Building Healthy Congregations

A Series of Four Workshops for Teams from Congregations

Dates and Time:

March 23, April 20, May 25, and June 15, 2013

9:30am to 4:30pm

Leader:

Rev. Dr. Richard Speck, District Executive

These four workshops are designed precisely for a time of rapid changes in congregations.  They are based in an understanding of the congregation functioning as an emotional system of interrelated parts.  It is a new way of thinking about both the congregation and its leadership.  You will view the congregation as a whole, as an organism, as a system.  Instead of seeing separate parts, you will see interrelated parts and their interactions.  No one part promotes health or illness in a system.  Everything contributes for good or ill.  The congregation is seen as a whole unit in need of care by the leadership.  Therefore, these workshops center around the stewardship of the congregation: how leaders care for, respond to, and oversee the congregation’s life together.

Congregational leaders are the chief stewards.  They are in a position to promote the well-being of the congregation.  They set a mood and tone for the congregation.  They are accountable for setting a direction, taking stands, staying connected to others, encouraging participation, and attending to the ongoing interplay of many conditions and forces.

These workshops enable participants to:

• Gain a renewed sense of purpose and mission
• Cultivate strong leadership capacities to challenge the congregation
• Learn how to develop healthy patterns of living together in community
• Learn to focus on strength, resources, and options for the future
• Boost confidence in responding to challenges and opportunities
• Learn how to lead with calm and thoughtfulness
• Reflect theologically about relationships
• Move the congregation toward healthy functioning

Both professional and lay leaders can benefit from attending these workshops.  For the information to become embedded in the system, a team approach is used.  The team can build up the health in the system by relying upon one another.  It doesn’t matter what size the congregation is since the concept addresses the whole system and not individual parts.

Teams of four and five people are required to attend.  All team members are expected to be present for all sessions.  An individual from a team may miss one session with a valid excuse.  Cost is $700 for a team of five which includes all workbooks, meals, and handouts.  A congregation under 100 members may send a team of four for $560.  Additional team members can be accommodated for $140 per additional member.  Full Fair Share Congregations with the JPD and UUA will be given a $100 discount off their team's registration.  Check with the District office to see if you qualify for the discount.  Registration deadline is Friday, March 15, 2013.

Congregations may also quality for grant or scholarship funds from the district’s Lay Leadership Development Program.  Please contact Jillian Conway for more information at jillian@jpduua.org.