Category: Change Management

Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Church Mergers, Death and Dying, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Financial Management, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care Tagged with

13 min 37 s

Rev. Diane Kenaston

Simultaneously raising and lowering anxiety in the process of change;

A copy of the letter we sent to the congregation laying out our reasons and reality….

The details of our deliberative and thoughtful approach to ….

The specific steps we took to reduce the congregation’s anxiety level to allow a constructive conversation about our future;

How we named the options we had for the future;

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Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Change Management, Church Growth & Vitality, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Governance, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Team Building Tagged with

18 min 49 s

Rev. Peter Ilgenfritz & Rev. Todd Weir

How church leaders learned to see the bigger picture – from the balcony rather than just the dance floor;

Equipping lay leaders to be able to lead collaboratively with the next settled pastor…

Tips for the interim minister when following a strong successful settled pastorate (it’s not as easy as it sounds);

How to effect change at the cultural level, not just the program level – with examples;

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Posted in Change Management, Church Growth & Vitality, Governance, Leadership Development, Pastoral Care, Team Building, Volunteers Tagged with

11 min 31 s

Rev. Joe Graumann

Are your Church Council meetings a drag? You know – people come because they have to, persevering through a meeting that’s bogged down in procedures and run with a lack of imagination. Boring! Lots of time and energy is wasted. When can I go home?! If so, Rev. Joe Graumann offers some simple changes that can make Council meetings more fun and productive – ones that people will actually looking forward to attending – in this episode titled, “Flipping and Equipping the Church Council for Fun (enjoyable) and Productive Meetings”

Using the Relational Model for Council meetings – put cool stuff up front and

Reports submitted in advance;

Tapping into the flexibility offered by Roberts’ Rules;

Moving New & Old Business before the committee reports;

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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Pastoral Care Tagged with

15 min 23 s

Rev. Lindsey Peterson

The church needs non-church people – and not on our terms. We need non-church people on their creative terms;

Partnering magic is an inside / outside dance;

Helping folks see the bigger landscape where the magic of partnering is happening;

Magic happens when the church is lovingly shaken out of its habitual way of being by the freshness of creative spaces – arts and culture, movement, visual arts;

We agreed on the vision that our building will become a community center – but we’re in the middle of knowing what that will actually look like, how it will turn out, what it will really mean for people…how will it actually happen?

Helping the congregation to recognize that there’s wisdom and capability outside of the congregation that our vision needs for it to succeed;

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Posted in Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Pastoral Care, Stewardship Tagged with

12 min 41 s

Rev. Lindsey Peterson

Questions to direct us from a spirit-lead, and justice lead-perspective around how we are being nudged to use or give away material assets and resources;

Parsing the question of What is ours to give away, now?

What is ours?

What is ours?

What is ours to give away?

What is ours to give away now?

How to know when you’ve really released something – given it away?

  • there’s space in you;
  • there’s a lightening of your load;
  • you breathe deeper;
  • you feel a little lighter…

The opening of emotional space created by the release can breed hope;

You can never lose a thing if it belongs to you.

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Posted in Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Pastoral Care, Stewardship Tagged with

12 min 48 s

Rev. Lindsey Peterson

Is your church in that anxious place of diminished vitality where folks are throwing out ideas left and right in a desperate effort to right the ship – “We ought to do this?” or, “We could attract young families again if we just did that!” etc.?

If so, the Holy No! can help clarify what is ours to do at this time – and what is not. In this episode, Rev. Lindsey Peterson takes us inside her own congregation and how they are using the Holy No! to focus and to empower.

Questions to direct us from a spirit-lead, and justice lead-perspective around how we are being nudged to use or give away material assets and resources;

Parsing the question of What is ours to give away, now?

What is ours?

What is ours?

What is ours to give away?

What is ours to give away now?

How to know when you’ve really released something – given it away?

  • there’s space in you;
  • there’s a lightening of your load;
  • you breathe deeper;
  • you feel a little lighter…

The opening of emotional space created by the release can breed hope;

You can never lose a thing if it belongs to you.

Listen or Read Now!
Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, External Relations, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Stewardship Tagged with

16 min 07 s

Rev. Dr. Rochelle (Shelly) Stackhouse

  • Does your church have more property than it needs? Is much of your building unused most of the time? If so, you have lots of company! Many churches have significant real estate that’s fallow – unused – and yet they continue to pay for its upkeep. Of course, no one likes this situation or planned for this reality, yet churches often have difficulty moving forward. Put differently, churches often struggle to incorporate their property into a realistic understanding of their current mission and purpose as a faith community. Rev. Dr. Shelly Stackhouse, a long-experienced interim minister and now the Senior Director of Programs for the non-profit, “Partners for Sacred Places,” offers some key questions and a process to help such churches move forward in this episode titled, “Your Church Property Has a Mission Too.”

Does Your Church Have a Mission Statement for Its Property?

Interim ministers have the opportunity (obligation?) to help a congregation begin to assess their situation with their property;

  • How is our property being used?
  • How often?
  • Who’s using it?
  • What spaces could be used more fully?
  • What property should we offload? How and to whom?

Developing a mission statement for your property;

Understanding property as part of your mission – start by going room to room…

There are people in the wider community who are stakeholders in your property;

Honoring the grief in letting go of unused property;

It’s in the telling of stories that people come to feel the past has been honored, and then are open to a different future;

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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Leadership Development, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Pastoral Care, Staff, Worship Tagged with

15 min 50s

It’s not about “saving” the congregation, per se, but about buying the time for serious thinking about what the cong. wants for its future.

Discerning what form of ministry is faithful to the basic values & resources that you have now?

Guidance for how lay leaders can work productively with a very part-time pastor;

A targeted approach that equips and empowers the laity can do themselves:

Specific recommendations for how the laity can create and lead worship, for congregational care, etc.

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Posted in Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Pastoral Care Tagged with

12 min 19s

The four paths are: revitalization, transformation, legacy building and ministry completion (that’s one option), and road closed ahead.

Description of each path and what is involved;

Why 1 path is much harder (a mirage really) than it may seem and why;

Why another path is the one congregations in denial often fall into (and I wish didn’t exist!);

The process of shaping and narrowing down options and focusing on transformation, and legacy building and ministry completion, and discerning which is right for that congregation.

Metaphor of the church as a ship coming into harbor and completing it voyage.

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Posted in Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Mission and Vision, Pastoral Care Tagged with

13 min 42s

The power of metaphors for helping church navigate their lifecycle;

Imagining the wider church as a forest, and individual congregations as trees helps churches see how they fit into something larger than themselves;

Reframing this last phase of ministry not simply as decline, which is often interpreted as failure, but as a natural part of a process that’s tied to a larger system of the wider church;

Questions to aid the struggle of balancing autonomy at the congregational level with covenant at the wider church level;

How resurrection language can help; A resurrected church, like the resurrected Jesus, has some features of what it was before, but it’s not the same thing – some new “benefits” too;

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