Weekly outline

  • Introduction and Core Documents

    Welcome to Developing Leaders at Lancaster Theological Seminary.  I look forward to spending Friday evenings with you and interacting via email and Moodle during the week -- over the next 10 (intense!) weeks.

    This is an introductory and integrative course.  Introductory means that part of what we will do is identify leadership theories, topics, and capacities about which you will want to learn over the course of your seminary journey.  Integrative means that we are working to bring together your other seminary courses, your call, and your experiences of leading and being led.  We may raise issues that you will then explore in other contexts -- either field education or course work.  Some people enter this course with extensive leadership training.  Others will have limited experiences in these topics.  This can mean many things.  Sometimes it means that there are things which we need to "unlearn" in order to move forward in our callings.  Other times it means we deepen learning that has already occurred in our lives.  Often times we encounter fresh ideas that can shape and reshape us for the future.

     Our goal will be to form a learning community that helps you grow as a leader and prepares you for your calling in the Church of Jesus Christ -- which comes in many forms these days!  Part of what we are doing in this class if helping you form the questions that you want to explore during the rest of your seminary education.

    Please explore this Moodle site and bring any questions to class.


  • Week 1 - October 28

    Please watch this video and then post in the discussion forum:

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  • Week 2 - November 4

    Many weeks there will be either a case study or a reading -- to which you will respond.  This week you are to read the case study below and then create a discussion in the forum, based on the case study.  Directions are provided.


    You also need to log in to the Emotional Intelligence assesment link provided in your book.  Enter that code provided and complete the assessment.  Bring those results to class on Friday evening.  You will NOT be required to disclose the results.  You will have an opportunity to interact with the material and plan for how to engage your own development.

  • Week 3 - November 11

    Watch this video.  We'll discuss what we can learn from this at the beginning of class on November 11.

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  • Week 4 - December 2

    I hope that your Thanksgiving break has been good.

    For Friday, December 2, you need to do three things to prep:

    1)  Complete your Core Values Index and the click on the Assignment below that is called "Core Values Index."  Type in "I've completed the CVI."  and hit submit.  (This will let me know who has completed this assignment.)

    2)  Read the article below called "What Leadership Looks Like In Different Cultures."  This will us prepare for our conversation in the second half of the class about leadership and diversity.

    3)  Prepare two questions for our guests on Friday, December 2.  We will have three leaders from three different contexts with us -- it is an opportunity for you to see different leadership styles and see some leaders who are highly capable in their contexts.  They will begin with a brief introduction of themselves and then we will open it up for your questions and conversation.



  • Week 5 - December 9

    A reminder -- Your paper on Personal Story and Leadership is due on Friday, December 9, at midnight.  There is no required reading for this week -- and thus no reading log due.

    Bring either a print out of the report you received from your CVI or electronic access to it.  You will want to be able to look at your information during our class time.

    There is a Moodle post due this week.  The Personal Story paper has you look at your past and how it impacts your leadership.  The post this week invites you to look towards your future and what your leadership looks like for the future.

  • Week 6 - January 6

    This week we will review some of the significant concepts that we have covered and then spend time looking at a specific, significant issues in leadership -- money and finances.  These are significant from a personal and institutional standpoint -- because our personal experiences with money can impact our leadership and also because finances are a place for important institutional decisions and often is a flashpoint for conflict.

    There is a reading and a post to do this week.  Both are below.

  • Week 7 - January 13

    We have a special guest this week -- Dr. Carol Lytch, President of LTS.  Dr. Lytch is also an accomplished congregational observer and ethnographer.  She are provided a pre-assignment, which is below.  Because we've got access to this digital medium, I've added the option of taking some pictures of the place that you visit.  Before Friday, you need to do three things:

    1)  Review the material in "Conceptual Worlds" document

    2)  Read the attached Dudley and Johnson article, “Congregational Self-Images for Social Ministry” in Carriers of Faith. Dudley, Carroll, Wind, eds. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991.

    3) Complete the pre-assignment, also attached below, and post your result to the forum.

  • Week 8 - January 20

    • Preparing for class on January 20 --

      Hello! My name is Erin Cox-Holmes and I will have the fun of being your Guest Teacher on January 20. 

      For class we are going to take a whirlwind tour through what we can learn from Object Relations Theory, Narrative Therapy approaches, and Gamer Theory.
      Please watch the Ted Talk video on Hardwiring Happiness.
      All of the links below will be part of what we do in class -- read as much as you can. 

      Looking forward to seeing you on Friday! -- Erin C-H 

      1. Please watch the Ted Talk Video, embedded below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuDyGgIeh0)  
      (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuDyGgIeh0)

       

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      2. Read: "The Transforming Power of Gratitude" by Bruce Epperly in The Alban Weekly here: 

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      http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=08a0a554-dbd7-4ef2-850c-42d2db80a460&c=f4814620-b6dc-11e3-bd41-d4ae52754007&ch=f51ac700-b6dc-11e3-bd94-d4ae52754007

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      3. Read the Excerpt from the article titled "Creativity is a Necessity" by Henning Rasmussen of The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies in the Resources section

      4. Read the article "Stay in the Canoe And Keep Paddling" by Harville Hendrix

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      http://www.eomega.org/article/stay-in-the-canoe-keep-paddling

  • Week 9 - January 27

    We are almost done!  You are a great class -- growing in leadership, reflection, and insight every time we are together.  This week week in class we'll do three things:

    1)  Discuss diversity and leadership -- which will just be an introduction to a very important topic.

    2)  Go over the exercise of observing a meeting and see what we have learned from that.  

    3)  Prepare for presentations next week on leadership where you get the opportunity to have some fun showing the rest of the class what you have learned.

    To do this -- there are a few elements to the Moodle site this week.

    1)  Share your "Observing A Meeting" assignment and your reflection on it.  Note that there are no responses this week.

    2) Watch at least one of the videos on diversity.  (You are welcome to watch both, of course.)  The short video on conference calls is just for fun (although the humor points to some very real issues in leadership).

    3)  Look at the discussion questions -- they are for review and reflection as we gather.  We won't go over all of them, but they are helpful as you think through these issues.

  • Week 10 - February 3

    Welcome to the last week of Developing Leaders.  You have been a superb, engaged class.  Thanks for creating a learning environment where we have all been given a chance to deepen our leadership capacities and skills.  For this final week, bring your final insights and questions.  We'll have our group presentations, some work on our observing meetings projects, some final comments from me, and a chance to ask final questions.

    Great work -- I look forward to reading your papers and seeing where you go as your call unfolds.