LEADERSHIP WORKSHOPS
Healthy Disclosure: Solving Communication
Quandaries in Congregations
(Ruth/McClintock Alban 2007)
Healthy Disclosure
Participants will explore why people talk
too much or too little, the relationship between knowledge and
power, and how disclosure creates insider vs. outsider dynamics
that limit new member participation. "What do I do with
what I know?" and other pressing leadership quandaries will
be addressed. Participants will develop a ready-to-use communication
policy for their congregations.
Transformational Leadership
Longstanding habits that can be
changed are resistance to change, a few ruling the whole, antagonists
and alliances. This workshop is designed to train congregational
leaders (new and ongoing) to lead from strengths, set healthy
boundaries, and communicate effectively. Congregational leaders
are often recruited for tasks and begin leadership without job
descriptions, terms of office, or on-the-job training. Avoiding
frustration and burn-out in these positions will increase congregational
vitality.
Secrets Congregations Keep
Participants will learn to recognize the
signs and symptoms of a congregation with one or more old secrets,
assess the damage, and prepare for appropriate disclosures and
healing. In church families keeping old secrets actually allows
for the keeping of new ones, with more damage occurring over
time. The proverbial method of "sweeping things under the
rug," will be explored along with a more open and transparent
method of leadership that frees the congregation for mission
and growth.
Good People/Bad Habits
What should be done when someone sends
an anonymous email with harsh criticism of the pastor to twenty-five
people in the congregation? How do you keep the prayer chain
from becoming gossip-central? What can a congregation do to
squelch rumors before they explode? How can a congregation teach
members to be positive and respectful? Participants will learn
to understand the motivations for such behaviors and to STOP
bad habits no matter how long they've been in place.
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