11 min 38 s
What gets missed when decisions are made quickly;
Benefits of the “How might?” question;
Framing a question for maximum engagement;
By changing yourself, you can actually help change others – it’s contagious;
We carry conflict in our bodies;
Make complexity your friend;
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16 min 39s
Creative examples of using the church’s assets for the benefit of the wider community in a way that is mutually beneficial;
Instead of First Church of – name your town, if we’re a community asset, we might think about our name as the First Church for – name your town;
Rather than a “Tag Sale,” have a “Trunk Sale;”
Connecting with people in the community who might benefit from your church’s space;
Narrowing the gap between ministry and mission;
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12 min 2s
When thom said that committee work can be an essential means of faith formation, it gave me pause. After all, serving on committees is what many people try to avoid. But what he said made sense: when committees practice intentional reflection on their work, it can be faith forming. Put differently, committee work is faith forming when it builds up the beloved community by probing and affirming shared values, purpose and goals. Rev. Dr. thom bower elaborates on this concept and offers a simple 5-step process to guide committee work in this episode titled, “Transforming the Work of Committees to Faith Formation.”
It’s in committee work that adult faith takes its life;
Need to approach committee work in a way that recognizes that management itself is faith formation;
A 5-step process to make committee work a community building practice;
12 min 2s
The word “community” is used a lot when talking about church life, yet it’s often a vague notion. But if we frame it as a spiritual discipline – that is, creating community as a spiritual disciple – we get much more traction: What does it mean to be a community now? What does it mean to create community as a Jesus follower? What does it mean to be a Jesus follower in this congregation? At this time and in this neighborhood? How do we keep what is essential and yet lean into the future where things are changing for us? Rev. Dr. thom bower speaks to these questions and more in this episode titled, “Learning to Be Community As a Spiritual Discipline.”
“What does it mean for you to be a community?” – essential question for a congregation;
What does it mean to have a spiritual discipline?
What does that look like as a community activity? (Community as a verb)
Community as the content of faith formation, as the process of faith formation and as the outcome of faith formation;
What does it mean to be a community now? In our context?
Four questions –
16 min 07 s
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;
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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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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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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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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15 min 25s
How a physician or a statistician might look at someone and assess what their health was and their life expectancy – parallels with a congregation;
Examples for churches: Acute, life-threatening illnesses,
Chronic illnesses;
Toxic behavior by members;
Parallels for churches of what we’d look for in people such as diet, exercise, social connection, sleep or rest, family history, mental health;
Like people, some of the things that influence life expectancy can be changed, some cannot & which is which;
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13 min 05s
If the congregation has a vision, how do you know if it’s actually your vision that they’ve kind of adopted somehow, or it’s really their vision?
Are they saying that because I’m in the room? Or because they know I’m excited about it?
If it’s something that I feel that I could do this myself, or like, Oh, this is perfect! then I get a little wary, and have to be careful;
If I feel like it’s perfect, then it’s probably a reflection of my beliefs and my hopes, rather than these people who are totally different than me, or have their own hopes and their own beliefs;
It’s about self-awareness: in addition to listening outward, I need to listen inward to make sure that I’m not placing myself in it too much;
And if I determine that there is too much of me in this vision, here’s what I do…
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