Living Every Day as Disciples

SEMN Synod Fall Theological Conference

November 2, 2015

Group Discussion Questions:

What do you hope the church will look like in five years?

What will it take to get us there?

Mission: Growing leaders with deep, bold, consequential faith in Jesus Christ

Vision:Leaders growing ministries and faith communities to serve the world, living everyday as disciples

Strategy:To resource people in practicing discipleship that loves God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and loves our neighbors as ourselves

Process

• identity: Discerning Core Values to follow God into the world

• The Disciple Frame/ Leadership Landscape

• Congregational Assessment/Coaching

• Strategic Planning

3 types of Core Values

• Core Beliefs• Core Convictions• Core Practices

Core Beliefs

• These are the deepest values of the congregation – the DNA that includes our way of thinking about God and our theology.

• These usually do not change over time.

• Essence of our “God-view and when fully lived out, also our “world-view”.

Core Convictions

• Values that are specific to each congregation, representing our unique call in a particular time and place.

• “What defines us as a community?”• Might need to be nuanced from time

to time to reflect cultural context of the congregation and the community.

Core Practices

• Values that need to evolve and change over the years, yet these are the ones most likely to create conflict when changed.

• Most visible of the Core Values• Easily confused with Core

Convictions

How do our core values correlate to the way we live

out our faith (both personally and

communally)?

The Disciple Frame

• Without a frame of reference, congregations can move from one new idea or program to another without ever really having a vision for the future. Framing what you see and do is the beginning of alignment and perspective.

• Jesus’ words provide the frame that defines and sets the path for Christian leadership.

• Mark 12:29-31• Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and

strength offers us clear practices for our lives.

The Leadership Landscape

• The focus of Christian leadership is to grow deep, bold, consequential faith in Jesus Christ.

About the Quadrants

• These are generalizations and it is possible to be somewhere between one or more quadrants.

• This is a starting place – not prophetic.• This is the beginning of LEAD’s analysis

and represents the best thinking at this time.

• Majority of leaders (ordained clergy) and congregations land in the “Out of Breath” quadrant

Group Discussion Questions• Who have I listened to in

the last week inside the faith community and in the neighborhood that keep me tuned in to what God?

• How am I connected to other people with whom I can be myself or to a community that is doing things that matter to me?

• What ideas or concepts am I exploring that get me excited about learning new things?

The Congregational Assesment

• Find our place on the Leadership Landscape• Establish a baseline for the four Growth

Indicators• Build on our strengths to respond to God’s

call within our congregation and neighborhood

• Can shape a path for growth– This path may include training, coaching,

reading, listening in the community, etc.• Invitation to intentionally open leaders and

faith communities to opportunities to grow

Assessment Itself

• Completed online• Basic demographic info about the

person completing the Assessment • 20 statements about the

congregation. Participants are asked to choose the response that they think best describes the congregation that they are a part of.

Who takes the Assessment

• A number equal to or greater than 30% of our average worship attendance

• A diverse cross-section of the congregation based on factors of age, gender, ethnicity, and length of time in congregation.

• Both members and visitors (if possible)

Assessment Process

1. Invite selected people to complete Assessment (two week time period)

2. Receive a report from LEAD within 30 days of closing the Assessment.– Report will include results for each of the

4 Growth Indicators3. Receive a 30 minute consultation with

a LEAD coach, who will walk us through the results, answer any questions we may have, and help us to think about what our next steps may be.