HERITAGE:

COMING TO TERMS

WITH HISTORY

Congregational Development Task #1

Framework for each session

1.The TaskThe Task

Issues Involved with this taskAccomplishing this task - Chafin summary

chart

2. Some Tools/Resources for this taskResources list from Toolkit , Resources for Transition

etc.

3. Short Case Study

PROCESS TASKS

Congregational Development Task #1

COMING TO TERMS WITH HISTORY

See Temporary Shepherds, pp.65-74, 166-7See also “Toward a Transformation Toolkit”: Description & Assessment tools

#3-18; Conflict & Change tools #22-25; Direction Setting tools #26-30

“Resources for Transition” pp.16-25, 28ff

p.1

CONGREGATION’S DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS PASTOR’S PROCESS TASKS

Coming to Terms with History (Heritage) Joining the system

Discovering a New Identity (Mission) Analyzing the system

Allowing and empowering new leadership (Leadership) Connecting with the denomination

Renewing denominational linkages (Connections) Focusing and assuming responsibility

Commitment to new future (Future) Exiting and evaluating

Heritage

The Task: Heritage

Each congregation is “both heir & victim of history.”

Loren Mead

� Revisit & learn from both debilitating & creative/energizing moments

� Congregations choose whether to use history as “blockages” or “fuel”

p.2

The Task

“History is a dynamic and creative process, and the development of a vital sense of meaning and self-awareness is the result of an ongoing process of telling and retelling a

congregation’s defining stories.” John Keydel

“Unless we sever the chains tying us to the dead weight of our past, the church is like the nursing home patient who still thinks it’s 1956 and has clearer memories of those days than of the present faces of his grandchildren.”

Paul F. Raack

“The interim period may well fit alongside of birth and death as major times for individuals and groups to make changes and to work out the residue of old relationships

which have been disabling.”Edwin Friedman

pp.1-2

Creating Safe Places“The interim, by word and example, helps the congregation to create ‘safe places,’ opportunities at both the personal and corporate scale that encourage the members of a congregation to remember, recognize and articulate the defining stories of the congregation. John Keydel, Bendroth, p.55

p.2

Unresolved Issues1. Untapped Resources

Stories that can point forward� about healing

� about coping or carrying each other

� about earlier vision, purpose, mission commitments

� about continuing strengths and assets that can be tapped for new future

“Half full cup” approaches suchas Appreciative Inquiry

p.2

2. Unresolved Issues

Listen for:� unresolved griefs

� older conflicts

� long standing unhelpful patterns

� “ghosts” or secrets

� lack of closure with previous (or preceding) pastor

p.2

2. Unresolved Issues

Griefs:Note that, as with families,

• congregants may be in different emotional spaces at any given time

• grief may be on surface, or masked by bewilderment, disappointment, anger.

“Interim pastors go into a congregation as into a household of grief.”

Loren Mead

p.2

STAGES OF GRIEFKubler-Ross

� Denial

� Anger

� Bargaining

� Depression

� Acceptance

p.2

2. Unresolved Issues

Conflict:Conflicts may indicate

� “that something important is happening in the church, or

� that something important needs to happen, or

� the accomplishment of something important is being threatened.”

Terry Foland

pp.2-3

2. Unresolved Issuesp.3

“One of the fundamental tasks of the interim is to help the Board take

an unvarnished look at the organization – its past, its strengths, its weaknesses, its shortcomings, and

its accomplishments...”

pp.2-3

“Conflict Utilization” means watching

“where conflict or anxiety bubbles up indicating not only points of friction but of passion.”

David Sawyer

p.2

2. Unresolved Issues“conflict utilization”

from

p.33

2. Unresolved Issuesp.3

See Resources

p.31

Leadership, Spring 2012 Caption Contest

Perhaps you have a suitable caption for this cartoon from the

spring 2012 issue of Leadership magazine.

Elephants in the tent

p.4

2. Unresolved Issues

� long standing unhelpful patterns

� “ghosts” or secrets

� lack of closure with previous (or preceding) pastor

Elephants in the Tent, and...

“The story of that period is so highly significant in the life of the church that it needs to be told.”

David R. Sawyer in Nicholson, p.33

p.4

Combing our Heritage

“History is a dynamic and creative process, and the development of a vital sense of

meaning and self awareness is the result of an ongoing process of telling and retelling a

congregation’s defining stories.”John Keydel, Bendroth, p.55

"What we focus on becomes our reality".

Appreciative Inquiry

Interim Pastors:� quickly come to know and love their congregants

� have no personal investment in these stories or their usage (these stories have nothing to do with them personally)

� can help the congregation distinguish between helpful facts and hurtful fiction

� can guide the congregation in using this information for planning

� are going to leave, and some congregants feel freer speaking their minds to them.

Bonnie Bardot in Nicholson, p.69)

p.4

Symptoms of Resolution Symptoms of Non-Resolution

Living in the present while accepting the past

Living in the past

Movement through the grief process

Stuck in grief: anger, denial, guilt, alienation

Articulate about tradition, open to change

Unwillingness to consider the why of traditions

Asking process questions: where are we going? What do we do now?

Ghost(s) of pastor(s) past

Investment in current and future issues

Selective memory (memory gaps)

Stabilizing membership, giving, participation

Declining membership, giving, participation

Healthy humour Trying to clone the previous pastor or to find his/her exact opposite

Accomplishing this Taskp.5

Based on R. Neil Chafin, “Engaging the Developmental Tasks”

Resources

See Temporary Shepherds, pp.65-74, 166-7

“Toward a Transformation Toolkit”:Description & Assessment #3-18;

Conflict & Change #22-25; Direction Setting #26-30

“Resources for Transition”:Description & Assessment pp.16-25

Conflict & Change pp.28-38

Toolkit #3-18

ToolkitDescription & Assessment

#3 Systems Thinking#4 Church Size & Style#5 Polarities Thinking

#6 Interviews#7 Congregational Life Cycle

#8 Closing Churches#9 Historical Time Lines#10 Narrative Leadership

#11 The Congregation as Person#12 Natural Church Development (NCD)

#13 Spiritual Assessment#14 SWOT Analysis

#15 Assessing our Context#16 Type Talk

#17 The After Pastor#18 Curiosity

Toolkit #22-25

ToolkitConflict & Change

#22 Conflict Management/Transformation & Mediation#23 Change Theory

#24 Behaviour Covenant#25 Loosing & Letting Go (a.k.a. Forgiveness)

Toolkit #26-30

Direction Setting#26 Asset Mapping

#27 Appreciative Inquiry#28 Strategic Planning

#29 Spiritual Discernment#30 Visioning

Resources for Coming to Terms with History

Toolkit #7

Resources pp.16-17

Congregational Life Cycle

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Interviews• 3 to 5 “open questions” distributed in

advance• Listeners interview individuals/couples, or

groups if higher safety level• Record and return copy of interview notes to

assure that “have been heard”

Toolkit #6

Resources p.21

Historical Time Line Exercise

• Divide participants by decade (in which became active) for 3 questions:

� What were the “Glory Days” of that era?

� What were the “Struggles” of that period?

� What did we learn about living well together in difficult times?

Toolkit #9

Resources p. 21Coming to Terms with History:

some tools

• Histogram – participants use coloured &/or shaped Post-It notes to post entry, high and low points on time line.

Appreciative Inquiry

Toolkit #27

Resources p.22Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Toolkit #19-21

Resources p.26

ToolkitFostering Dialogue

#19: Safe Exchanges: Fish Bowl & Samoan Circle#20 Public Explorations: Deliberative Dialogue &

The World Cafe#21 Difficult Conversations

“Resources for Transition”p. 26 Crucial Conversations

Resources p.26

Crucial Conversations

Conflict

Toolkit #22

Resources pp.28-38Coming to Terms with History:

some tools

“Conflict overall is more frequent in churches these days due to the

anxiety that comes from changing cultures within and around the

church.”

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Interim Pastor Peter Alexander, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

Toolkit #22

Resources pp.28-38

Toolkit #22

Resources pp.28-38

Resources p.29

Approaches to Conflict

In (1) through (3) the problem is left intact, while the

leader’s course is changed. Leaders adapt to the

problem; the problem changes them.

In (4) the problem is dealt with; problems need to

be solved rather than adapted to.

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Resources p.30

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Resources p.30

Levels of ConflictSpeed Leas

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Resources p.31

Speed Leas’ Levels of Conflict:

Language

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

Resources p.31

Dialogue Methods and Speed Leas’ Levels of

ConflictFrom Susan Nienaber seminar, Talking About the Tough Stuff: Using Dialogue

to Deal with the Difficult Issues in the Church, May 7-9, 2007

Dialogue Tools are described by Dr Janette Hartz-Karp at

21stcenturydialogue.com.

Level 0Suppression/Repression

Fellowship Oriented Dialoguee.g. Open Space Technology

Level 1 – Problem to SolveLevel 2 – Self Protection

Conversation CafeWorld Cafe

Study CirclesPlanning Cells

Level 3 – Power Struggle/WinningLevel 4 – Factions

(Will likely use mediation and arbitration)

Pilot DialogueConsensus Forums

Restorative Dialogue

Level 5 – Destroy Do NOT use dialogue! Separate parties and use peace keeping

authorities

Resources p.31

Understanding Your Own Conflict Styles

Coming to Terms with History: some tools

And when to use them...

Persuading

Compelling

Avoiding

Collaborating

Negotiating

Supporting

Resources pp.32ff.

Based on Barry Bartel, Let’s Talk (Herald, 1999)

What’s Your Personal Conflict Style?

Competitive Collaborative

Sharing

Avoiding

Accommodating

Coming to Terms with History: some tools Resources pp.32ff.

Behavioural Covenants

My most important tool for highly conflicted or polarised situations!

Toolkit #20

Resources pp.35-36

“A behavioral covenant is a

written document, developed by

leaders, agreed to and owned by its creators, and practised on a daily basis as a

spiritual discipline.”

Gil Rendle

Resources pp.35-36

Developing Behavioural Covenants

Starting with the Bible

“Bible Diving” exercise: Using the “subtitles” for several epistles, participants categorize probable content as� “What we Believe,” �“How we live (live together),” or �“Other.”

Note how much attention is given to “How we Live.”

Resources pp.35-36

Epistle Number of

Headings

How we BELIEVE

How we LIVE/ LIVE

TOGETHER

OTHER

Romans 35 16 (46%) 10 (29%) 9 (26%)

1 Corinthians

34 7 (20%) 23 (66%) 4 (14%)

Galatians 14 8.5 (61%) 3.5 (25%) 2 (14%)

Philippians 13 .5 (4 %) 8.5 (65%) 4 (31%)

TOTALS 96 32 (33%) 45 (47%) 19 (20%)

Dec. 2013 Group Unscientific

Summary of “Headings”

Resources pp.35-36

Developing Behavioural Covenants

Starting with Congregational ExperienceIn home groups or larger settings:1. Name a moment when we at this church were most

Christ-like2. What were some moments when we fell short of that

Christ-likeness?3. Brainstorm some more Christ-like alternatives.

The responses to #2 and #3, especially the #3 alternatives, formed the basis for the draft covenant.

Resources pp.35-36

Sample Behavioural Covenants

�Ground Rules for Specific Conversations p.36

�My Commitment to Self Monitoring at Church Meetings p.36

�Working Together For Christ (a staff covenant) p.37

Resources pp.35-38

The InterimDevelopmental/Process Tasks

My Journey11 Congregational or Conference Intentional Interim Settings

A digression

Park Street Church

As you consider this case:

1. What impact do these stories have upon the current life of the

congregation?

2. What if anything should Pastor Ben and his Transition Team do at this point? What might be the potential

risks and benefits?

Heritage: For further consideration