understanding the adaptive challenges that are confronting synods today bishop’s convocation lower...
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Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
UNDERSTANDING THE ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES THAT ARE CONFRONTING
SYNODS TODAY
Bishop’s ConvocationLower Susquehanna Synod, ELCA
ByCraig Van Gelder, Ph.D.
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH LIFE IN THE U.S. AND ORGANIZATIONAL
LIFE-CYCLES
• Five Historical Periods• Three Organizational Phases
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Organizational Life CycleAlan Roxburgh & Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader, Jossey Bass, 2006
Period 1—Foundations 1600s-late 1700s:Early Schools and Institutions
• Context Immigration: Colonies settled by European immigrants• Church/Congregations
– Reformation – churches from the “left” (state churches)– Reformation – churches from the “right” (sects)– Influence of Great Awakening– Planting “Ethnic Immigrant Churches”
• Theological Education– Ministers from Europe– Initial Schools (Wm & Mary, Harvard, Yale, + informal)
• Pastor as the RESIDENT THEOLOGIAN
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Period 2—Expansion late 1700s-mid 1800s:Developing Denominational Systems
• Context Frontier: Frontier opens across Allegany Mountains• Church/Congregations
– 2nd Awakening on Frontier– Made in America denominations: Methodists, Baptists, Disciples– Planting “Village Churches”
• Theological Education– Numerous Denominational Seminaries->30 (Andover model)
• Small: 3-5 faculty and 15-30 students
– Emphasis on moral formation and example
• The GENTLEMAN PASTOR
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Organizational Beginning:Emergent Leadership – New Actions
Period 3—Maturing late 1800s-1930s: Denominational Institutional Systems
• Context Urbanization: Cities and Corporate Denomination
• Church/Congregations– Migration to cities and Southern &
Eastern Europe immigration– Streetcar lines and planting “City
Neighborhood Churches”• Theological Education
– Ministerial Standards– Social Gospel and Modernist &
Fundamentalist Split– New Schools of Theology—the
Research Graduate School Model– New Seminaries Protestant—
many as alternatives others as late immigration traditions
• The CHURCHLY PASTOR (from cradle to grave)
Number ChurchBuildings
1870 1920
70,000 225,000
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Period 4—Expansion mid 1940s-1970s:Professional Ministry in Corporate Denomination
• Context Suburbanization: Baby Boom & suburban growth
• Church/Congregations– Suburban Congregations
• Success or captivity?– Civil Religion – God and country– Planting “Family Suburban
Churches”• Theological Education
– Expansion of seminaries• Many Evangelical
– Establishment of standards (ATS)– Formal Study Published 1950s
• The PASTORAL DIRECTOR (Professional Minister with Expanding Skills for Ministry from Social Sciences)
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Organizational Institutionalization:Performative Organization and Leadership
Transition: Social Upheaval 1960s-1970s
• Key Shifts– Civil rights– Counter Culture– Viet Nam War and Anti-War– The multiple movements
• Feminist, Ecological, etc.• Implications
– 3rd Disestablishment– Mainline churches stopped growing– Growth of conservative and evangelical churches as well as rise of the
media church• The THERAPEUTIC PASTOR (CPE and non-directive counseling)
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Period 5—Searching for New Directions at the Beginning of the 21st Century
• Context Diversity: Globalization, Immigration, & Postmodern• Church/Congregations
– Congregations starting congregations – Planting “Mega, Community, Immigrant, and Emerging Churches”
• Theological Education– Critical self-reflection in TE– Diversified formation processes– Alternative Routes in systems
• The Entrepreneurial Leader (late modern 80s-90s)• The Participatory Leader (postmodern 2000s)
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Organizational Decline:Reactive Leadership and Regulative Agency
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
REACTIVE AND REGULATIVESTRATEGIES TO REGAIN PERFORMATIVE
Technical Approaches• Downsizing and/or consolidating• Planning with Values, Mission, and Vision• Shift from “programming” to “consultative” • Rules and procedures added to secure
compliance (in midst of loss of trust)• Staff dealing with conflict management and
crisis interventions
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Utilizing Technical Change to Address Presenting Issues
Technical• Problem is typically clear
and can be named• Known methods are
available to solve the challenge
• Expertise is available to use for addressing the challenge
• Basic approach is to use a planning model (e.g. strategic planning)
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
STRATEGIC PLANNING AS PRIMARY MODE OF OPERATION WITH TECHNICAL
• SWOC—the environmental scan
• V/M/V– Values– Mission (purpose)– Vision
• S/G/O– Strategies– Goals– Objectives
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
BUT TECHNICAL APPROACHES INSUFFICIENT IN BEING ABLE TO ADDRESS MANY OF THE SYSTEMIC ISSUES NOW BEING
FACED
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Utilizing Adaptive Change to Address Systemic Issues
Technical• Problem is typically clear
and can be named• Known methods are
available to solve the challenge
• Expertise is available to use for addressing the challenge
• Basic approach: use a planning model (e.g. strategic planning)
Adaptive• Real challenge underlying
presenting issues murky• New learning is required to
address the challenge• God’s ordinary people on the
front lines innovating experimental change
• Basic approach: use a discernment approach (e.g. communal Spirit-led learning)
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
THE ADAPTIVE CHALLENGE QUESTION:“What issue(s) are we currently facing, for which we do not presently have an answer, but which
we must address, if we are to live into God’s future?
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Example #1: Theological Education
Presenting Issues• Declining enrollments• Rising student debt• Increase part-time
students • Less resident campus
participation• Availability of virtual
alterantives
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Example #1: Theological Education
Presenting Issues• Declining enrollments• Rising student debt• Increase part-time
students • Less resident campus
participation• Availability of non-
formal and virtual alternatives
Adaptive Challenge
We have created an approach to graduate theological education that for many is not affordable or financially sustainable, which is also increasingly out of step with many in the next generation of church leaders.
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Example #: Congregation in a Changing Context
Presenting Issues• Changing ethnicity of
neighborhood• Declining membership
and plateaued finances• Fewer young families
with children• Programs to meet
needs of community
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Example #: Congregation in a Changing Context
Presenting Issues• Changing ethnicity of
neighborhood• Declining membership
and plateaued finances• Fewer young families
with children• Programs to meet
needs of community
Adaptive Challenge
Our congregation is yet to develop genuine relationships with the “other” in our neighborhood where there is a reciprocity of mutual sharing and learning.
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
THE ADAPTIVE CHANGE PROCESS
• God’s ordinary people . . .• Participating in Spirit-led communal
discernment . . .• Utilizing an action-learning approach . . .• To engage in a variety of experiments . . .• For discovering new ways to address the
adaptive challenges confronting them.
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Example #3: Lower Susquehanna Synod ELCA—Presenting Issues
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Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
Example #3: Lower Susquehanna Synod ELCA—An Adaptive Challenge
Our synod . . .
Copyrights 2011 Craig Van Gelder
DISCUSSION