A Process for Growing Congregational Health and Vision
in the Diocese of Huron
“Sustaining a Holy Conversation”
Stage One: Is this for Us?
(one to two months)
Consensus Building: Forming a Working Relationship and Initial Sense of Goal
1. Parish priest or warden contacts the congregational coach. If warden initiates, then coach has conversation
with the priest. Coach meets with the priest and wardens. Priest and wardens discern a Team (usually the
parish council) which must include the priest and wardens.
2. An initial working relationship is established and a general sense of what is hoped to be achieved.
3. Priest/warden shares the general sense of expectation with their parish counsel/congregation to get their
feedback and support.
4. Congregational Coach meets with Parish Counsel to set stage for Phase II.
Stage Two: Setting the Stage; Beginning to See things in New Ways
(four to six months)
Initial Work with Team on Getting from an “A” to a “B”
1. Initial work on establishing a congregation’s unique V.I.P. (values, identity and purpose).
a. Small Church/Great Church conversation with team/congregation.
b. Values/Gifts conversation with team/congregation.
c. Workshop(s) on discerning congregational identity.
d. Workshop(s) on establishing congregational purpose.
2. Multi-congregational parishes must work on VIP for each congregation before discerning the parish’s VIP.
3. If a multi-point parish; decide on the focus for stage three; i.e. focus on all the congregations, or the
parish as a whole, or focus the resources of the parish on a single congregation?
Stage Three: Doing the Work
(one to five years)
Building and Implementing a Strategy for Getting from A to B
1. Team gathers to refresh their vision (B) from the new information gleaned from Stage Two workshops, and
to discern and name congregation’s resources.
2. Discern Objectives and Goals
3. Coach offers resources for the Team to consider in building their strategy for getting from A to B:
a. Gathering of internal and external demographic and psychographic data.
b. Gift discernment workshop.
c. Natural Church Development survey to determine congregation’s ministry strengths
d. Stewardship consultation with the Rev. Eleanor Caruana
e. Youth Ministry consultation with the Rev. Sue Malpus
f. Fresh Start leadership training for lay leaders
g. And other resources…
4. Build a time line for planning and for accountability.
5. Implement the strategy.
6. Team reports regularly (weekly on Sunday during announcements) on progress.
Stage Four: Celebration
(a lifetime)
Rewriting your History
1. Create a story document describing what has been accomplished.
2. Plan a celebration to share the story and to honor all who have done their piece in bringing the story to
fulfillment.
3. Dedicate a monument, a tree, a wall-plaque, or some unique creation in honor of the congregation’s new
sense of identity and vision.
Readiness for Coaching
Congregational Readiness for Visioning and Planning
by Robert Leventhal
Before I agree to work with a planning team, I determine if the leadership is ready for re-imagining itself. Congregations are different. Some are doing great and don’t need to do developmental planning now. Others lack a readiness to plan. I have developed some characteristics of successful planning teams for leaders to consider. If a congregation does not have enough of these assets, they may need to set more modest goals. They may not be a candidate for serious planning. Even if they feel they are ready, many still struggle with key issues related to readiness. Look for signs of readiness for planning. Have a mental checklist: Do we have board approval? Is the clergy on board? Do we have planning chairs? Do we have a budget?
There are three key elements to sustain change: honest assessment of the present, hopeful vision of the future, and practical steps to move forward. Although you may find that everything appears ready on the surface, one of the challenges is to try to understand the deeper readiness of the culture for change. All congregations have informal norms that they don’t articulate. There are also deep, unconscious (tacit) norms that they may not be aware of. The planning team must be humble about the ability of new plans to overcome the underlying DNA of the congregation. Planners need to check readiness but to expect surprises.
Let’s look at some of the factors to consider.
1. Clergy Must Be Supportive, Enthusiastic, and Committed to Planning
While the administration and lay leadership play key roles, if the clergy is not committed, it will be hard to sustain change. Programmatic initiatives that require professional staff to follow up may lose focus. Key members of the leadership supporting change may go unsupported or even be actively resisted. When the rabbi or pastor is not ready, it does not make sense to embark on visioning and planning.
2. There Must Be Urgency for Change
Some congregations are performing quite well. They may be in a great location with wonderful demographics for new members. They may have experienced and effective professional and lay leadership. The congregation has direction and is working effectively. These congregations may feel that their current governance and the leadership and management tools they have are quite adequate. They do not feel the need to mobilize co-planners or take the time to do visioning and planning. They may simply want a small long-range planning committee to upgrade financial plans.
3. Key Lay Leaders Must Be Committed to Planning
There is seldom well-defined readiness for leadership development programs. Even when I get a contract to work with a congregation on visioning and planning, the leaders usually have an incomplete agreement. Some do not endorse the plan. Others actively oppose the process. Still others are passive-aggressive. They will listen attentively but not agree to work on implementation. I try to review the plan with the core leadership and then ask for a meeting with the board. The entire leadership community needs to work through the issues. This models the kind of consensus-building skills needed in the process later.
4. There Needs to Be a Financial Commitment to Planning
Planning requires resources. Even if a congregation self-guides their process, they will need to budget for meals, the preparation of materials, etc. This requires a planning budget. The process of getting some money in the next year’s budget for planning will bring all of the other readiness issues into better focus. When the board has to vote on spending the money, they will dig deeper to explore their readiness.
5. Planning Should Not Be Directly Competing with Other Major Projects
During visioning and planning, congregations need to be focused. They cannot be distracted by another major congregation-wide project. If they are in the midst of doing a capital campaign or at the start of a building campaign, they may not be ready. Their focus needs to be on the other task. There is seldom enough energy to do both tasks. In this kind of situation, I would suggest a short-term leadership development training rather than a whole congregational visioning plan.
6. Planning Requires Some Capacity for Creativity
Some congregations have little capacity for creative vision exercises. They are so resistant to change that they won’t allow creative stakeholders room to brainstorm. They tend to interrupt brainstorming verbally or nonverbally. They discourage creative thinking in group sessions. Older established leaders remind new leaders that their ideas “have been tried before.” They provide background information on why the culture won’t respond to a proposed idea. I put a premium on creativity and collaborative learning to help overcome the reluctance of some stakeholders.
7. Planning Requires a Tolerance for Feedback
Some congregations are not used to getting feedback. They don’t have much of a history of trust. It follows that these groups are often reluctant to empower new individuals or groups. Empowered groups will provide the leadership with the opportunity for new energy and creativity (as I noted above), but they will also ask questions, raise concerns, and provide some challenging feedback.
8. Planners Need Conflict Management Skills
Potential visioning and planning congregations should not be in the midst of a high-level conflict. It is too difficult to recruit participants when people are in warring camps. Visioning and planning requires a lot of energy. You have to sell others on the value of the planning and its value to the congregation. Planning is somewhat abstract. Congregations need to trust the assumptions and processes. In a culture where relationships are strained and conflicts are raging, it is hard to get people to trust you. If you have a major conflict, it is important to delay visioning and planning and work to acknowledge the conflicts and mediate the concerns of the various parties. After six months it may be possible to start some parts of visioning and planning. At some point the community needs to begin to focus more on the future and less on the past. Visioning and planning can be a helpful bridge from the period of conflict to the period of promise, but visioning stirs the congregational pot. Congregations need sufficient health to manage what bubbles up.
Taking the Right Journey
Some congregations are not ready to do planning. Most can gain from a board retreat that helps clarify values and goals. Many could build on this with a series of leadership development workshops. Most could gain insight into their position, their identity, and their challenges and opportunities by doing parlor meetings. Congregations need to reflect on their readiness and find the leadership-development tasks they have energy and capacity for.
Adapted from Stepping Forward: Synagogue Visioning and Planning, copyright © 2008 by the Alban Institute.
Reprinted with permission