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In the past month I’ve been in three different congregations who are all grappling with some version of the following question; how do we keep track of where and when our clergy staff is working? Everyone becomes defensive when the question is raised. Clergy staff takes offense. In the posing of the question it seems that […]
Read MoreDenominational systems often do the hard work of articulating theological statements for their member congregations. Any congregation that falls under the leadership of a Bishop is likely provided with a clear cut statement titled, “This is What We Believe”. We can read these belief statements and know that long labored hours went into the careful […]
Read MoreLast week I met with 43 pastors and rabbis and spent 3 days focused on the challenges of staffing and supervision in congregations. It was a marvelous time of mutual learning, conversation and experience sharing. I always walk away from these events with incredible respect for clergy leaders and the rich set of circumstances (code for challenges/messes) […]
Read MoreI’m working in a congregation that has one of the most remarkably collaborative staff teams that I have encountered. Every member of the team is eager, willing and able to help every other member of the team. There are no artificial boundaries between the important spiritual work of some staff members and the more mundane […]
Read MoreThe 2009 Congregational Economic Impact Study has just been released jointly by the Alban Institute and the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving at the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University. The report indicates that the large congregation is weathering this financial crisis better than the small to mid-sized congregation. “Growth congregations,” those where attendance […]
Read MoreAssimilation and Diversity Differences in the Large Church
Read MoreA client congregation is preparing for an upcoming pastoral transition. As part of that preparation we determined that it would be good to “tell the stories” of previous pastoral transitions, in the hopes of surfacing unstated assumptions and previous lessons learned in times of leadership transition. We began by recollecting the story of a pastoral […]
Read MoreRemember Whack-a-Mole? It’s an amusement park or pinball arcade game that features seven “moles” that pop up through holes in a game board directly in front of the player. Each player is given a club- “a mole whacker.” As the game starts, moles pop up through the holes at random. The object of the game […]
Read MoreAt Alban we do a lot of strategic planning consulting work in congregations, under the umbrella of Holy Conversations. Increasingly, in my practice I find myself steering clients away from writing an official mission statement as part of the planning process. My reasons for discouraging the practice are three-fold: 1) For most of us, the […]
Read MoreThis blog is written for congregational leaders (both clergy and lay) who are interested in exploring the unique challenges of life and leadership in the large congregation. Leaders in the large congregation often report feeling overwhelmed and isolated. Denominational leaders rarely understand the inner workings of the large congregation, and leadership resources seldom address the […]
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