Workshop Schedule
Friday, April 4, 2014:
6:30-7:00 Registration
7:00-9:30 What is Systems Thinking?
Video Case Study: “The Anxious Congregation/The Responsible Congregation”
Saturday, April 5, 2014:
9:00-10:30 Healthy Congregations Respond to Anxiety
Healthy Congregations Invite Differentiation of Self
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Healthy Congregations Focus on Strength
Healthy Congregations Manage Conflict
12:00-1:00 Lunch (on-site—included in registration)
1:00-2:30 In Healthy Congregations, Leaders Challenge People
In Healthy Congregations, Leaders Focus on Mission
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-4:30 In Healthy Congregations, Leaders Promote Health Through Their Presence and Functioning
Planning For a Healthier Congregation
2014 Health Congregations Workshop
This workshop will help you . . .
- Learn how you as a leader can influence the health of your congregation — how to detect and avoid unhealthy patterns of living together in community.
- Learn how to keep anxiety from becoming infectious.
- Gain confidence in responding to challenges and opportunities.
- Learn how to put limits on invasive behavior, manage reactivity, and overcome sabotage.
- Discover how leaders can function as the congregation's immune system.
- Learn to focus on strengths, resources, options, and the future.
Who Will Benefit:
- Pastors, church staff, Church Council, Session, Personnel Committee and Pastoral Relations Committee members, all congregation members and leaders.
- Anyone interested in enhancing their capacity to manage self in a non-anxious and responsible way, whether in the church, the home, the workplace, or the community.
About the Workshop:
The Healthy Congregations workshop uses the insights of family systems theory to help church leaders become more effective stewards of their congregations. The workshop was originally created by Dr. Peter Steinke and is based on the work of Dr. Murray Bowen. The specific workshop design for this event was developed by the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center.
Since the publication of Generation to Generation by Dr. Edwin Friedman, many pastors have come to recognize the importance of understanding family systems theory as it relates to congregations. The Healthy Congregations workshop helps both clergy and lay leaders expand their insight into how churches function as emotional systems.
Friedman noted that in many congregations today negative, reactive forces are allowed to set the agenda for the church. What can be done to prevent anxiety from becoming a toxic force in your congregation? The Healthy Congregations workshop is designed to equip leaders to respond to the presence or potential threat of anxiety in a congregational system in ways that prevent destructive conflict and help the church stay focused on its unique mission and purpose.
Workshop Leader:
Dave Moore, M.Div, is the pastor of New Summit Presbyterian Church, and works with congregations and leaders in church planting, church transformation, church health and growth, and conflict mediation.
He received training from the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center to serve as a Healthy Congregations workshop facilitator.
Lombard Mennonite Peace Center
Event cost is $50 and includes meals.
Additional charges may apply if you wish to spend the night at the camp.