Tag: leadership

Multitasking

Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing acts that it requires—the constant switching and pivoting—energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we’re supposed to be concentrating on.

via The Autumn of the Multitaskers by Walter Kirn.

Specific Actions

Church-based organizations do not try to solve problems. Problems will always be there, and we cannot afford to waste our energy fixing unending problems. We do, however, take specific actions on clearly defined issues.

from  Congregation-Centered Organizing: A Strategy for Growing Stronger Communities via The Gamaliel Foundation an organizing institute.

Here I think Mark I. Wegener is not correct. We cannot afford giving in to problems, and just continue to bring band-aid to the wounded. Community organizing is more then running around with first-aid kit, it most address the reason for the wounds.

“Power” is Not a Bad Word

Some people are put off by the blatant appeal to power, which is an integral part of congrega tion-centered organizing. We tend to think of power as manipulative, as domineering, as too political, as “power over” someone else, and we suspect such power is out of keeping with our Christian values. We recall Lord Acton’s famous dictum: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.”

More recently, however, we have come to recognize that power in and of itself is neither good nor bad. Power is nothing more than the ability to accomplish something.

Whether the goal is to accomplish something helpful or harmful is another question, but power itself is a necessary ingredient for any action. Power is constitutive of life. (Mark I. Wegener)

from  Congregation-Centered Organizing: A Strategy for Growing Stronger Communities via The Gamaliel Foundation an organizing institute.

Adiaphora

Adiaphora in Christianity refer to matters not regarded as essential to faith, but nevertheless as permissible for Christians or allowed in church. What is specifically considered adiaphora depends on the specific theology in view. (WikiPedia)

The question we must constantly deal with is what is essential to our worldview and what is not. It is important to understand that things can be relevant without being essential. This does apply to worship practices, to take but one example. The issue arrises when things stop being “adiaphora” and become “demonic” to our faith and our worldview. Then the real problems start.

Contract or Covenant

In When Moses Meets Aaron: Staffing and Supervision in Large Congregations one of the many issues that are addressed is the difference between contract and covenant. The difference between the two can be helpful in addressing employment in the church.
In the book the focus is on employment contract as an utilitarian in orientation, while covenant attempts to protect the least of these. The covenant focuses on protection by the more powerful and cocreation, rather then maximization.

‘Virtual preaching’

The process may sound impersonal, but churches that use high-def video technology say congregants don’t have to lose touch with ministers. They hire other church pastors to serve their satellite locations by leading Sunday morning services and meeting with people afterward.

Those ministers simply exit the stage when it’s time for the sermon and video screens to descend over the altar.

via ‘Virtual preaching’ transforms Sunday sermons – CNN.com.

There are many interesting questions that come up when reading about satellite churches. For one, what does it say when there is only one considered qualified to preach? What does it say about our understanding of community? What is the role of the church pastors, if not to deliver the Word? How does this works if there is a Eucharist? And so on and on.

When Teammates Raise a White Flag

Paul W. Mulvey, John F. Veiga, and Priscilla M Elsass address why teams don’t work in this well known article. One of their findings is that a lack of status symbols inside a team, increases change of success. Similarly, the right size of a group is important, and team members have to be aware of why they are part of the team, if they are to succeed. There is more to it, mostly obvious, but someone has to say it.

JSTOR: The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), Vol. 10, No. 1 (Feb., 1996), pp. 40-49.

The Power of Talk

In her article Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why (PDF), Deborah Tannen, looks at linguistic styles and their affects on communication and relationships. In her research she claims that there is a difference between communication patterns of males and females, were men seems to focus on power dynamics and their place in the pecking order, while women seems to be more focused on protecting the placement of others.

Generalizations about genders is always risky, but her focus on linguistic differences is extremely important.

UALC votes to leave

The first vote was 538 to leave the ELCA and 48 to stay, an assistant to the Rev. Paul Ulring said.
The next vote must be at least 90 days later and probably will be held this fall.
Before then, Bishop Callon W. Holloway Jr., leader of the Southern Ohio Synod, will meet with the 5,000-member church to hear questions or concerns. He will not try to persuade them to stay, though that is his desire.
“I will respect their decisions” and support their ministries, he said.
Two other churches in the synod have been through both their first and second votes, Holloway said.
Faith Lutheran, north of Cincinnati in Finneytown, has left. St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran, near Dayton in Fairborn, did not.

via UA church votes to quit the ELCA | The Columbus Dispatch.

The Myth of Positive Thinking

I came across this via orvitinn.com. Watching this video led my to www.thersa.org which describe themselves as:

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

Icelandic Unitarians

From its beginnings in 1886 until its gradual decline following World War II, nearly thirty Icelandic Unitarian congregations were organized in Western Canada, the Upper Midwest and Washington state. At its peak in the 1930s, there were eighteen active churches and preaching stations.

via Icelandic Unitarians.

The influence Unitarians had in Iceland and the number of Icelanders in North America that became Unitarians is not well known. Here is an attempt to give some overview.

Annals of Religion: Project Trinity : The New Yorker

‘It was the riots in Detroit, in Newark, both in ’67—that was what shook me,” he recounted. “I said to myself, ‘I have to have a theology that speaks to the hurt in my community. I want a theology that would empower people to be more creative. To be just as aggressive as they are in the riots, but more constructive.’

via Annals of Religion: Project Trinity : The New Yorker.

An important article about Black Theology, Wright and Obama.

A Helpful Counter Narrative

David Murrow offers a valuable and perhaps helpful narrative to counteract the niceness in the mainline churches, at least in the US, in his book Why Men Hate Going to Church. What he uses to encounter the “be nice” and “be irrelevant” theology of the mainline churches, is the boyish theology (isl. strákaguðfræðin), which I learned in Vatnaskogur Summer Camp in Iceland. Theology of action and fun, lay driven, running thru puddles, getting dirty and wet, competing for the price like Paul, solution based, focused on results rather than community “goody-goody” feeling. Its contains an “Onward Christian Soldiers” worship style, with stories of heroic adventures.

In his writing it is clear that Mr Murrow is surely not a theologian, his glorified thoughts about the early church is way off base, and John Gray’s pop-psychology, Mr. Murrow quotes, is not worth the paper its written on.

However, Mr Murrow is right that there is more to Christianity than kumbaya-ish be good to some, singing about our love to Jesus, and helping out in the nursery. If we are to live Christlike, we have to stop being polite and nice, become risk takers, step up and out, and be ready to get dirty and wet as we run for the price. Or as they say in Vatnaskogur: “Press on towards the goal.” (Phil 3:14)

Beyond Strategic Control: Applying the BSC to a Religious Organization

Kaplan and Norton have provided a framework to link control to an organization’s vision-the balanced scorecard. This approach provides measures in four areas: (1) Customer, (2) Internal Business, (3) Innovation and Learning and (4) Financial. This article provides a starting point in adapting this method to a church by looking at four measurement perspectives: (1) Members/Attenders, (2) Internal Ministry Processes, (3) Ministering, and (4) Innovation and Learning. An example is then developed using a church’s mission and vision.

via Beyond Strategic Control: Applying the Balanced Scorecard to a Religious Organization – Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing.

From άδελϕοί to οἰ̑κος θεου̑

David G. Horrell looks in his paper at how the Pauline literature moves away from using sibling language (άδελϕοί) and starts to refer to the Christian community as a household (οἰ̑κος θεου̑:) and wonders whether this is an indication of growing hieararchial tendencies in the early Christian church, as the household was a hierarchically structured entity.

From άδελϕοί to οἰ̑κος θεου̑: social transformation in Pauline Christianity – University of Exeter.

It is about people

People work harder because of the increased involvement and commitment that comes from having more control and say in their work; people work smarter because they are encouraged to build skills and competence; and people work more responsibly because more responsibility is placed in hands of employees farther down in the organization.

via Putting people first for organizational success (pdf).

Conversations Needed

Anthony B. Robinson calls us to 10 intriguing conversations about what is needed to “be church.”

  1. It’s not about you
  2. And yet… It is about you
  3. A New heart
  4. Who will lead them?
  5. Why are we here?
  6. Let’s get (less) organized
  7. Taking on adaptive challanges
  8. The church and the public square
  9. Death and resurrection
  10. Where do we start?

According to an article in Congregations from Summer 2007. Anthony B. Robinson has written a book about change called: Changing the Conversation – A Third Way for Congregations.