of this career, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master’s in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Tony considers himself another example of our Lord who works in mysterious ways. After just a few years into a career he loved, he found an even greater love in God’s calling to be a Pastor.  He received his MDiv from Asbury Seminary – Orlando, and serves as an Elder in the Florida Conference of the UMC.

Tony is married to his wife, Debbie, and they’re blessed with two middle-school aged boys. In addition to keeping up with their boys’ activities, Tony enjoys time at the beach or pool, fitness activities, reading or just watching a movie with the family on the couch.

Tampa, FL

Some of my Projects

District Operational Team

Recruited as a member of a newly formed District Operational team that was being coached by SLI to discern a new mission and vision for the District leadership team, to give clear focus & strategy for our work, and cohesion & purpose as a team. We carried out a number of experiments through the Ministry Action Plan, most of which exceeded the goals and metrics, and were received by the clergy and laity with great appreciation. We launched a few child-teams for ongoing and generative leadership into strategic areas of ministry within the District.

Local Church “Foundation Phase” Visioning Process

Apprenticed as an SLI coach within my new appointment to a church. Prior to my arrival, the church had been in steady decline, had a lot of pastoral turnover, and an underlying spirit of mistrust and even animosity among a lot of the church family. While there was a lot of good ministry activity, it was not focused and often based in the desires of individual staff or congregation member. Bringing together a team of staff and lay leaders to focus on loving God & each other and to grow as spiritual leaders helped to address many of the cultural concerns. Developing a new set of core values, along with a new mission & vision gave a renewed sense of identity and purpose for the congregation. Building a Ministry Action Plan, based upon a faithful analysis of internal and external context, allowed the church to “be real” with its challenges, but brought hope through strategic focus to ministry activity, and an increased level of buy-in. Aligning our ministry structure to the MAP helped utilize our reduced resources for greater effectiveness, and to start building child-teams as we began a transformation to more truly live and serve as a Church body.

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