January 2015
   
Harris Coaching and Consulting            
Thoughts for Leadership and Life
    
In This Issue
Eleven Curious Questions
Resource - Daring Greatly

FAQ'S about Coaching?

Join Our Mailing List

Friends and Colleagues,

 

I've been working with some pastors lately who are trying to help their congregations get a clearer glimpse of God's yearning for them.  Both pastors and congregational leaders are aware that they have just been going through the motions and don't have a lot of energy.  


 
Discerning God's yearning for a congregation's mission and vision takes some time.  But what do you do in the short term?  My lead article has some suggestions.


 
I write this article on the heels of the terrible carnage in France and also after talking with a couple of pastors whose churches have some downright nasty people.  Oh yes, and then there's the new Congress.  This issue's resource is a very helpful reminder about the importance of civil discourse.  Thank you, Mitch Coggin for contributing this review!


 
If you know someone who might benefit from my thoughts here, please use the "Forward to a Friend" button in the newsletter (that way you'll avoid problems with spam filters) 

 
Here's to clarity about how God is leading us!  

Peace,      
Bob  


 

A Grand Vision or Near Term Priorities?

 

Perhaps you, like I do, take some time to reflect at the start of a new year.  What is going on in my life?  What are the good things?  What things need to be improved?  Is there excess baggage or other garbage that should be jettisoned?

 

Similarly, perhaps you are asking those questions about your congregation or other organization.  What difference are you making in the world?  In the lives of your members or associates?  Your family?  What good stuff are you contributing?  How are you a drag on life? 

 

I devote Chapter 8 on discerning a vision for your congregation in my book, Entering Wonderland: A Toolkit for Pastors New to a Church.  Discerning God's yearning for your congregation is really, really important.  If you haven't taken time to review and clarify your sense of God's mission and vision for your congregation, I urge you to do so.  In my book I spell out a process that has worked for congregations with which I've worked.  If you haven't bought it yet and want a code to give you a 25% discount, email me.

 

Good mission and vision statements combine foundational elements common to every congregation (the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, etc.) with other ideas that are specific to your particular congregation at this time and place.  So a congregation in Appalachia beset by unemployment and mine pollution would have some priorities that are very different from a church in an affluent retirement community.  Further, the need for different priorities change dramatically over time.  I think of city churches that in fifty years have swung from being in a well to do urban community to a racially segregated poor neighborhood to once again being solidly middle class as professionals of every ethnicity tire of commuting from distant suburbs.  I have worked with churches in suburban neighborhoods that twenty years ago were middle class Caucasian that are now filled with immigrants from Africa and Latin America. I think of what were rural family sized churches as recently as five years ago that are now surrounded by booming suburbs with children all over the place.  Further, there are the major social changes like increasing secularization, digital instead of face-to-face communities, etc.  Changing demography dictates changing priorities.

 

A clear sense of mission (identify and purpose) and vision (clarity about specific emphases for the next 3-5 years) helps you say "yes" to some ideas and "no" to others.  Such clarity forms a foundation for staff appraisals and all congregational initiatives.  

 

However, having said all this, sometimes it is enough simply to put the development of a grand vision aside and just get your priorities straight.  What are the top 3-4 things you need to focus on in the next few months?  What are top priorities for your congregation?

 

One interim pastor colleague was serving a church whose membership was aging and declining numerically.  The building had numerous problems - no access for older members to an upstairs fellowship hall, water leaking through the foundation, etc.  When she discovered that the congregation had some $700,000 in memorial funds and suggested that they use some of these funds for immediate improvement, several leaders responded "we're saving those for a rainy day."  "Friends, it's pouring now!" she exclaimed.  The board subsequently appropriated funds enough to do some major renovations and install a chair lift to the upper level. 

 

She helped them get their short term priorities in order.

 

What might be some short term priorities?  As I begin this new year, I have decided that it's time to go through some 50 years worth of photos that we have squirreled away, waiting to organize them when we retire.  Oops, I've been "retired" for a while now!   To be sure, I have a number of other priorities (like continuing my coaching and consulting and being a loving husband, father, grandfather, and good neighbor) but those photos need attending to.

 

What are the top 3-4 priorities for you and your congregation in the next six months to year?  With whom do you need to have conversations about these possible priorities?  What specific steps might you take in the next two months to begin tackling these priorities?  Having a conversation might be the first step.  Setting aside a block of time every week for study or exercise or family fun might be another step.

 

As you think about these top priorities, what clues do they give you about your real mission and vision?  Sometimes you can back into understanding God's call to you.

 

I have talked with Mary Helen (my wife) and we've already started on those boxes of old photos.  We're sorting and labeling the ones we think our kids and grandkids just might want.  These are hardly part of any grand vision but they do fulfill a little vision of having our affairs in order for that final sort of our worldly possessions.

 

Here's to clearer immediate priorities even if we don't have the clarity of mission and vision we want. 

 
If you would like some help to grow as a leader, I encourage you to consider coaching, either one on one or in a group.  Most of my coaching is done by phone in order to minimize commuting but I make exceptions.  Further, phone coaching makes it possible for me to have clients who live many miles away.

 

If you find this article helpful and think it might be helpful to a friend, please forward my newsletter to that friend using the "Forward to a Friend" button.  

 

 

Resources - books and other resources that have been helpful  
 

In Defense of Civility: How Religion Can Unite America on Seven Moral Issues That Divide Us  By James Calvin Davis,  Associate Professor of Religion, Middlebury College, Vermont

 

This 2010 book is a timely work written by Davis who had become increasingly frustrated with the state of civil discourse in our country.  His book considers religion's impact on moral debates in America's past and present and examines how religion might bring the country together and improve the tone of the national conversation.  Abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, stem-cell research, war, poverty and the environment are some of the controversial issues that twenty-first century Americans face and yet have struggled to converse with civility.  Davis concedes that civility is not a magic ingredient nor can it guarantee consensus on any issue."  He defines "civility" as "the exercise of patience, integrity, humility, and mutual respect in civil conversation, even (or especially) with those with whom we disagree."  


 
Throughout his work, he solidly resists the notion that moral arguments exist only one side of any given debate, whether regarding abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, or capitalism.  The book challenges the widely held assumption that moral values are the exclusive domain of conservatives.  Davis concludes with his primary challenge, "When we open wide the doors of public moral discourse, when we extend civility and respect to all citizens and demand it from them as well, we lay the groundwork for an enriched public discourse that may move us toward greater issues that most divide us.  When we open our conversations to good-faith reasons of any kind, we make real the possibility of a "moral values debate that is intelligent, civil, open, respectful and fruitful."  I highly recommend Davis' work for private reading as well as an excellent resource for small groups that wish to engage in discussion about how best to have discussion around sensitive and controversial issues. 

 

In Defense of Civility was published by WJK - Westminster John Knox Press.  This review was submitted by Rev. Mitchell Coggin, Transitional Pastor at United Presbyterian Church, Bloomington, IN. and a ICF Certified Life Coach, PCC Status.  

 

 

------------ 

 

 

What books or resources have you found
 helpful?  I'd be glad (with available space) to share your reviews and/or suggestions.  
Future Issues (bi-monthly)
  • March 2015 - Church Knots and Other Double Binds
             
  • Click here for previous newsletters 

I hope you have found this newsletter informative and helpful.  Please subscribe to continue receiving it (or unsubscribe to stop).  If you'd like to explore coaching, please email or call me.

If you have found it helpful, please forward it to friends who you think would appreciate it. (And please use the forward button on the newsletter itself.



Bob
Robert Harris, Professional Certified Coach
Harris Coaching and Consulting

703-470-9841