The Five Phases of

The Appreciative Process

North River

TEACHER/LEARNING COURSE IN FREDERICTON

The Bible from Scratch: This workshop explores how the Bible can become more 

than just “words on a page.” Conversation time explores ways to help teachers and 

leaders help the Bible come alive with children, youth and adults. (Good for parents, too.)

Who me? A Leader?:  Do you remember a time when something needed to be done—

but somehow the work just couldn’t seem to get done? Often churches engage 

the wrong type of leaders for specific tasks. This workshop helps you explore 

what kind of leader you are, where your strengths lie and how you can help your 

congregation be more aware of matching the right leaders in specific roles.

Teaching Kids to Pray:   Children as young as 2 or 3 can learn to pray. In this workshop, 

discover how children think about and experience prayer at different ages. Learn how you 

can guide children in developing a prayer life. (Good for parents, too.)

When Children "Act Out":  The word “discipline” comes from the same root 

word as “disciple.” When children or youth misbehave, how can we lovingly 

“disciple” and restore peace and harmony? (Good for parents, too.)

     A New Look at Church Leadership

January 26, 2008

Leadership 101

A four part workshop for church Elders, Managers, Church Officers, Group executive members  and other leaders.

The meaning of Leadership:  “The key function of a leader is to serve in enabling others by helping them discover, develop, and effectively use their God-given gifts.” Ephesians tells us that God has gifted all people, “Each one of us has received a special gift in proportion to what Christ has given.” (4:7),

Characteristics of a good Leader:  “Leadership is a mix of knowledge, values, skills, and behaviours. Each of us has beliefs about what characteristics an effective leader should possess.”  A leader has been gifted to serve… whatever that giftedness may consist of… and this is God’s gift to you.     (1 Corinthians 12:11)

Destructive Leadership: It can’t happen in the church, can it?  “I respect myself;  I respect others;  I expect others to respect me and each other; I will not tolerate disrespect  to anyone.”

Creating Healthy Leadership:  Let’s look at the role of leadership in today’s church. “Leadership is about helping change to happen effectively”

Titus 1:8 A leader must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.  (From: The Message) 

A good first step for

Congregational Planning, Annual meetings, groups and Societies

New elders just elected?

Elders wanting a ‘refresher’ course?

What resources are available to elders who want to take seriously their ruling role, their spiritual side, their district duties, and all the other components of being an elder in the 21st century church?

Come and explore how the church can help make the office of elder a blessing to you and to the church.

Folks from St. Andrew’s spent Friday night looking at those things that have made St. Andrew’s the congregation it is, and then looked at how to strengthen this ministry in the future.

St. Stephen folk spent Saturday exploring the possibilities offered by the Presbyterian Church in Canada including the Appreciative Inquiry process (see above), Natural Church Development and Discovering Hope.

LOWER SACKVILLE

Sunny Corner

Iona, Dartmouth

St. Andrew’s, Fredericton

St. Stephen

Spiritual Gifts

Inventory

King’s,

New Minas

                                       THE HUMAN MIND PLANS THE WAY…

                          BUT THE LORD DIRECTS THE STEPS!

                                                                    Proverbs 16:9

Planning is a natural part of the life of any church, from the minister planning the services weeks and months into the future to the Managers planning and then proposing the budget for the next year.

But what kind of a church do you want to be next year, or five years from now?

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”   (Proverbs 29:18)

The prophet invited us to ‘dream dreams and see visions’ (Joel 2) and such dreaming and visioning and planning are simply part of our God-given response to the gospel.

There are many ‘tools’ to help groups (elders/managers/societies) and entire congregations to reach out and embrace the future God is calling them to. Within the Presbyterian Church in Canada, we have excellent resources for such planning – many of which are found and explained in ‘For Elders’ and some of which have become National Programs such as: Appreciative Inquiry, Discovering Hope, Natural Church Development. Traditional Strategic Planning helps congregations focus on their vision, mission and values – all of which help to determine what kind of a future God’s People wish to pursue under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

All of these approaches to planning are explained on the Synod Staff website under the links ‘Programming in Synod’ and ‘workshops’ found at  http://www.sos.pccatlantic.ca/index.htm  and most events of this nature are tailor-made to the specific congregation since all of us express and live out the gospel in the most appropriate way for our context.

And in all such planning we are, of course, simply seeking to be faithful to the God who already knows what is before us!

 “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NRSV)

...and what might you and your Congregation consider doing in 2010?

1: Define: Awareness of the need for development.
Preparing for an appreciative process.
Committing to the Positive

SYNOD OF

THE

ATLANTIC PROVINCES