Winter 2016-2017 Developing Leaders

I like how you collected the reactions of Jose, Mary, and Ralph into one single thing they are asking for. I saw their responses more from a 'what system are they coming from' than a 'what are they yearning for' side. Though the two obviously stitch together, I think it's really useful to state the yearning side of it.

I also assumed there had *not* been an interim, which gives a different picture than assuming there has been. Though if these issues are still present, it wasn't what I'd expect of an interim (the van at least should already have been addressed!), and it would still leave me wondering if I was walking into an 'accidental-interim' role instead of a settled ministry.

At first glance, I thought that there was a little bit of inconsistency between your observations and your plan of attack. A lot of what you observed indicates that everyone seems to be looking for a leader and then, when discussing the meeting, you seemed to want to let it flow organically. It struck me as likely that this approach may raise the group’s anxiety over what seems like a lack of leadership.

On the other hand, it could, perhaps in greater likelihood, lead to some really beneficial outcomes. First of all, it would certainly give you a good and fairly undiluted idea of group dynamics, how the church is currently functioning, what is weighing on people, etc... Secondly, it may help to debunk one of the delusional barriers of leadership discussed by Jones on p. 27: letting your congregation know that you are not indispensable. This could potentially encourage them to have a more realistic understanding of your leadership as opposed to coming into the first meeting and magically making everything perfect right off of the bat (because we’re all really impressive and totally capable of that). Your very presence in the meeting will naturally shift the dynamics, and I find it likely that the shift would be a turn towards hope and engaging in more solution-oriented thinking as a group as opposed to trying to individually take on big problems, as is indicated in the behavior of certain members.

Betsy,

Great analysis.  And great insight into the similar expectations of several of the people involved here.

I think part of your next steps will also need to involve what the Emotional Intelligence work calls "social awareness" and "relationship management."  The way the these people are acting and the communication patterns of this congregation will also need attention.  I like you idea of attending a board and starting with listening -- which will certainly help get a sense of the relational patterns of this congregation.