Leading Terri Martinson Elton

About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean." The voice said to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven. New Revised Standard

How do you view change?

Folk tale

Change is a normal part of our world. CHANGE HAPPENS! Change takes place IN THE CHURCH! Leadership always involves change. Yet there are different types of change!

personal dimension There is a personal dimension to change that can never be taken away. Share with a partner one time you dealt very well with leading a change process and one time you did not deal very well with a change process.

you How do you deal with change? What is your experience both with change and leading change? What skills do you have needed for leading change? What’s your change temperament?

What about those around you? Do they have experience? Have skills? What’s their change temperament?

Some Resources: What is your Change Style? Discovery Learning’s ChangeStyle Indicator What is your conflict management style? Speed Leas Family-systems view The Leader’s Journey by Herrinton, Creech, and Taylor How are you gifted? LifeKeys by Stark, Kise, and Krebs Strengths Finder by Tom Rath

Four views of theology: Descriptive – WHERE is God in what is? Historical – WHAT do normative text say? Systematic – Coherent, congruent, and ethical Strategic – What languages, relationship, strategies, and practices best accomplish the mission and ministry? Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology

Where is God in the midst of rituals, traditions and contextual realities? What meaning do these hold for that particular community? How can you unearth what gives meaning to a community of faith? What is shared and what had different meanings?

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.” Anatole France, French writer

God’s people are simultaneously saint and sinner.

Old TestamentThemes: Genesis Exodus Kings Prophets New Testament Gospels Acts Letters Revelation

Some things are constant… God wants to be in relationship with God’s people and the world. Some things do change… God and God’s creation are dynamic, living entities. Christian Community is dynamic. Leaders of communities of faith live in a tension.

The role of leadership is to bring God’s people back into the biblical story – the living word of God. The biblical story centers a community of faith, giving it its identity, and holds a community, giving it space to wrestle with what it means to be God’s people in the here and now.

TheologyHelp with change: Word and Sacrament Living Word Theology of the Cross Law and Gospel Tradition Protestant/Reforming church Educated Leadership Immigrant church in US

Systematic Theology is “the fusion of horizons between the vision implicit in contemporary practices and the vision implied in the practices of the normative Christian texts.” (Browning)

Two questions: What new horizons of meaning is fused when questions from the present practices are brought to the central Christian witness? What reasons can be advanced to support the validity claims of this new fusion of meaning?

Reformation theologies Liberation theologians Feminist view of theology Missiological Trinitarian theologies ???

Key elements to consider View of God – Trinity – father, son and spirit View of Anthropology - Humanity View of the World/culture – view of sin View of the Church – ecclesiology – what it the understanding of the role or nature of church? View of Salvation – soteriology – how does the divine purpose come to be in the world and for humanity? View of Eschatology – view of the end – what is the ultimate divine purpose for the world? View of Revelation – how does God reveal God’s self to us?

Volf’s – four claims Identity Matters We are all social agents The Cross is at the center of our identity There is a promise to hold on to as we live in this broken world.

There is a tension between distance and belonging…Volf uses the metaphor of embrace to work this out: Opening - stages of being social agents Wanting – practicing forgiveness Closing – creating space Opening – healing memory His key question is – Can I embrace the ultimate other? What would justice the embrace and Where would I draw the strength for it?

What establishes the norms and strategies of concrete practices in light of the analysis of the concrete situation?

Conflict Transition Growth Adaptive Technical Individual Systemic Paradigm shifts

Change is both an event and a process! Change is about the way we think and the way we act.

Change is personal and communal, individual and organizational. Change is continuous and discontinuous.

Change is both natural and normative, and abnormal and disruptive.