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Statement of Transformational Leadership

In each of the following places, I worked with the congregation to evaluate, plan for and implement deep change.  I work to manage the change in a way that – in a cooking analogy used by Ron Heifitz in his book Leadership Without Easy Answers – turns up the heat enough to cook the food without turning it up so high that it blows up.  I present the opportunity for change as a chance to grow in faith, in self-knowledge and in answering in creative ways the call to be God’s people for this new day.  I believe that in any work for change, conversation is crucial.  Talk about the fear, the excitement, and the tension between security and apathy that is the result of stasis.   I teach that God can be known in powerful ways during liminal times, using  biblical story to speak of transformation:  creation, exodus, liberation, healing, building, and resurrection.

Christ Covenant MCC

We began this congregation at a point of crisis:  a small group of MCC members found that our progressive theology was not tolerated in our present congregations.  So, we began with a desire to implement a broadness that we had never experienced.  From these eleven men and women, we grew a congregation of over 300 in an eight-year period.  I believe that the components of successful change included:  a willingness and openness to invent a new model, including a healthy detachment from our own ideas.  In other words, if something wasn’t working, we could let it go after testing sufficiently.  Another component of leading a congregation successfully through the changes inherent to growth is striking a balance of internal programming with external acts of service – from the beginning. 

 

During my eight-year tenure, our congregation purchased a building, sustained a staff of six, provided service ministries – from tutoring in the public schools to two trips to assist hurricane victims in Honduras. 

 

I found that a strong spiritually centered lay-led infrastructure established a base for the work of the church in the community and the world.  Building partnerships provided inspiration, education, purpose and empowerment during stages of our growth.  We partnered with interfaith and ecumenical groups, other congregations, educational institutions, GLBTQ organizations, and arts organizations.

 

The Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta

As facilitator of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Board of Directors, I facilitated the process which transformed this council of churches into an organized consortium of congregations in mutual service to those in need in our city.  By beginning at a grass-roots level to ascertain immediate needs and surveying congregations to determine availability of resources, we established working commissions who organized projects to create visibility and public awareness, to educate, to bring diverse communities together in worship and organized service – to refugees, people with disabilities, and the homeless.

MCC Tampa

When I came to MCC Tampa, the congregation was accustomed to top-down management and a dictated theology.  Programs of learning and service were sparse.  Through getting to know the congregation, we began an organized process of healing and self-assessment.  I coupled that with diligent creation of educational and spiritual development resources, helping members and friends to explore and articulate their faith.  I assisted them in their pastoral search process and worked with them to identify the pastor who has led them into their brilliant period of spiritual, financial, and numerical growth.

All God’s Children MCC

While this congregation had a clearer self-understanding than MCC Tampa, they had a desperate need for leadership training and spiritual development classes.  They needed to know themselves theologically and ministerially apart from the identity of their last pastor.  Their Board needed training in conflict management and in respectful communication before they could undertake a successful pastoral search process.  With this diagnosis, we mapped a plan and undertook financial and communication training for the Board and a series of education classes for the congregation-at-large.  This prepared them to move forward with greater sense of their congregational identity and with unity and confidence within the Board of Directors.  Additionally, I helped them assess their growing staff needs and the organization of their staff and lay leadership.

MCC Portland

When I arrived in Portland, OR, a little over three years ago, I found a church that was beaten down and believed that they would never be a vibrant, resourced, growing, exciting congregation.  They saw themselves as poor and ill-equipped.  But they weren’t!  They needed leadership who believed in them and the power of the Spirit to work in and through them. 

In the past year, we have grown spiritually – in trust of God, in our level of serenity and peace, in the confident, overt expressions of our spiritual lives.  We have grown financially, increasing our budget to include two new full-time staff members and raising over half the funds to rebuild our bathrooms and kitchen and replace our dangerous furnace.  We have grown in purpose, beginning with 150 people participating in focus groups to create a new mission statement and core values.  We have expanded our scope of ministry by developing ministries for young adults, youth and children.  We have grown in joy – less discontent and drama, more participation and celebration.  And we have grown in capacity to envision a future in which we can be a vital spiritual home for a growingly diverse congregation.