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Session One: Behold I am Doing a New Thing. If you can see this, you're connected correctly!
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Session One: Behold I am Doing a New Thing If you can see this, you're connected correctly! We'll begin at the top of the hour. In the meantime, please use the “flipchart” at the top left of your screen for some informal conversation as people gather. You might begin by typing your name and location into the white space at the bottom of the box. Welcome
Introductions The presenters “The Flipchart” “Questions for Steve” Opening Prayer
Meeting One Agenda Context: where we find ourselves Some words about Bruce's context Observations about The United Church of Canada in 2012 Cultural Shifts New strategies for ministry The Meaning of Hope in Evolutionary Spirituality
Context • Urban/Rural • Large/Small • Affluent/Less affluent • Culture: Traditional/Modern/Postmodern
Mitigating Contextual Differences • Focus on transformational depth, not numbers • Focus on evolution, (your unique, next-best adaptive step) and not ideals
Small Group Discussion(5 mins) Name Location A sentence or two about your own context
Bad News David Ewart’s Video: “The United Church at 100” www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF4LMiqc370 With statistics drawn from the Year Book, and projections after 2007
http://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdfhttp://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdf
http://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdfhttp://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdf
http://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdfhttp://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdf
http://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdfhttp://www.davidewart.ca/United-Church-People-Trends-Projected-Based-on-2010.pdf
6 Quick Polls How does the context of the congregation you serve compare to the national trends?
Small Group discussion (10 mins) How do you respond to the “bad news”? What strategies have you been using already to address these issues? Do you feel like the strategies you're using are working? Why or why not?
Good News • It’s not your fault • You are part of the solution • Christendom is over – people are in church because they choose to be. • Disciplined practice may become the norm • It may be hopeless enough that finally real change is possible.
Culture Shift From What toward What?
Culture Shifting • Out of meetings and into ministry
Culture Shifting • Out of meetings and into ministry • From membership toward discipleship
Culture Shifting • Out of meetings and into ministry • From membership toward discipleship • From bureaucratically-based ministry toward gift-based ministry
Culture Shifting • Out of meetings and into ministry • From membership toward discipleship • From bureaucratically-based ministry toward gift-based ministry • From clergy as personal chaplain toward clergy as leader of leaders
Culture Shifting • Out of meetings and into ministry • From membership toward discipleship • From bureaucratically-based ministry toward gift-based ministry • From clergy as personal chaplain toward clergy as leader of leaders • From superficiality toward deep connection
Culture Shifting • Out of meetings and into ministry • From membership toward discipleship • From bureaucratically-based ministry toward gift-based ministry • From clergy as personal chaplain toward clergy as leader of leaders • From superficiality toward deep connection • From organizing around emergencies toward organizing for emergence
Small Group discussion:What would ministers do differently?What would church members do differently? • Out of meetings and into ministry • From membership toward discipleship • From bureaucratically-based ministry toward gift-based ministry • From clergy as personal chaplain toward clergy as leader of leaders • From superficiality toward deep connection • From organizing around emergencies toward organizing for emergence
Good News “And the day came when the risk it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom” —Anais Nin
More Good News: Reframing Crisis In An Evolutionary Paradigm Parable of the prenatal pessimist
Hope in an Evolutionary Paradigm • Crises are evocations or provocations of new intelligences necessary to adapt and thrive
Hope in an Evolutionary Paradigm • Crises are evocations or provocations of new intelligences necessary to adapt and thrive • Crisis is information, not the enemy, in a living, learning universe. Crises are part of the information feed-back loop system of cosmic intelligence.
Hope in an Evolutionary Paradigm • Crises are evocations or provocations of new intelligences necessary to adapt and thrive • Crisis is information, not the enemy, in a living, learning universe. Crises are part of the information feed-back loop system of cosmic intelligence. • In evolution, optimum creative tension is required.
Optimal Creative Tension is ... The persistent experience of some frustration, organizational dilemma, or personal problem that is…
Optimal Creative Tension is ... The persistent experience of some frustration, organizational dilemma, or personal problem that is… perfectly designed to cause us to feel the limits of our current way of knowing and acting
Optimal Creative Tension is ... In some sphere of our living that we care about, with…
Optimal Creative Tension is ... In some sphere of our living that we care about, with… sufficient supports so that we are not overwhelmed by it, nor able to escape or diffuse it.
More Good News • Church is a habitat of creative emergence
More Good News • Church is a habitat of creative emergence • Role of leaders is to hold congregations in the tension, and persuade folks that remaining in bud form is more painful than the risk of blooming.
More Good News • Church is a habitat of creative emergence • Role of leaders is to hold congregations in the tension, and persuade folks that remaining in bud form is more painful than the risk of blooming. • Create the habitat and the universe will bloom!
Emergence The universe is creativity in motion. It is arising in every moment, forming increasingly complex wholes from the parts. It does so from the inside-out—a natural grace. When we feel our lives, and our organizations, to be an occasion of this ever-emergent grace, we tap into a gracious dynamism—and a restless desire to bring forth new futures.
Toward a theology of Promise What yearning drew you into ministry?
Please join us next week at the same time, for Session Two: “Church as a Habitat for Creative Emergence” Ministry Anywhere, Anytime, by Anybody Theology of “Creative Emergence” Practical steps to creating “the Deal” that allows for change