STIMULATE THE IMAGINATION

Even though our judicatories (in my case a presbytery) meet together occasionally, we often are so busy with voting on issues we don’t have an opportunity to think and dream together. I want to propose an action that the Committee on Ministry or other appropriate committee could take to stimulate the thinking of the judicatory.

Take the list of your membership for the regional body. What you are going to do is have the members of your committee make three to five calls from a random sample of those clergy–depending on the size that might be every tenth or twentieth pastor.

PREPARATION FOR CALLS

Send a letter to those clergy explaining that you want to have a call discussing their brief response to four questions. You will then compile an anonymous summary of the answers from this random sample of clergy and share it with the judicatory as a brief snapshot of clergy thinking.

Share the questions with them. Emphasize that their answers will be compiled into an anonymous summary. The purpose is to have a fun way to engage the judicatory in a conversation about our shared ministry.

FOUR QUESTIONS

1. if YOU were an absolute and all-powerful dictator and could make one change for all the churches in the judicatory, what would that change be?

2. wHAT IS ONE aspect OF OUR BEING CONNECTED TOGETHER CHURCHES IN THIS REGION THAT GIVES YOU HOPE?

3. wHAT IS A MAJOR CONCERN THAT YOU HAVE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR CHURCHES?

4. WHAT IS ONE AREA THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE AS A FOCUS OF ENERGy FOR THE JUDICATORY?

SHARING THE SUMMARY

Once all of the calls have been made, a task force of members of the committee reviews the notes taken and prepare a summary response for each question. Not all responses can be included in the summary, but this provides a brief reflection of the thinking of the clergy. Explain that the summary is from anonymous conversations conducted from a random sample of clergy.

Share it with a meeting of the judicatory or even send it to all the churches and ask for their response.

This type of random polling and sharing of a summary of the responses could be the beginning of  a judicatory dialogue around several aspects of ministry.

In the next blog, I will give you another version of the same procedure and in a future blog, I will share how you also might apply this to a congregation.

I invite you to click the button above and join the conversation.