If your church is navigating conflict or what feels like a church split, we’re here to support you with our new, FREE resource called, “Your church split. Where do you go from here?”

This resource is for your church if:

• You've lost a subset of worshippers due to conflict,
• You're experiencing a difficult leadership transition,
• You’re dealing with challenging relational dynamics among members,
• You're wrestling with questions of identity and mission, 
• Or you're simply unsure of who your church will be now or what to do next.

This tool will guide you through a series of crucial questions for this season of your ministry. Then we've shared tangible next steps you can take as a body to discern who God is calling you to be in this next season. 

Download this FREE resource

Rev. Nicole Havelka, a certified yoga instructor, offers consulting, training, and team-building services.

CONVERGENCE offers numerous leadership and community development webinars on-demand or in a cohort:

1.5 Day Teach-In with Diana Butler Bass

 

 

 

 

Being Grateful in Difficult Times: An Online Learning Journey with Diana Butler Bass

 

 

 

Transforming Church Conflict

 

 

 

 

 

Courageous Church Summit: Reimagining Our Common Ground for the Collective Good

 

 

 

How to Use Your Church Campus As a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization

 

 

 

 

White Privilege Let's Talk: A Resource for Transformational Dialogue

 

 

 

 

What Will Happen to Our Churches? A Conversation with National Faith Leaders

 

 

Courageous Faith Summit - a virtual gathering of people of faith and moral conscience

 

 

 

Your Congregation As a School of Love (with Brian McLaron)

 

 

 

 

Curating Change in Your Church (with Brian McLaren)

The Faith+Lead Learning Lab is a place to listen, learn, innovate, and grow. Join other spiritual leaders in grappling with real-world challenges and discoveries of ministry in the 21st Century.

Right Questions For Church Leaders, Volumes 1-4

Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Thriving Beyond COVID is a scripture-based small and large group study that will encourage, inspire, and challenge members and get them in a positive frame of mind for your post-COVID journey. Challenges can be managed with faith and a plan. This two-minute video is an introduction. A leader guide, small and large group participant guides, as well as videos are available for free download here.

BREAKING, BLESSING, BUILDING

A Call For The Common Good

The NEXT Church National Gathering explored necessary breaking, gracious blessing, and essential building.

Learn about the Leaders.

Create a Subscription.

Access Recordings.

 

A special edition of Leading Ideas focused on a particular subject of critical interest to church leaders. From the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.

• Leading Topics — Issue 9: Leading Change More Effectively
  • True leadership is never about maintaining the status quo. It is always about finding ways to move closer to God’s preferred future. And yet churches are notoriously change averse. Over its twenty-year history, the Lewis Center has placed a significant priority on helping church leaders navigate change more effectively. In this ninth Special 20th Anniversary Edition of Leading Ideas we re-present some of the many articles in our archives that address the elements of effective change.

• Genuine Change Involves Continuity
  • ​​​​​​​Doug Powe and Lovett Weems of the Lewis Center staff say that successful and lasting change is likely to come through evolution rather than revolution. Therefore, successful change leaders are both innovators and sustainers who give adequate attention to the traditions, people, programs, and assets that make innovation possible. Read more now.

• The Risk of Trying to Please Everyone

  • Mike Bonem says a process of meaningful change can be slowed, interrupted, or completely stopped if a leader insists on trying to please everyone. What is critical is building enough genuine support so that the effort can move forward. Read more now.

• 5 Ways to Overcome Common Obstacles to Change
  • Leading change is challenging. It requires that leaders surmount a barrage in internal and external obstacles. Daniel Cash and William Griffith outline strategies for getting beyond some of the common hurdles that can block needed change. Read more now.

• 4 Ways to Nurture a Church Culture More Open to Change
  • Ministry innovations are more likely to take root in a congregational culture that is receptive to change. Meghan Hatcher who works with the Innovation Lab at the Center for Youth Ministry Training outlines ways congregations can tend their cultural soil so that seeds of change are more likely to flourish. Read more now.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• Use Trial Periods for New Ideas
  • Lovett H. Weems Jr. says using a trial period to launch new ideas is a non-threatening approach. Trial periods also encourage feedback and engagement in decision making. Read more now.

 

findingourwaypodcast.com

This isn't a podcast about answers. It is an exploration into ourselves, and the skills we need to create and embody the world we want.

The Soul of Transformation: Exploring Vocations in Social Justice is a podcast and resource for future leaders who not only see and name the realities of injustice in the world but can start imagining new and better solutions. This is for change agents, people who want to work towards achieving authentic racial justice, mitigating the dire impacts of climate change, facing the challenges of immigrants and refugees, and ensuring equality for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. Learn more. Contact Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis and Rev. Dr. Gary F. Green II for more info.

Sunday Musings

On True Freedom 

Diana Butler Bass

Rev. Dr. Cameron Trimble recommends meeting conflict, roadblocks, and division with a balancing martial art in A Black Belt in Aikido.

A Gentler, Better Way to Change Minds

Stop wielding your values as a weapon and start offering them as a gift.

By Arthur C. Brooks in The Atlantic

Study guide: Facing divisive issues in the Beloved Community

Our local conversations can help heal a fractured society

By Robert C. Blezard / February 24, 2022

“Centering Marginalized Voices to Lead Change” featuring Tyler Sit — Episode 95

What practices can help church leaders learn from failures and address conflict in ways that lead to fruitful ministry? We speak with Tyler Sit about centering marginalized voices, meeting the needs of the community, managing conflict, and other leadership lessons he has learned as a church planter. 

How Do You Know When It's Time to Go?

by Cindy Halvorson with Susan Miller

Part 1: Internal Factors

Part 2: External Factors

Jessica Guleth wonders, "What does it look like for the voices of our youth to be invited in, heard and included in the ways we do for adults? What needs adjusting in our minds and hearts to see and hear them as members?" in The Future of the Church Is Young.

Eileen Campbell-Reed explains the importance of Cultivating Good Questions

Now Is the Time for Risk-taking Leadership by Bill Wilson

During the pandemic, many leaders were concerned primarily with avoiding risk. Bill Wilson says we are now entering a time in the life of the American church that cries out for creative risk taking that puts aside personal preferences for the sake of the gospel.

The Role of Religion in Healing the National Divide

by Dr. Rick Herrick on May 25, 2021

Springtide Research Institute is a wealth of research-based information for boundaries and best practices for youth and young adult ministries. The New Normal: 8 Ways to Care for Gen Z in a Post-Pandemic World is but one example.

Let people know who you are, engage in civic discourse, and identify as networked within your community: get inspired by leaders from Alexandria, MN here.

Brian McLaren's, The Five Electorates in 2020 is essential reading for understanding the "other"; see also Recognizing Our Biases.