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.

DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH LIFE IN THE U.S. AND ORGANIZATIONAL

LIFE-CYCLES

• Five Historical Periods• Three Organizational Phases

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

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

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

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)

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)

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)

Organizational Decline:Reactive Leadership and Regulative Agency

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

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)

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

BUT TECHNICAL APPROACHES INSUFFICIENT IN BEING ABLE TO ADDRESS MANY OF THE SYSTEMIC ISSUES NOW BEING

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)

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?

Example #1: Theological Education

Presenting Issues• Declining enrollments• Rising student debt• Increase part-time

students • Less resident campus

participation• Availability of virtual

alterantives

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.

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

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.

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.

Example #3: Lower Susquehanna Synod ELCA—Presenting Issues

Example #3: Lower Susquehanna Synod ELCA—An Adaptive Challenge

Our synod . . .

DISCUSSION

UNDERSTANDING THE ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES THAT ARE CONFRONTING SYNODS TODAY Bishop’s Convocation Lower...

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