Cauldrons of Theological Participation and Imagination

Nanette Sawyer, pastor at Wicker Park Grace, and Troy Bronsink responded to Doug Pagitt
during the first session this morning. I found one of the particular interesting ideas presented was Doug’s view that:

Church communities ought to be cauldrons of theological participation and imagination.

Cauldrons – what a great word. He was referring to the potential that congregations have to be have multiple relationships in which knowledge, ideas, and inspiration pass in all directions and not just from one person to many people. Doug also presented some different ways to think about what the emerging movement is undertaking within the church:

• Remodeling – remaking what is present. There is sometimes a high cost to change what is there
• New construction – new from the ground up. Can be as expensive and risky as remodeling.
• Something other – maybe not remodeling or new construction, but movement – ideas being shared and people traveling among different places and communities.

After this main session, I attended the worshop entitled “Leadership and Congregational Transformation” led by Diana Butler Bass. She has lead a research team on discovering what are some of the characteristics of vital mainline congregations. The study included 50 congregations from across the United States with multiple differences in demographics. I took in a lot during this session and look forward to more processing, but here are some highlights.

Characteristics of leaders in vital congregations – sense of humor, humility and storytellers. Narrative leadership was presented as a way that leaders in congregations are facilitating a way forward for the congregation. She presented…

Four Pathways of Narrative Leadership

Know your story and live it.

• Story shapes leaders.
  • The story that one believes about her or his congregation, denomination, self shapes how she or he leads.
  • For example – there is a very different type of leader that is called for if one considers the story to be that of the Mayflower instead of that of the Titanic. Maybe the ship isn’t sinking, maybe it has changed course.
• Leaders shape stories.
  • Leaders are able to help people make sense of chaos.
  • A leader is able to tell stories that make sense and understand their leadership life as telling stories.
  • The script can be re-written and the leader can shape the re-writing.
• Narrative leadership is character and context driven.
  • Each person is a uniquely formed character in their own story.
  • Use the power of this unique charcter to shape leadership.
  • In vital congregations, there is a unique fit between the character of the congregation and that of the pastor.
  • It is important for a leader to be her or his own character in the context of a community that has its own character.
• Narrative leadership is based on charisma, not celebrity.
  • Charisma in the sense that the leader pays attention to the Holy Spirit and has gifts that are clearly not their own.

I am looking forward to the afternoon and continued conversation. Thus far it has been a great experience for me  – connecting, learning, and particularly gaining more understanding of myself.