Where CLI Started
CLI began at Definition Church in 2018 as in-house leadership training. Today, the residency program uses the same curriculum that is now running in churches and companies nationwide.
Preparing People for Full-Time Ministry
Definition Church runs a residency program with one clear aim: develop people for full-time ministry.
Parker Jones, the church's Residency Director, is direct about which half of that they already do well. Hands-on ministry experience, they've got. Residents learn the work by doing the work, alongside staff, week after week.
But ministry competence isn't the whole picture of a healthy leader.
"We know that you can't have spiritual maturity without emotional maturity." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
That conviction is exactly where CLI comes in. The ministry training is what Definition Church is great at. CLI partners with them on the other half — developing leadership skills, navigating conflict, and stewarding influence through the very practical work of having healthy conversations.
The Challenge
The Development That Never Quite Gets Scheduled
Leadership growth usually doesn't get skipped on purpose. It gets crowded out.
Every residency director knows which conversations should be happening. Feedback that would help a resident grow. A hard conversation about a pattern someone hasn't noticed in themselves. Accountability for what was taught three weeks ago.
Knowing those conversations should happen and finding room for them are two different problems.
"Sometimes you should have conversations with people or teams, but it's often hard to find the time or the space to create the space for that conversation." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
The practical ministry training runs on schedule every week. The formation work waits for an opening that rarely comes.
The Solution
A Built-In Space for the Conversations That Matter
CLI gave Definition Church's residency something a full calendar can't produce on its own: structure.
Feedback, encouragement, challenge, and accountability stopped depending on someone finding a free hour. They became part of the program itself — practiced every month, inside the cohort, as part of the coursework.
"CLI is kind of a built-in space for us where we know that we're going to practice feedback. We're going to practice helping encourage each other, challenge each other, and hold each other accountable to the things that we're learning." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
That structure is also what resolves a tension Parker names carefully. The conversations residents most need are the ones hardest to schedule. CLI doesn't ask a director to find more time. It puts the practice inside the program.
Meeting the Next Generation Where They Already Are
Online Isn't the Compromise. It's the Room They're In.
Parker works with young leaders, and he's noticed something that most development programs are built against rather than for.
"Working with young leaders, the thing that I've seen that is just a standard for them is that they have a great desire for low-maintenance, high-quality relationships." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
When a generation's relationships live primarily online, a residency has two options.
"You can either fight against that or you can meet them there. And I think that Develop.Me is the software that allows us to be able to do that well — where the content and the accessibility to the other people that are in the courses they're taking are high quality, and it's immediate at their fingertips." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
Meeting young leaders online only works if what they find there is worth showing up for. For Parker, that's the distinction. It isn't only the course content. It's access to the other people in the cohort — high quality, and immediately available.
What Makes It Work
Development Residents Actually Control
Parker names an instinct in Gen Z and Gen Alpha leaders that most training programs work against: a deep desire to be in control of their own growth.
CLI's self-paced, on-demand format turns that instinct into an asset. Residents set the speed. The tools sit in their hands rather than being administered to them.
"There's a piece of that that is very healthy, where it allows them to set their own pace for how fast they want to grow and develop, and really puts the tools in their own hands." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
Just as importantly, it isn't always-on. Definition Church is deliberate about boundaries, and the program supports that rather than working against it.
"It's not something that they feel like they have to be on all the time every day, because we're also trying to put healthy boundaries around software and their use of that." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
Key Outcomes
RELATIONAL
The Conversations Now Have a Place to Happen
Feedback, encouragement, challenge, and accountability are built into the program instead of depending on open calendar space.
SELF-DIRECTED
Residents Set Their Own Pace
Development sits in the residents' hands, working with a generation's instinct for ownership rather than against it.
BEYOND THE DIRECTOR
Growth That Isn't Capped by One Leader
Residents keep developing past the point their director has personally reached.
More Than a Curriculum
Why the Return Is Hard to Put a Number On
Ask Parker what the residency gets out of CLI and he goes to self-leadership before he goes to skills — managing yourself first, then leading other people.
FEATURED QUOTE
"CLI is helping us just be better at relationships, managing our self-management, self-leadership, but then also leading other people. And anything that helps you do that, to the extent that CLI is able to do that for us in our residency program, it's priceless. You can't really quantify that, at least on this side of eternity." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
For Smaller Churches Weighing the Investment
Developing People Is a Long Game
Parker addresses the objection directly, because he's heard it: a church with one or two residents, limited budget, and a fair question about whether this is the right use of it.
His answer reframes the timeline rather than arguing about the price.
"When you're developing people, it's always a long game. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. I would encourage anyone in that space to not just think through where we're at now and what's possible now, but: I need to prepare for where I believe that God is calling us to go." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
The Reason It Matters Most
You Can't Lead Someone Where You Haven't Been
Parker frames the core value of CLI in a way that applies to anyone responsible for developing other people.
"I can only lead my residents in their relationship with Jesus and in their leadership ability to the place where I am currently. I can't lead them somewhere where I have not been." Parker Jones, Residency Director, Definition Church
That's the ceiling every developer of people eventually meets. A proven curriculum, experienced instructors, and a cohort of peers is how a program grows past it — residents keep developing beyond the reach of any single leader's experience.
And Parker sees the difference in who thrives.
"The residents that commit to CLI and submit themselves to those teachings and to those experiences and that learning experience are the ones who excel the most." Parker Jones, Residency Director, Definition Church
Why Definition Church Recommends CLI
For churches building residency programs, Definition Church sees CLI as the half of formation that hands-on ministry experience can't deliver on its own — in a format the next generation will actually engage with.
"If you're wondering what is the thing that I should do for my team, my staff, my residency to help them grow the most — it should be CLI." Parker Jones Residency Director, Definition Church
Watch the Definition Church Story
Hear directly from Parker Jones about developing residents for full-time ministry, meeting the next generation where they are, and why a leader's own ceiling doesn't have to be their program's issue.
See Your Team Grow Without Having to Do It All Yourself.
Whether you're developing residents, staff, volunteers, or emerging leaders, CLI gives you a proven framework, experienced instructors, and a structure that keeps growing your people after your own experience runs out.