Session V: Reevaluation Your Leadership and Mission
February 25th, 2011 | 
Author: Download Session V: Session V
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
· describe the privilege and responsibility of leadership
· evaluate current church mission statement and discuss possible revisions
· describe and discuss Asset Based Community Development and Appreciative Inquiry
Devotional
Sing: Lead me Lord. http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh473.sht
Read: Matt 25:31-46 The Judgment of Nations http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31%2D46&version=NIV
Pray: For the Spirit of Truth #597 The United Methodist Hymnal
From the cowardice that dares not face new truths,
From laziness that is contented with half-truths,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truths,
Good Lord, deliver us. Amen
Setting Priorities
Purposeful leadership requires the setting of priorities.
How should we set these priorities?
What standards should we use?
What are the guiding principles?
Read from The 2008 Book of Discipline, paragraphs 131 and 132, Servant Ministry and Servant Leadership. http://umcneb.org/media/2008BookOfDisciplinePDFS/CONS001936QK004001A.pdf
Are you living a mission of active expectancy? What are the barriers or dampers to feeling this way?
Remembering and acting on ALL the paragraphs of The Book of Discipline, as well as the scripture passages, will guide you in the setting of priorities within a framework of team leadership at your home church.
Assessing Your Leadership and Mission
Use SWOT to analyze your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
You can also use ABCD- Asset Based Community Development:
This is an approach based on the principles of:
· Appreciating and encouraging individual and congregational talents, skills and, abilities instead of focusing on problems and needs.
· Congregation-driven development and response rather than situational driven by external reasons.
· Utilizing Appreciative Inquiry in identifying and analyzing the congregation’s past successes to
· strengthen member’s confidence, inspiring them to take action.
· Focusing on the power of relationships.
Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry approaches all situations with unconditionally positive questions that address the difficult and sometimes tedious task of visioning and responding by employing imagination and innovation. Instead of a common climate of negativism, criticism, and downward spiraling dialog, there is one of discovery, dreaming, and constructive conversation. Appreciative Inquiry involves discovery of what gives ―life‖ (the power of the Holy Spirit) to a living system (the church) when it is most alive and most effective (in ministry). It uses holistic methods to examine the links between the closed system and the surrounding community.
1. Members of the congregation individually bear the collective memory and tradition of the church family, its history, its struggles, and its successes. This is a prime resource.
2. Calling on that resource, all that has been good and successful must be made visible and must beoptimized.
3. The present conditions of quality, no matter how small they may be perceived, contribute to futurepossibilities.
4. The importance of community must triumph over importance of individual or group.
You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you don‘t mind who gets the credit‖ – President Harry S. Truman.
Say your own prayer of thanksgiving to end this session.
Resources
· http://umcneb.org/media/2008BookOfDisciplinePDFS/CONS001936QK004001A.pdf Online Book of Discipline 2008. Thanks to the Nebraska Conference.
· Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets, John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, (Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, 1993; ACTA Publications [800] 397-2282)
· The Power of Asset Mapping, Luther K. Snow, The Albin Institute, 2004
- Appreciative Inquiry Handbook, David L. Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, and Jacqueline M. Stavros, Crown Custom Publishing, 2005
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