Building Healthy Congregations

A Series of Four Workshops for Teams from Congregations

Dates and Time:

September 12, October 10, November 14, and December 12, 2015

9:30am to 4:30pm

Leader:

Rev. Dr. Richard Speck, JPD Adjunct Staff

These four workshops are designed precisely for a time of rapid changes in congregations.  They are based in an understanding of the congregation functioning as an emotional system of interrelated parts.  It is a new way of thinking about both the congregation and its leadership.  You will view the congregation as a whole, as an organism, as a system.  Instead of seeing separate parts, you will see interrelated parts and their interactions.  No one part promotes health or illness in a system.  Everything contributes for good or ill.  The congregation is seen as a whole unit in need of care by the leadership.  Therefore, these workshops center around the stewardship of the congregation: how leaders care for, respond to, and oversee the congregation’s life together.

Congregational leaders are the chief stewards.  They are in a position to promote the well-being of the congregation.  They set a mood and tone for the congregation.  They are accountable for setting a direction, taking stands, staying connected to others, encouraging participation, and attending to the ongoing interplay of many conditions and forces.

These workshops enable participants to:

• Gain a renewed sense of purpose and mission
• Cultivate strong leadership capacities to challenge the congregation
• Learn how to develop healthy patterns of living together in community
• Learn to focus on strength, resources, and options for the future
• Boost confidence in responding to challenges and opportunities
• Learn how to lead with calm and thoughtfulness
• Reflect theologically about relationships
• Move the congregation toward healthy functioning

Both professional and lay leaders can benefit from attending these workshops.  Seminarians and Ministerial Interns are encouraged to attend, as the workshops address many of the MFC Ministerial Competencies.  For the information to become embedded in the system, a team approach is used.  The team can build up the health in the system by relying upon one another.  It doesn’t matter what size the congregation is since the concept addresses the whole system and not individual parts.

It is highly recommended that congregations send teams of four and five people.  As the program builds upon the learning of the previous session, it is expected that you will attend all sessions.

Cost is $250 per person or $650 for a team of five which includes all workbooks, meals, and handouts.  Additional team members can be accommodated for $150 per additional member.  A congregation under 100 members may send a team of four for $500.  Additional scholarship help may be available, check with the District Office.  Registration deadline is Friday, September 4, 2015.