Transforming the Work of Committees to Faith Formation – Transcript
Jim Latimer
Welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for interim ministry, best practices and quick help – wisdom from the field. This is our collaborative Wisdom from the Field project featuring short interviews with transitional interim ministers, and others, with practical help, and wisdom to offer those engaged in transitional ministry. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Wisdom from the Field.
Jim Latimer
Today, we have the great fortune to have with us Reverend Dr. Tom bower. Tom is a veteran of the interim space in several different denominations. A really savvy guy, he actually comes out of a background in religious education, and has some very helpful thoughts from that background, interestingly, for interim ministry that made me really want to get some of his thoughts.
Jim Latimer
And so, tom, one of the first topics that we had in our pre-interview talk that you were going to talk about was the transformative work of committees to faith formation that caught me. Because normally, when people hear committees, they go, Oh, not another one! But you’re talking about how committee work itself can actually be transformative for faith formation. So, tell us more.
tom bower
Yeah, I’m becoming more and more convinced that adult faith formation primarily happens in the work of committees, not in classroom exercises, or other activities of the church. It’s in committee work that adult faith takes its life, because that’s really the arena for discussing the nitty gritties of how we live our faith together, and how we’re going to do this shared proclamation and shared expression of who we are as Christians. And so, I think we need to start approaching committees in a slightly different way. They’re necessary for the management of church activities – for church ministries. At the same time, though, to realize management itself is faith formation.
Jim Latimer
Management itself is faith formation. Wow! That’s quite a statement. It reminds me of – who’s the guy that? I can’t think of the name right now. Okay, go ahead. Please.
tom bower
I think part of the way to do this, is to be intentional with some educational strategies. The one I’ve been using, comes out of experiential education, teaching and learning. And that’s usually described as a cycle. There’re several different models out there. The one I’m going with has five different phases in experiential learning. You get the situation, the What. The event itself. And then there’s typically a debrief. So, what was that? And that debrief often just kind of resides in, Well, how did you feel about it? Did you like it? But experiential learning then goes so much further, because we need to stop and talk about, Well, what about that was meaningful? And what about that connects with our faithfulness. In more higher education places, this is the phase where you’re doing what theories have been out there, or the history of practices or the high concepts. I think, in church settings, this is the place for doing theological reflection. This is a place for engaging our Biblical Studies. This is a place for even looking at our own heritage – writ large and writ small. What’s the congregation’s heritage here?
tom bower
And I think that’s so essential in transitional work: What’s the background that got us to this event? And what leads us then in deciding what was meaningful in this event? The fourth phase of that is, So how does that affect us? How does that change us individually? How does that change us as a community?
tom bower
Which is leading into the fifth of, How do we prepare for what’s next? Obviously, that’s always part of our transitional and interim work, What’s next? So, this then is just a wheel, what’s next, then becomes the next event. The thing I love about experiential learning cycles, we talk about it in this kind of sequence of the events first, but really, you can start anywhere. And so, I think, going into a congregation and getting to know them and starting to ask, that’s actually what I need is that third step of, What’s the background here? And asking congregations, What’s your background? And, How did we get to where you feel you are now? What’s your self-assessment? And that’s leading them towards, Well, if this is your current assessment, where are you going next? And so, what do you want to do intentionally? And that becomes the What – what is this intentional thing we’re doing?
tom bower
I think this is a good cycle for laying out the work of a committee – what’s the administrative tasks? Here’s a way to review what we’ve done, evaluate what we’ve done to prepare for what we’re going to do. I also think this models some spiritual disciplines. It’s very similar to the daily examen of what was the day, and what was important, and what did we learn? And what do we hope to learn tomorrow?
tom bower
So, I think when this becomes a corporate pattern, then we’re doing community building, which is also an important part of faith formation. It’s also then saying, What is our shared purpose here? What are our common goals? What are the values that we’re intentionally seeking to express as a community of faith? All of that to me is the essence of faith formation. And so, to say the locus of adult faith formation is going to be in this very practical, nitty gritty committee work of moving church ministries forward, just then changes how we think of adult faith in action.
Jim Latimer
Wow, Tom! That’s a tour de force. That was dense too. I mean, in the best sense – there’s no filler in there. And I love how you applied it – when it becomes a corporate pattern, then this cycle becomes faith formation. Wow. So, give me again, because this is a lot right here. Let’s just do the five steps again, in as simple a way that you can say them.
tom bower
Yeah. It’s, What? (the what). So what?
Jim Latimer
So What? is number two?
tom bower
Yes, that’s number two. What about it? And then it’s, so what? Again? I’m going to rerun these, Jim.
tom bower
So, the five are –
- What? (That’s the event.)
- What was it? (Debriefing)
- What about it? (Getting more information.)
- So what? (With that information, what do we change?)
- What’s next? (We prepare for the next thing – the next, What?)
Jim Latimer
Okay. And so, a committee in its work, its administrative work, which you’ve helpfully positioned at the beginning, that’s what committees are for – administrative work, right? Any group of people of any size has administrative work that needs to be done. And that if it’s a faith community, that work – the process of doing that work – can be faith forming. When we think about it in this way,
tom bower
So, for example, almost every congregation has a worship committee. And they’re running from one week to the next week, from one season to the next season. And they don’t always pause. Because there’s that relentless deadline in front of them. What if, though, we build in these other reflective questions to the work of the committee? So yeah, we’ve done the What? And we’ve done the debrief – what well? What can we do better? But let’s also then pause and say, oh, So, what else have we learned about the essence of worship? What is it we want worship to be at its best? What are the kind of guiding principles that go into our congregation’s worship? Both conceptual and value and production values? And then what does that do for changing the next series of worship services we’re planning? And the planning in a committee – the What – is usually the planning the production, the presentation and with worship that is certainly then the worship services.
tom bower
So, there’s kind of a two part there isn’t there? There’s the preparation of the What. And then there’s the event. You can just see how this then naturally flows into the work of a committee. It doesn’t disrupt the work it, it modifies, it amplifies the work that they’re doing
Jim Latimer
And it’s a model for us to be reflective about what it is that we’re doing. And that reflective stance is what allows us to learn as well. Without reflection we don’t learn. Nice. Wow, tom. Well, that’s beautiful, And I loved how you just moved right into applying it to a worship committee, because of course that’s what most of our listeners, some of them just love theory like me, but the practical Okay, now let’s apply it to something! I mean it sounds great.
Jim Latimer
So, a worship committee sits down and plans for a week or maybe a month or whatever, but that to take regular time to think back and use these five steps of this experiential learning cycle that will help us in our reflection and our faith formation, therefore also. Wow, beautiful tom.
tom bower
Thank you very much.
Jim Latimer
Thank you!
tom bower
It’s a pleasure to share it with you, Jim.
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