Shaping the Parish Resources
Here you will find a variety of resources connected to the Shaping the Parish series of books. [Being written in 2021-23]
The first sections are models, theories, and skills that we see as central to the ministry of parish development. After those sections are a large number of other useful resources.
You have permission to use these materials as handouts in parish and diocesan training programs.
Here is a PDF with definitions of parish development and organization development.
FIVE CORE FRAMEWORKS
The dynamics of spirituality in the parish church
These frameworks have been at the heart of a variety of parish development training programs.
The Renewal-Apostolate Cycle The Renewal - Apostolate Cycle - Video presentation
The Shape of the Parish Shape of the Parish - Video Presentation
The Benedictine Promise The Benedictine Promise - Video presentation
The Christian Life Model The Christian Life Model - A video presentation
A 5 session educational program - "Teaching Spiritual Practice: An Experiential Approach to Christian Formation and Parish Development" makes use of the In Your Holy Spirit Model
In the "Assessments" section below there are assessments based on the core frameworks.
There are also additional books and PDFs that explore the frameworks in more depth. You may also find related resources by doing a search in this site, especially in the blog Means of Grace, Hope of Glory.
Books
1. Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict, Esther de Waal AMAZON
2. Fill All Things: The Spiritual Dynamics of the Parish Church, Robert A. Gallagher AMAZON
3. A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church AMAZON
4. Done and Left Undone, Scott Benhase AMAZON
5. An Energy Not Its Own: Three cycles of parish life and the purposes of the parish church AMAZON
6. Nothing so contagious as holiness: Developmental Initiatives for Increased Parish Vitality Grounded in Spiritual Practice PENDING -by mid December 2023
7. Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, and Intervention AMAZON
8. In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practice - Presents the model a applied to the parish church.
9. Life in Christ: Practicing Christian Spirituality, Julia Gatta AMAZON
10. The Nearness of God: Parish Ministry as Spiritual Practice, Julia Gatta AMAZON
The reading list for Associates of the Order
Related PDFs
Renewal - Apostolate Cycle and the Eucharist
Workplace Apostolate - One page on the possible connections between the laity’s experience in the workplace and their apostolate.
Two pieces on Bishop Tutu's Renewal - Apostolate Cycle
Spiritual Practice and Christian Action
The Benedictine Promise and the Spiritual Life
The Benedictine Promise and the Dynamics of the Spiritual Life in a Diocese
The Christian Life Model - individual spirituality 4 page booklet (1984?)
A worksheet Christian Life Model Core Elements
Christian Life - common errors
Reflection processes on the Renewal-Apostolate Cycle
Workbook - Taking Responsibility for your Spiritual Life
Parish Educational Design System Intervention
Interview Questions - a worksheet Rule of Life Worksheet
Also, see Assessments below for a number of related assessment forms
VIDEOS
These first four models are from Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church. We have also noted webpages and PDFs from other sources that relate to some of the videos.
Shape of the Parish – A model for understanding the forms of faith and practice in any parish church. Suggests a pastoral strategy of acceptance where the person is and invitation to go further. A webpage. A PDF Sermon Webpage: Doing Parish Development during the Virus: Power from the center pervades the whole Also Chapter 3 in A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church AMAZON
Renewal-Apostolate Cycle – The central dynamic of parish life. We are renewed in our baptismal identity and purpose and we serve an apostolate with family and friends, in workplace and civic life. A PDF Also Chapter 4 in An Energy Not Its Own: Three cycles of parish life and the purposes of the parish church AMAZON
Christian Life Model – The elements of parish life – worship, doctrine, action and oversight. Website: The Christian Life Model
The Benedictine Promise – The dynamics in the Benedictine Promise of stability, obedience and conversation of life. Web pages: Benedictine Spirituality and the Parish Church and The Benedictine DNA of the Episcopal Church PDF: The Benedictine Promise and the Dynamics of the Spiritual Life
Relationship Cycle in Organizations - A model for understanding the dynamics of relationship in the parish. How people move into stability in that relationship, how that can grow and be nurtured, and how it can also be disrupted and restored. There is recent written material available on the model at – Relationship Cycle in Parishes. Also Chapter 3 in An Energy Not Its Own: Three cycles of parish life and the purposes of the parish church AMAZON
Sizing Up a Congregation – A review of size theory. Webpage – Transitions in parish size Part two The numbers A PDF – Doug Walrath offers a somewhat different take on size dynamics.
Affinity Mapping – A way for the parish to deal with a large amount of data coming from a brainstorming session. Especially useful for focusing and organizing ideas when it is a large group, and the ideas are A useful alternative to the standard brainstorming – prioritizing process. A PDF A webpage on affinity mapping
Group Development – A look at group development stages. PDF Stages of Group Developement Basic Concerns of Any Group, Schutz Team Structure: Toward Increased Empowerment
Force Field Analysis – A process developed by Kurt Lewin. Used in the fields of social science, psychology, social psychology, community psychology, communication, organization development, process management, and change management. A webpage on FFA. Lewin’s model of change (Unfreeze – change – refreeze.)
Intervention Theory - Based on the work of Chris Argyris in Intervention Theory and Method. It can be seen as the underlying “process outcomes” we are seeking in an intervention, i.e., valid and useful information, free choice, and internal commitment. A PDF
CORE MODELS
A few models from the world of organization development
We frequently make use of these in our work. Additional models can be found in sections below
Parish Life Cycle - the image
Relationship Cycle in Parishes - the image
Related - The Church's Way of Reconciliation & Forgiveness
Relationship Cycle in Organizations
Intervention Theory Intervention Theory - video presentation
Developing Critical Mass Worksheet
The Demand System Demand System Exercise
Focusing the Parish (relates to Demand System issue)
Oscillation Theory - The Task of the Church and the Role of Its Members
Article on Oscillation Theory -FATHER, CAN WE DO THE SAME THING IN MASS FOR A FEW WEEKS IN A ROW?
The Purposes of the Parish Church Parish Church Quotes
Loving Critics An image of the Model
WEBSITES
Means of Grace, Hope of Glory - a parish development blog
from November 2020 on -- Webpage
from 2012 - 2020 -- Webpage
Parish Development Videos - From the Church Development Institute of the Diocese of Long Island
ASCENSION PRESS OUT-OF-PRINT BOOKS
Priestly Spirituality by Eleanore L. McLaughlin
A PDF of the booklet (no charge)
An early AP offering. It was reprinted with the permission of the "Anglican Theological Review." Mother McLaughlin closes the piece with this --
The cardinal image of priestly spirituality is the servant Lord dying on the cross, with the people on his heart. At the foot of the cross is another image, that of the Blessed Mother, not displacing her Son, but, by long tradition, a symbol for the contemplation of other aspects of the Mystery of the Incarnation. Mary also is a paradigm for priestly spirituality, especially for this grace to say yes to God in the world without knowing the outcome, to receive what is come into the world and bear it, and pray without ceasing over it.Come abide with meLet my soul like MaryBe thine in earthly sanctuary.
"Prayer and Prophecy" by Kenneth Leech
Two lectures given by Father Leech at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in 1984. The first is The City as Today's Contemplative Desert and the second is the Urban Church and the Struggle for the Kingdom.
"Power from on High: A Model for Parish Life and Development" by Robert Gallagher, OA
The renewal and development of a parish is a process of entering more deeply into the life of Christ and the nature and mission of the Church. A parish is being renewed as it enters into and reflects the mind, heart and work of Christ. A parish is being renewed as it enters into and reflects the unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity of the Church. A parish is being renewed as it pursues the mission of holy unity. Parish development is our striving, as a community of Christian people, toward God. It is not primarily something we do, or create, or make happen. It is the way in which a parish, a local manifestation of the Holy Catholic Church, shares in the Divine Life. It is living the Christian life, not simply as individuals, but as a people. Robert A. Gallagher, OA
An updated presentation of the model is in Fill All Things, Gallagher, Ascension Press
"Faith Sharing" by Mary Anne Mann; Robert A Gallagher, OA
A collection of exercises to help small groups relate the story of the People of God with our own story. Helpful for community building among vestries or other organizations. 32 pp. booklet. A PDF of the booklet
Several of the exercises are based on models available on this site at -- Shaping the Parish Resources
There are also two exercise developed shortly after the booklet was published. Nurturing Commitment and Competence and Renewal-Apostolate
"Parish Assessment Workbook" by Robert Gallagher, OA and Linda Miska Tavello, COA
A 1988 publication used by consultants and bishop's staffs to help parishes reflect on their life and ministry. It was frequently used as the basis for writing a parish profile. We believe it's still a very useful resource with a bit of adaptation.)
"Conformed to Christ" -- This book provides an introduction to the ways in which establishing standards and developing organizational structure contribute to parish formation and life in the Body of Christ. The sections describing the roles that standards and structures play in the creation of healthy parishes are followed by sample standards, job descriptions, and documents to serve as a guide for Clergy or lay leaders seeking to strengthen the life of their congregations. First published in 1988 and revisd in 2004.
OTHER ASCENSION PRESS MATERIAL
The Promise: 2021 Three reflections on the Benedictine Promise offered at the 2021 retreat of the Order of the Ascension. Includes an introduction by Sister Michelle Heyne, OA the Presiding Sister.
PATHWAYS OF GRACE PACKETS
Packets for participants in Pathways of Grace programs
SPIRITUAL MAPS
Three Movements of the Spiritual Life - From Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, Henri Nouwen
Three Movements of the Spiritual Life -parish assessment
The Threefold Rule Of Prayer (also called the Prayer Book Pattern)
More detailed posting on the Threefold Rule
Variations: Functions Served Responsible Thinking Chart Explanation and Chart
A map - Presence in Providence
The Benedictine Promise and the Dynamics of the Spiritual Life
Contemplation - Intercession - Action - the model
Contemplation - Intercession - Action - article
The Christian Life - short OA tract from the 1980s A worksheet
Character Traits - By Urban Holmes
The Person Being Formed - a worksheet
ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS
These are models drawn from the field of organization development that can be used to assess the parish on the same terms as any organization.
Aspects of Shared Responsibility Worksheet
Systems Thinking - a presentation. given by Rebecca Debow
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
The Process of Planned Change - a booklet used in the novitiate, Order of the Ascension
Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, and Intervention has an updated and more complete exploration of the Process of Planned Change AMAZON
Organizational Change Strategies
Designing & Implementing Interventions - worksheet
OD Research -- what seems to work?
Roles from which PD efforts can be initiated
Strategic Oversight of the Parish - Heyne & Gallagher, 2006
Lists of competencies for Parish Development and OD
Practitioner Competency for Interventions in the Parish Worksheet
Rules of Thumb for Change Agents
Congregational Development Leadership/Consultant Assessment
Organization Development Competencies - from 2001, being revised in 2021 by the OD Network
Definitions of Ascetical Theology & Organization Development
Developmental Initiative Worksheet - you can use for planning and reflection purposes
Developmental Initiative Evaluation - for use as you reflect on and learn from your DI
PARISH DEVELOPMENT STORIES
The material in this section may be useful for parishes as they design a weekend event to begin an improvement process. The PDFs include the materials used in such weekends. All of this has been on-line for at least 5 years. It was originally posted in service of that parish's work as they prepared for, and looked back on, the weekend. It has also served other churches as they consider ways to begin a parish development effort. You may find it useful to look at the Parish Life Cycle as background for reading the stories.
Saint Paul's - beginning a transition
Saint Clare's - Episcopal Spirituality: Individual Spiritual Growth and Parish Development
Trinity - This parish had a practice of holding a yearly vestry retreat at a conference center.
GROUP DEVELOPMENT THEORY
I-C-O -- inclusion, control, openness (was affection in earlier forms)
I-C-A -- Basic Concerns of Any Group
Group Development Theory - Leadership Issues
Jack Gibb on Trust Development in Groups
Trust Development - Gallagher
Shared Leadership: Task and Relationship
GROUP & TEAM ASSESSMENTS
Likes-Concerns-Wishes Meeting Assessment
Meeting Assessment--Group Processes
Team Effectiveness Assessment- human factors
Team Role Assessment: Task & Relationship
METHODS
Intergroup Team Building Process
Communal discernment Related worksheet
Discernment listening guidelines
A few structures and processes to facilitate listening
Lectio Divina - from Means of Grace, Hope of Glory
Spiritual Reading - from Means of Grace, Hope of Glory
Accepting the Embrace of God - Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
Article on Lectio - Abbey newsletter
Silence quotes Survey on silence
An Attitude of Silence in the Daily Office and the Holy Eucharist
Learning from Experience - EIAG method
Group methods, structures, norms for parish faithfulness and health
LEADERSHIP
Bonding: Priest & Community Worksheet
Oversight of Parish Life and Development
Worksheet for Leaders Managing Emotionally Difficult Issues in the Parish
What do you bring to the table?
Board Development Functions Related worksheet
Parish Development Teams A job description
SPIRITUAL MATURITY & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
What kind of person is being formed?
The emotional competency framework
Assessing emotional competency
Practitioner Competency for Interventions in the Parish
Emotional and Social Intellegence Elements
Feelings Sheet - a help in naming your feelings
Worksheet - managing emotionally difficult issues in the parish
JoHari Window Expanding Area of Free Activity
Interpersonal Gap - John L. Wallen Worksheet
Behavior Description Worksheet
Learning from Experience - EIAG method
The Drama Triangle - Persecutor, Rescuer, Victim
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Core communication and feedback skills
Feelings - a list of feelings that me help you name and accept responsibility
A Feedback Process for use in a discernment for holy orders process
Feedback - Negotiation Worksheet
ASSESSMENTS
Purposes of the Parish Church Assessment
Assessing the Parish's Spiritual Practices - In Your Holy Spirit Model
Assessing Your Spiritual Practices - For individuals, In Your Holy Spirit model
Benedictine Promise - a overall parish assessment
Benedictine Promise - personal spiritual life
Benedictine Promise - and the Dynamics of the Spiritual Life in a Diocese
Christian Life Model assessment - parish
Christian Life Model - Your spiritual life
Renewal-Apostolate Cycle - an overall parish assessment
Renewal-Apostolate Analysis #2
Renewal-Apostolate Cycle - Rule of Life Worksheet
Renewal-Apostolate Cycle distorting tendencies -ways in which the parish can cut across the Cycle
Interview Questions - a worksheet (Rotted in the Renewal - Apostolate Cycle)
Shape of the Parish - an exercise
Parish Assessment - based on Albrecht's Four Key Systems
Parish Assessment - based on Organizational Diagnosis model
Parish Community Life Assessment
Parish Assessment Workbook - 1988 publication ...a very useful resource with a bit of adaptation.
Conflict - heading off parish conflict
Liturgical Space Considerations - Note: the second part was used with a particular parish to test issues it faced. You might revise the form to test issues of your parish.
Incorporation Process Assessment - Welcome/first contact, Orienting, Integrating
What do you bring to the table?
Aspects of Shared Responsibility
Strategic Management Assessment
Likes - Concerns - Wishes Process
Leadership Assessment: Likes, Concerns, and Wishes
Parish Assessment: Likes, concerns, wishes
Response to a report: Likes, concerns, wishes
Meeting assessemnt: Likes, concerns, wishes
Three Movements of the Spiritual Life -parish assessment
The Church: Analogies & Images
Key Factors (2021) Key Factors (2009)
Article on Key Factors at Means of Grace, Hope of Glory
Assessments - a packet of assessments used in the Shaping the Parish program
Assessing Parish Cultural Density
Assessments using presentation of options
These assessments seek to begin a parish conversation about a desired future. The idea is to provide a wide range of options so that people are helped to shift from "Yes - No" thinking to more nuanced and complex thinking. The intention is to maximize choices, thereby increasing people's free choice and internal commitment (see Intervention Theory). Note: these assessments are best used as examples to help you create an assessment that fits the particular situation of your parish. We'd appreciate your offering written credit on your assessment form if you have made significant use of these materials.
Liturgical Space Arrangement - This offers several pictures and asks people to put them in rank order
Liturgical Space Choices - A series of forced choices
Parish Options Worksheet #1 Worksheet #2 Ranking Worksheet
Parish Options - article in "Means of Grace, Hope of Glory"
Parish Options with description of Basic Choices
Possible Futures - several parishes used this process
Results - St Brendan Possible Futures - merger Results - merger
Possible Futures - Trinity Results - Trinity
HISTORY
The History of Parish Development in the Episcopal Church (as of March 2023)
Understanding from Within: Working with Religious Systems
Two Schools of Congregational Development and a web page article as PDF and on-line
Myths and Norms in Parish Life: A Guide to Parish pathology - written in the 1979s by Loren Mean, then director of Project Test Pattern. A mix of humor and wisdom.
INTRODUCTION TO OD
Definitions of Ascetical Theology & Organization Development
Defining Organization Development
Organization Development at WomenRising 1992-2016 - Two members of OA were involved in this work
EVANGELIZATION - MEMBERSHIP GROWTH
Defining and Marketing the Parish
St. Paul's Parish, Seattle: Growth & Decline
Four Growth Strategies (older version - Three Growth Strategies)
TRAINING MANUALS
Church Development Institute - 2008 Manual
Shaping the Parish - Diocesan program manual
Leadership Training Institute (LTI)
Design Skills - training, educational and program design
Other programs
BOOKLETS: EUCHARIST, CONFESSION
Eucharistic Practices: Notes for Facilitators - A training session to increase Eucharistic competence
Practices During the Eucharist
The Holy Eucharist - with suggestions for use of the body in the liturgy
The Sacrament of Reconciliation
DEVELOPMENTAL INITIATIVES
This section consists of a number of Developmental Initiatives used in the Shaping the Parish program. Our experience with participants in the Church Development Institute (CDI) and the College for Congregational Development (CCD) was that their projects were rarely strategic or developmental. While the ideas strategic and developmental are part of the teaching in both that doesn't seem to result in related projects. For the most part the projects are worthy endeavors. However, they rarely have much of a ripple effect or likely to impact the parish culture. On the other hand, the process of designing those projects does often have payoffs as participants increase their abilities for team work and project design. The Shape of the Parish leaders decided to focus on helping parish teams produce truly strategic and developmental results emphasizing the results for the parishes over the design learning of the participants. Their hope was that participants would come away with a stronger sense of what was developmental and strategic having implement such initiatives.
A Developmental Initiative Worksheet - you can use for planning and reflection purposes
Developmental Initiatives from the 2011-12 program
"Interventions: Methods and Processes for Building Healthier Parishes" - a PDF In the Developmental Initiatives (DIs) below you'll find references to pages in the PDF.
Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, Intervention by Heyne and Gallagher is a book based on that earlier work. It will be available from Ascension Press shortly.
The DIs below were categorized by the degree to which they were strategic and development--A, B or C.
A
This initiative is to create or significantly improve the parish’s approach to communal voice. The core of this initiative is around establishing a pattern of community meetings, the use of survey-feedback methods, and an understanding of communal discernment. A useful and effective “communal voice” depends on the positional leadership (rector, vestry, others) staying in role.
Creating an Adult Foundations Course
This initiative is designed to assist in the development of proficiency in the Christian life by the development and implementation of an adult foundations course program.
“Outline of an Adult Foundations Course in Faith & Practice”
Course Outline from From Nothing so contagious as holiness
Increase the parish’s processes and structures for listening. The immediate goal is to put into place several listening processes within the next three months. And set in motion the longer-term goal. The longer-term goal is to establish a parish culture given to respectful and thoughtful listening to God, the larger church, and one another.
The project is to develop the Eucharistic competence of the congregation. This is a long-term developmental approach. In fact, it never ends because there are always new people joining the life of a parish. The overall goal is to establish and maintain a critical mass of people in each congregation of the parish who are proficient in their participation in the Holy Eucharist.
This project has the capacity to build a critical mass of members with an intentional spiritual discipline, a rule of life. It might require offering the process several times over 2 or 3 years or in combination with other programs on the spiritual life for the critical mass to emerge.
This project touches both on issues of emotional intelligence and spiritual practices connected to community and service. The long-term intention of this project is to create a climate in the parish of quality service to one another. That service needs to be grounded in behavioral norms operating in most of the groups of the parish. The short-term objective is to begin to establish these norms in two parish groups.
For the purposes of the project we’ll describe quality service as having three characteristics:
- Timely
- Thorough
- Respectful
A possible pathway is to invite two groups to work with you. Consider beginning with a couple of groups that are already pretty good at living with quality service norms.
This initiative is directed at significantly improving the congregation’s ability to engage in and manage conflict. The project assumes there is not presently a high level of conflict in the parish.
Arts and Spirituality Parish Self-Definition
This initiative is directed toward helping the parish deepen or generate a connection to the arts that defines the parish in a healthy and sensible way. There needs to be a kind of critical mass of activity, interest, and marketing for the effort to become part of the parish’s self definition.
Grounding in Spiritual Practices
This initiative is offered as the foundation for a strategy focused on grounding the parish in spiritual practice and developing competence in spiritual practice. When used as a key element of a broader strategy, this initiative can be used to build a critical mass of members with competence in spiritual practice.
Daily Office - Equipping the Individual
The immediate objective is to establish a system of training and coaching so individuals may develop the habit of saying the Office. During the period of this project the system is to be created and launched. The longer-range objective is to have 20% of the adult ASA saying the Office in some form. The system established needs to be one that will have this likely outcome.
Establish the permanent practice of a public offering of the Daily Office.
Do in a manner that:
1) Draws an adequate number of participants
2) Is offered on at least four days (Mon- Sat) for at least ten months of the year.
3) In which lay members are either immediately or eventually able to officiate.
Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practices
This initiative is to set in motion and sustain the parish’s work on the primary task of formation though training, guiding and coaching members in spiritual practices. The work is one of establishing a “demand system” and critical mass that supports that focus. In this initiative the assumption is that the “map” being used is the one in In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practice, Robert A. Gallagher 2011, Ascension Press
Orientation to Spiritual Practices
Provide an adequate overall orientation to spiritual practices within the first five months of a person’s arrival in the parish. Make it a priority to ground new members in spiritual practice. Weave this onto the parish culture: Place the dates for the program on the parish schedule for at least the next 16 months. Have the program on the parish web site. Have related books always for sale and some related handouts always available for free or at low cost. Fresh posters about the next session always up. Weave into preaching.
This initiative is designed to engage the parish in understanding and acting in a manner that approaches trust as something to actively develop rather than a quality noticed when it is missed. We are seeking a parish with characteristics related to high trust: competence, reliability, responsiveness, reciprocity and congruence. With a critical mass of members acting in a way that develops trust, especially competence in spiritual life and practice as that relates to inclusion and hospitality, acceptance and challenge dynamics, communication and listening, and discernment and decision-making. The task is to shape the parish so it facilitates trust in and through its climate, structures, processes and behavioral norms. We seek ways of inclusion, acceptance, communicating, and making decisions that result in high levels of internal commitment, self-management and collaborative relationships.
Sunday Liturgy -- full, rich, graceful, beautiful
This initiative is directed toward helping the parish Sunday Eucharist consistently be an extraordinary event. The goal is that this becomes so true, and so well know to a broader community, that it becomes part of the parish’s self-definition and identity. This initiative is strategic to the extent it is not simply a segment of parish life or an occasional activity but is related to a sustainable and meaningful parish identity. Such an identity must arise out of the parish’s existing life—there must be an adequate number of parishioners with skill, knowledge and passion for Eucharistic practice; it must fit the existing culture of the parish. A parish may want to begin the initiative on Eucharistic Competence either before taking this initiative on, or do it in a somewhat parallel time line.
This initiative is to launch a significant OD process improvement process using an appreciative process. This is to include increasing the competence of parish leaders for such work and integrating methods throughout the parish. Appreciative Inquiry is a strategy for intentional change that identifies the best of "what is" to pursue dreams and possibilities of "what could be"; a cooperative search for the strengths, passions and life-giving forces that are found within every system and that hold potential for inspired, positive change.
This initiative may fit your situation if you have a small group of members who behave in a manner that suppresses the voice of the larger congregation or the voice and authority the rector and/or the majority of the vestry.
Exploring Congregational Options
This initiative may fit your situation if the parish no longer has the ability to continue in the ministry structure it has been accustom to. A reasonable target might be to find a new alignment that stabilizes the situation for the next few years. The immediate goal of the initiative might be to begin the exploration of options and to map out an initial design for a process over the coming months.
This initiative is a broad ranging effort at significant culture change to include the parish’s way of being and doing around spiritual practices, primary task, emotional & social intelligence, and dealing with change. Some parishes face the most difficult choice—change or die. Others find themselves increasingly aware of how much better and healthier the parish could be. Very few parishes have any idea of the magnitude of change that will be required. A systemic, parish-wide culture change is a long term, complex and difficult task. It will call for persistence and courage, wise leadership, and a capacity for strategic thinking and management.
B
Improve the functioning of the vestry and other significant groups in the parish in an action – research process. Facilitate a process in which members of the group learn from their experience as a group. Use a learning-from-experience process with the vestry and other selected groups. The process may be the use of meeting assessment forms or another EIAG process (see attachments below). The same process is to be used for at least two meetings in a row and scheduled for use at several other meetings over the following 14 months.
C
As parish leaders, participants increase their use of skillful feedback. In the long-term you are seeking to make feedback from leaders a normal part of parish life. In the short-term you are: 1) using feedback to improve at least three working relationships, 2) deal with a difficult member, 3) improve your feedback skills, and 4) increase your own self-awareness and self-management in offering feedback.
THE DIOCESE
The Three Primary Tasks of a Diocese
Elements of a Diocesan Parish Development System
The Role of the Bishop and the Diocese - a blog posting
Pastoral Leadership Today - M. Smith SSJE
Diocesan Training Programs - Loren Mead presentation 1970s
Critical Mass - Diocesan Assessment
PARISH AND DIOCESAN CONSULTATIONS
A few examples of the working packets used in consultations & workshops.
St. Augustine's, Oakland Christ Church Frederica, GA
Trinity, Wilminton, DE St. Paul's, Fayetteville, AK
Diocese of Southwest Florida Vestry Conference
Diocese of New Jersey Strategic Session
HUMOR
Postings on conflict