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The Appreciative Way
Enabling Innovation at the Speed of Life          

Appreciative Way
Clergy Search Manual

Assessing Skills and Discerning Calls

Contents:

  • Theological Perspective of the Search Process
  • Overview of Appreciative Inquiry
  • Designing a Transitional Ministry to Support the Search.
  • Conducting a Congregational
    Appreciative Inquiry Summit
  • Developing Job Requirements
  • Evaluating Supplemental Written Questions
  • Evaluating a Structured Interview
  • Checking References and Past Performance
  • Assessing Work Samples Such as Preaching and Celebrating
  • Discernment; Vestry Interviewing and Simulated Vestry Retreat Exercises

Features:

  • Readily Adaptable to Specific Parish Needs
  • Copyright Licenses Available for Congregational Use
  • Augments Adjudicatory and National Church Procedures

Introducing Yes!3

The Appreciative Way

Yes!3 is designed to help you
grow an appreciative culture
within your congregation by
helping parishioners create
a purpose centered life
in which they can say:

  Yes! To God
  Yes! To Their Neighbor
  Yes! To Them Self

>>  Read More

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Coaching for Congregational Development

Coaching for
Congregational
Development

Does your Congregation Need to?

  • Create a Vision and Sense of Purpose?
  • Develop a Strategic Plan
  • Search for a New Priest or Pastor
  • Create a Plan and Actions Steps for Continuous Improvement
       Email Rob Voyle For a Free Initial Consultation 

Congregational Development

We provide congregational coaching for a variety of congregational and organizational development needs such as:

We also provide consulting services to adjudicatory groups as they develop region or conference wide ministries.

>>  See our Appreciative Inquiry based performance review process.
 

>>  See Assessing Skills and Discerning Calls for clergy search resources.

Helping You Help Yourself and One Another

Why hire a consultant when you can do it yourself?

One of the great joys of running our training programs is to empower church leaders to provide development facilitation for one another. Many Church Board retreats can be conducted by the leader or a peer rather than relying on "expert" outside facilitation.

Participants in our Appreciative Inquiry Based Training Programs are provided resources to lead strategic visioning processes. Dr. Rob Voyle or an Associate is available by telephone to provide just-in-time coaching as the process is designed and implemented.

If you have questions about what would work best for you send Rob an email and request a free consultation to explore what strategy would be of benefit to you.

>>  Email Rob Voyle for a Free Consultation

Congregational Coaching

Our good friend and colleague Bishop Ed Leidel describes his development work with small congregations as congregational coaching which he defines as:

Congregational Coaching is finding God's synergy
in the midst of community.

Since we couldn't describe our work with congregations any better we decided to use his explanation. Ed goes on to describe his understanding of congregational coaching as an incarnational approach of entering into and joining with the congregation to discover the guidance, collegiality, and encouragement of the Holy Spirit. This contrasts the classical idea of a consultant as the expert advisor or authority who tells and directs people what to do.

Congregational Coaching Congregational Advising
Collegial Hierarchical
Relational Directional
Behind-the-scenes Up-front focus of attention
Initiative is with congregation Initiative is with the advisor
Hands-on helping process Distant micro-managing
Discovers gifts Critiques failures
Encourages Directs
Synergetic "Shifts the chairs"
Transformational Transitional
Utilizes congregational leaders' innate gifts and resources Dependent on gifts and resources of the advisor
Encourages mutual interdependence Creates cycles of dependence and isolating independence
Generates hope Generates need for supervision

Adapted from Bishop El Leidel

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Because this appreciative approach to congregational coaching is incarnational it allows each congregation to develop unique responses to their local community needs.

Rather than imposing external ideas and programs the appreciative approach allows transformational solutions to arise from within the community. As such they are owned by the community and have their own internal motivation and are more likely to be locally relevant and sustainable.

Our Congregational Coaching Services

If you have questions about what would work best for you and your congregation send Rob an email and request a free consultation to explore what strategy would be of benefit to your community.

>>  Email Rob Voyle for a Free Consultation
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