15 min 33 s

Rev. Dr. Todd Grant Yonkman

  • An inspiring story of a church that sold its building and joined the community;
  • Shift from, “The church is falling apart,” to, “The church is falling open;”
  • Wisdom about the twists and turns of a building sale;
  • The shift from a downsizing to a restart;
  • Selling a building is highly context dependent;
  • Renovating the building without reconnecting with the community is futile;

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10 min 50 s

Rev. Pegi Ridout

  • The difficulty with conflict isn’t that we have it, it’s that we don’t know how to do it well.
  • How do we treat conflict as gift? How do we get there?
  • Respectful communication guidelines developed by Eric Law at the Kaleidoscope Institute
  • trust, respect, listen, then speak.
  • Conflict skills/muscles are built through practice;
  • Pegi’s 3 types of practice for building our conflict muscles;

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13 min 23s

Rev. Quentin Chin

  • Bringing 1 Corinthians 12 to life;
  • How clergy and congregation can make space for each other to shine!;
  • Collaborative ministry requires clergy and congregation to share with each other their respective strengths and weaker areas – especially important for part-time pastorates;
  • Some of the things I’m doing to prepare the congregation for a potentially indefinite period of part-time pastorates;

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24 min 13 s

Rev. Doug Bixby

The trust vs. mistrust stage of pastoral ministry

A new pastor arrives in the middle of the “movie” of a congregation’s life

Avoid triangulation, not conflict;

Interim time can allow the congregation to catch its breath;

During the interim time does the congregation primarily need healing or helping?

Giving authority without responsibility invites the church monster to rear its head;

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19 min 18 s

Rev. Dawn Adams

From a 20-hour/week pastorate to a 30-hour/week one and more – how we’re doing it

Boundaries: balancing clergy self-care with the practical realities of renewal;

Success metrics, and a rhythm of communication about critical topics…

A practical step-by-step story revealing what did work and what didn’t (and why);

Instilling a spirit of experimentation into a congregation;

Helping the small congregation know that there is a larger congregation that exists that may never ever sit in a pew in our building;

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12 min 58 s

Rev. Dawn Adams

Tips for making innovation and experimentation work for a small church;

Responding innovatively to the different church participation behaviors of younger generations;

Balancing it all: engaging the congregation while also maintaining healthy boundaries;

Examples of successful collaboration with other clergy for worship, Advent, Lent, that lessen one’s work load; Collaboration should make things easier not harder;

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