| Bremer,
Congregations, the Saga Continues! Click here to return to the Church Innovations web site. You know how much I love stories. You know I just spent time writing four of them and am now seeking a publisher. But here’s a story that’s already going into a sequel. Back in the 90s a much younger pair of Pats began learning from congregations how they fought and why they avoided it. Almost no matter the issue: money, personnel, large-scale social concern, congregations we knew would avoid fighting. Avoid it until they had to deal with the issue or close up shop. We put together a not-rocket-science approach to congregational fighting that took seriously the issue at hand and the people in the group but also God’s presence in the conflict. And, together with the help of the Otto Bremer Foundation and a plucky group of 14 congregations in the Southwest Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Church in America (ELCA), fronted by their then Bishop’s assistant Barbara Knutson, we built a set of materials called Growing Healthier Congregations. That very material, tested by those brave folks, has gone on to help congregations all over the country (and the larger synods and dioceses that support them) as they encounter some of the tough questions that face our church bodies. Believe me, the work we started then is still bearing fruit all over the Church in North America. But now – and here’s the incredible thing – Church Innovations is a leader in the Missional Church movement, the movement in which churches look outside their walls and doors to see what gifts they have been given in service of the neighbor. And would you believe it? Communities are becoming polarized over certain issues, and just at the moment when congregations have habits and practices in place to deal with conflict! Unbelievable. And now – here’s an even more incredible thing – Church Innovations has proposed, and the Otto Bremer Foundation has agreed to fund, a three-year project in which eight congregations learn and/or renew their skills and habits for dealing with tough issues using an even more robust Growing Healthier Congregations process. And several congregations in the Southwest Minnesota Synod will be our partners in extending these habits into their communities, to become the place in town where it’s safe to deal with tough issues and it’s a spiritual exercise to cross boundaries for the sake of bettering the neighbor’s life. It’s a reunion, a sequel, a long-awaited Part 2. To take but one example, Pastor Dee Pederson in St. Cloud has been considering how Bethlehem Lutheran might respond to recent hate crimes on the campus of the state university there. She took our proposal to her executive committee, hoping they wouldn’t reject it, and write back to me “Dear Pat - Our Executive Committee’s response: ‘Why would we not do this?!’ So please include us.” How wonderful it is to have partners like Otto Bremer Foundation and congregations that are working on connecting with immigrants from the Sudan, Micronesia, and Mexico, who want to cross racial and cultural boundaries to be in relationship with their new neighbors. We pray that our work on this three year project will renew their skills, help them grow in relationships, and keep excellent records of what they do and how they are learning in the process, so that together we can share what we learn with the rest of the world. Let’s hear it for sequels! Pat Taylor Ellison, Ph.D., is the managing director of research for Church Innovations. |
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