Sinking from trouble to trauma
For the last several decades, many congregations have experienced troubling declines in attendance and financial strength, thereby reducing their capacity to support fixed costs, paid staff, member interests, and community needs. COVID-19 has exacerbated further these congregational traumas by requiring the shift of all congregations to virtual formats. New traumas have been added, like those associated with overwhelming grief and loss without benefit of traditional healing rituals.
Scrambling for survival versus thinking survival through
Congregations experiencing disruptive changes run the risk of making high-impact decisions in nervous reaction to threats of survival. Such decisions can be costly, not only in dollars, but in collateral vulnerabilities such as: ministries under-attended, truncated decision-making processes, leader displacement/replacement, and congregational dis-ease and attrition. Vitally important is the recognition of the weight of these traumas on pastoral leadership.
Strategic research for effective realignment
· This video workshop will introduce congregational leaders to Faith-Based Strategic Change and a Congregational Agility® approach for the current climate.
· Congregational Agility begins with self-study in the same way that Christian discipleship begins with self-examination.
· Organizational recovery is best done with trusted sources, intentional discipline, and holy imagination.
