Leading Adaptively Starts September 22! September is here, and our Fall Cohorts are starting! EDGE’s Zoë Chaytors recently spoke with Clara King, who is offering her Leading Adaptively course for us this fall. Leading Adaptively consists of three, 2-hour Zoom sessions, each with a different theme. The class meets every two weeks to give participants ample time to do assigned homework and reflect on how they’ve learned fits into their context.
Clara’s passion to be involved in adaptive leadership comes from her experience as an Anglican priest. She observes that the Church is full of people committed to social and environmental justice, with ideas that will bring about real change. These ideas are hard to enact, though, because churches also tend to be full of people whose behaviour creates obstacles to making even small decisions about church life, let alone large decisions about ministry, outreach, and community projects. Clara tells a story about a progressive community of faith that, despite its strong leadership, “melted down” over a decision of what colour to paint the sanctuary. The congregation required a reconciliation process to repair the damage that the conflict caused and lost a year that it could have spent on more community-oriented projects because of conflict over a decision about paint colour.
Clara uses the principles of Leading Adaptively to help participants:- Ethically respond to small issues and help resolve them more quickly, letting communities of faith move on to bigger issues.
- Unlock creativity and leadership abilities that they already possess.
- Develop strategies to use themselves more authentically in any situation to create change.
Clergy, laypeople, and volunteers across denominations in Canada and the United States have benefited from participating in the course and interacting with others with similar experiences to theirs. Organizations also participate to learn more about the best ways to deal with the level of granular, everyday-level decisions at which it’s easy to get stuck, preventing them from doing more impactful work.
Clara stresses that everyone is welcome to come and learn about her “adaptive approach to changing the emotional dynamics of any community or organization,” regardless of their role in it.
The next Leading Adaptively cohort starts on September 22. To learn more and to register, please visit EDGE’s Course Page on ChurchX. If people can't afford the course fee, they should email Sarah Levis. Check out our other course offerings while you’re there! And watch Clara’s full EDGEy Conversation with Zoë on the EDGE YouTube Channel. [Image credit: Stocksnap on Pixabay] |
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“Don’t Stop Before the Miracle Happens” – Retirement Reflections from Rob Dalgleish  Rob Dalgleish, Executive Director of EDGE for 12 years and Ordained Minister with The United Church of Canada for 33 years, submitted this piece for Embracing the Spirit on August 24, 2022.
Tomorrow, I retire from active ministry. Thirty-three years working as an Ordained Minister (a second career), and these last 12 years as the founding Director of Edge. Innovation, perhaps especially in the church, is not easy work. I joke that I have often prayed to get out alive. Its looking good at this point!
For me, the exploration is the fun part, but finding new ground brings with it the need to share the discoveries and their implications with others. That’s where things can get tricky. Much is changing and passing away, creating fear and anxiety which can be expressed in ways that are difficult for the innovators–as well as everyone else! You may begin to feel unseen, unwanted, unrealistic, irresponsible, untrustworthy, or simply crazy. My favourite saying to innovators experimenting with new things in the church is, “You’re not crazy.” I have seen those three words bring tears to the eyes of many a hardened change-maker.
From the end of the path, the journey looks different. The struggles shrink and the sense of joy and gratitude rises. The incredible hopefulness of the discoveries becomes clear, and the anxiety and challenge of internal structural change becomes a sense of inevitable transition, resting in the faithful arms of God. The doubt gives way to the confidence faith.
That is not to say every innovation shows “the” new way. More often it shows how not to do it! It is the process of innovation itself that is the path towards vital, sustainable, world changing ministry. In fact, repeated failure has become one of the hallmarks for me of successful innovation. We cannot become good at something new without the willingness to be awful at it, to fail repeatedly, and yet continue to practice! A friend of mine tells me he went to high school with Neil Young. Says he was terrible. His vision for the music was far beyond his capacity to convey it. “Sin boldly!” says Luther, another reformer. Trust God and act in faith. And keep doing it!
As I experienced wonderful words of appreciation from so many at my retirement party I was overwhelmed with a sense of hope, and real pride. Not for myself. The appreciation was really for the Edge team and all of you innovators. Because of you, this is an incredible time of opportunity and growth for this United Church that I love. Everyone who gathered was, for me, a representative of hundreds, even thousands of leaders like you that Edge has worked with, signs of what God is up to in the church and world right now.
That’s why I am writing this article, to say to you, keep going! Don’t give up before the miracle happens. Things like church as faith-based social enterprise, or church as faith-based community-hub (the new Abbey), worship as something done at a social innovation challenge, or faith-informed health care, are showing a path to actually address the existential crises that we face together. All of us together. Yes, “The Lord our God is one.”
So, parting words to those responding to God’s invitation to the new church being called forth. I know you know this, but just as a reminder:- Be greedy about the joy of exploration. Grab it and hold it close to your heart. It won’t run out and you’ll probably need it.
- When you fail. Feel a pat on your back. Especially when it makes you think of what the next experiment will be.
- When people don’t understand what you’re doing (or what it has to do with church), find an early adopter to translate. Innovators need translators to be understood by most people.
- When you feel the anger, anxiety, mistrust, or judgement of others who don’t understand what you are trying to do, know that your innovation is powerful. So, find compassion, pray for those impacted, acknowledge the struggle, but don’t give up on what you are seeing.
- When you don’t have the resources to do what is needed, find the partner that does. Learn to excel at collaboration! We are not alone.
- Get together with other innovators as often as you can and build them up. Share your struggles prayers and especially your discoveries, they are sacred. Edge will help.
- Look for unexpected co-conspirators. The more different or unexpected the better. We have imagined divisions Business vs. church, progressive vs. evangelical, Sacred vs. secular (is anything mundane to God?), these are all blasphemes. God is one.
- Act your way into new thinking. It can’t be done the other way around.
- Take these courses in the next year: Edge’s Innovation and Leading Adaptively cohorts. Then get as many others to take them in your community as you can.
- If you want to start a change reaction, host a community leaders round table or social innovation challenge. Need help, talk to Edge.
- Pray and pray and pray and meditate and worship and pray with others who share your path.
- Trust and keep going. The world needs you. The church needs you. The people your ministries touch need you. YOU need you! Trust, get what you need and keep going. It is so worth it in the end.
Blessings and thank you,
Rob Dalgleish
Thank you, Rob, for your ministry and your service! Enjoy the next steps in your journey.[Image credit: Courtesy of EDGE/Rob Dalgleish] |
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Embracing the Spirit is a learning network and innovation fund. It offers funding and support for innovation ideas hatched out of faith communities and communities in ministry. Some of the stories and best practices that are happening throughout The United Church of Canada are shared in this newsletter. If you have an idea that you want to launch, reach out and tell us about it! Proposal deadlines are quarterly, and due on the 15th of the month: January, April, July and October. Find out more. |
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