1. leading in the midst of …
Change
Terri Martinson Elton

2. 5 views of change Personal Descriptive Historical Systematic Strategic

3. Where does the past say?
Widening the horizon

4. Christians have a Story …a peculiar story.

5. It’s time to claim a peculiar God-story…
using a missonal imagination…
to cultivate a consequential faith.
Kenda Creasy Dean

6. Kenda Creasy Dean
“what’s missing (today) … is any sense of identity that has to do with the Christian story. Somehow we’ve shrink-wrapped what Christian identity is; we tend to think about it in terms of having this cluster of beliefs. ... The missional imagination implies that this is a way of being in the world, this is a way you relate to other people, this is a relational way of defining ourselves and yes, there are beliefs that are a part of that, but they take a back seat to the relational call of the Gospel.

7. I’m persuaded that you have to tell your story
I’m persuaded that you have to tell your story... Telling your story is a little different than adhering to a certain set of doctrines. Part of why I’m persuaded that telling the story is a good idea, is that because it’s been largely homogenized into the gospel of niceness.

8. And that’s…understandable … there is a seed of that you can trace back to the Gospel … but it’s been drained of all the passion … and by passion I mean loving something enough to suffer for it.
That’s the way God love us, and that’s how God calls us to love others and to love God in return.
That, in a nutshell, is what the Christian story is about…. sharing your faith is not about sharing what you know, it’s sharing what — and who — you love that is compelling.

9. What if leading in the midst of change is about placing ourselves in the midst of God’s story?

10. Maybe it’s time to change the conversation!
Anthony Robinson

11. “Changing the culture of organizations, groups, and institutions – and even societies – is about changing the conversation...”

12. “…Those leading change use new language (or rediscover older language), introduce different topics, formulate new agendas, and offer alternative ways of framing issues and situations.”

13. “…One might understand the Christian faith itself as, in important ways, an ongoing effort at changing the conversation and thus changing the way we understand our lives and the way we live in the world.”

14. “…In the sacrament of baptism we name and rename a child or an adult as ‘a child of God, a disciple of Christ, and a member of the church.’ During Lent and Easter we reframe loss and defeat as God’s strange way of victory and hope.”

15. “…When we are asked to offer our gifts to God in the practice of offering, we are invited to set aside the dominant language of consumerism and scarcity and discover ourselves within a complex narrative of receiving, giving, and abundance.”

16. “… Each Sunday during worship people rename and reframe themselves as they confess their sins, listen as forgiveness is announced, and hear a word from the Lord proclaimed.”

17. “…Churches are ongoing attempts to change the conversation, whether they are our internal or personal conversations or the dominant and conventional ways that matters are construed in North American society.”
Robinson, Changing the Conversation, 1

18. Two conceptual frameworks
Set theory –
Open-set congregations
Bounded-set congregations
Center-set congregations
Third-way thinking –
Church-as-clinic
Church-as-court
Church-as-Community of Human transformation

19. Where do normative text say?

20. Some things are constant… God wants to be in relationship with God’s people and the world. Some things do change… God and God’s creation are living entities in relationship. Christian Community is dynamic. Leaders of communities of faith live in a tension.

21. The role of leadership is to bring God’s people back into the biblical story – the living word of God.
The biblical story centers a community of faith, giving it its identity, and holds a community, giving it space to wrestle with what it means to be God’s people in the here and now.

22. How will the Christian story inform your community’s view of God and change?
What particular aspects of that story speak into your community’s reality right now?

23. The Bible and Change
What does the overarching Christian story say about change?
Old Testament
Creation - Genesis 1
10 Commandments - Exodus 20
Entering the Promised Land – Deuteronomy 31:1-8 and 34 and Joshua 1
Ruth
Psalms – 8, 23, 51, 121, 139, 150
New Testament
God comes to earth – John 1, Luke 2
New Covenant – Matthew 26:17-30
Pentecost – Acts 2
Early Church – Acts/Letters
New heaven and new earth - Revelation 21:1-4

24. The Bible and Change
What about particular moments in the Christian story…
Wandering in the Wilderness
Exile
Holy Week
Pentecost
Early Church
Choose a time of change in your life and connect it to some particular moment in the overall Christian Story.

25. The Bible and Change
What about particular passages – change through one particular moment…
John 4 – woman at the well
Luke 15:11-32 – Prodigal Son
Luke 2:1-20 – birth of Jesus
Matthew 28:1-10 – resurrection of Jesus
Acts 2:1-13 – Pentecost
Choose one of these particular passages and reflect on what it says about change.

26. Historical Dimension
In leading in the midst of change, how might placing your community’s story within the larger Christian story impact your community? What habits or practices would help your congregation attend to this dimension? How could Scripture center your community in the midst of change?
How could learning the history of your own faith community impact how the community understood their call? How could learning about the history of your denomination help a community understand themselves more deeply?