Having a breakthrough

Having a breakthrough rather than a breakdown seems much healthier to me, especially this last week in which I have been ill most of the time. Between bouts by chance  I came across a model about having a breakthrough, written by Chris Johnstone in ‘Find your power a toolkit for resilience and positive change.’

It is a five step process but for me the first step was the most powerful

It has three elements

1 Write down your thoughts about ‘What is the problem?’ – write as much as you can about the problem

2 Write down ‘Why is this a problem?’ – write down a much as you can about the reasons why it is a problem. I find this the most insightful part of the whole process. Asking why brings greater insight.

3  Reframe the problem in a few sentences beginning ‘The problem is……’ This distils the thinking from the two elements above.

The remaining steps of the model involve listing as many solutions  as you can think of, even ones which may seem impracticable, then going through the list to cross off what is unacceptable to you, then picking out a small number of cherries-  acceptable possible solutions and working out the pros and cons of each. The final step is to  work out a 7 day action plan , write it down and tell someone about it.

We have just applied it in a School of Formation meeting to a problem I have had for years, not saying here what is was, but the model has certainly helped me find a way forward on something seemingly that I had thought I just had to live with. So there has been a breakthrough this morning.

Breakthrough collaboratives achieving tangible improvements

I have been thinking about how to bring about significant improvement in churches. Operating strategically, through the School of Formation, and being impatient for progress by nature I want to help make a difference rapidly to the practice of ministry, especially in austerity when the need for churches to serve their communities is even greater.

I thought about providing training to encourage and enable local ministry teams and certainly have not ruled this out. However training teams to lead and enable others to improve ministry feels a touch top down, remote, and slow. What is needed is a rapid  improvement model at least I think it is.

The collaborative breakthrough model is well-known in bringing about rapid improvements in health care.  I’m thinking about trying to apply it to help improve how churches in Somerset support their communities as they face the consequences of the economic austerity measures being applied by the government.

If anyone has experience of using the breakthrough approach in church settings or of using it in health care and has lessons to share please get in touch.

The King’s speech

Having watched the film awards ceremony on Sunday I had a real treat on Monday evening going to see this outstanding film.

What struck me about the film was the bravery of the King to meet the needs of the people in  a time of national crisis.  His bravery was supported by both the friendship of another and his own willingness to accept the friendship and the friend’s gifts. Accepting friendship and gifts is not always easy but can lead to great changes, personally and for communities

Having fun with figures

I’ve been working this week on a directed learning pack for new Church Treasurers. The aim is to help with the preparation of the annual accounts needed for PCC meetings and APCMs.  The case study is set in January and you are the new Treasurer inheriting some papers and a set of activities and costs. The task is to produce a receipts and payments account and a statement of assets and liabilities for the year just ended.

Working through the exercise, testing it out with others, making sure the question is framed in such a way that those completing it can work out the answer and get the figures in the right place, is what I have been doing.

Hardly ever has life been such fun! Seriously there is something delightful when the figures balance!

What do you say?

Skype conversations across the globe really do make it feel as though families are not so scattered until you get bad news.

Last night a close cousin, more like a brother, really in New Zealand said his cancer is now terminal and he’s unlikely to make Christmas.

We’ve know he has been ill for some years and had hoped he was beating the odds. Being 12ooo miles away, linked only electronically it leaves you feeling even more helpless and surprisingly cross, unable to reach out and find words when none would in fact help.

Being ourselves given to the community

In a workshop last Saturday, we had been also been looking at the experience in Exile and the challenges of living in a strange land.

I asked groups from rural churches to think about their hopes for the future. Recalling the returning exiles  were disappointed I asked them to be as realistic as possible.

One group said they were not going to compromise their faith in a largely secular land, rather they were going to both make a noise that God is still here in rural villages and to give themselves even more fully to serving others in the life of the rural community.

Making a noise in a strange land and giving yourselves to others spoke to me about people who feel confidently taken hold of  by God, blessed by God, and both opened outwards, as the bread that is broken and given in communion to those alongside whom they live.

Ever found you write something for a course and discover it applies to you?

If only I could let you in.

                     I  want to trust you Jesus with my whole life

 

                       And yet I hold back and keep you at arm’s length.

 

I long for the intimacy of a closeness with God, the Father

 

 I long to feel the grace that transforms all of me

 

and yet I recoil at the prospect

 

Dying to self and allowing you, God the Son, into every part of me feels so hard

 

     If only I could become more like you Jesus, more like a child of God

 

God the Holy Spirit please breathe on me and help me become a new creation.

 

           Release within me the qualities of Christ, move love, more generosity, more patience, more kindness, more faithfulness and more courage.

 

         Help me to grow spiritually, encourage me to pray, to read, to worship and to deepen my faith. Lord strengthen my resolve.

 

Take me to unfamiliar situations and have me do what you would want me to. Lord give me courage to risk rejection.

 

I’m here Lord, make me wholly yours

                                                        Jesus please come in

 

 

 

 

Rural churches 5+ multi-benefices : Love your priest

I have been listening over the last several months to clergy each having 5 or more parishes. Among the topics discussed have been

 - Being the absent spiritual leader

- Developing a scattered lay ministry team

- Coping with a dearth of people willing to serve in church leadership

- Keeping ones own spiritual gifts alive

- Handling rejection

The role of priest with 5 or more parishes is very different  from a single Church or even a benefice of three Churches. Priests are more thinly spread and so their ministry has to be one involving more oversight and enabling the Church to be the Church.

As one said to me recently I just cannot be in six places at once and feel guilty when I fail to do the impossible.  Another spoke of being heavily criticised for not being perfect.

Priests in these challenging ministries  seem to me to be in need of the recognition and indeed in need of love from their congregations. Do we as lay people and as congregations show our appreciation sufficiently often to those who have given their whole lives to be our priests?

Churches in relationship

I’m working with one parish at the moment which is very strong on being a distinctive Church rooted in the village. Sounds great and yet the Church seems less clear on what it means in practice to be a Church in relationship with those other Churches in the benefice.

This led me to think about the kinds of relationship we may have in everyday life and whether there may be something to learn from the range of such relationships about being both a village Church and a Church in a benefice.

The range that came to mind is

- We have no idea about each other as we are strangers

- We cannot remember each other’s names though we think we have met before

- We pass the time of day when we meet by chance

- We exchange small talk at organised social occasions

- We know we could call on each other for help though rarely do so and then only in small ways

- We collaborate on something mutually beneficial or in the service of others

- We meet deliberately to share something about our lives, to listen to each other and to be together for the sake of being together

- We have a closeness giving liberally one to the other, sometimes sharing adversity and sometimes joy

I’m sure this range could be challenged and strengthened. It would be interesting to discuss it with a parish and to consider where it would place itself now and in the future.

Church development planning

Over the last few months I have run seven seminars on church development planning for teams of three people from parishes/benefices with the aim enabling them to lead a local planning process. Over 100 people from some 75 parishes came. The event have been well received and plans are starting to be developed.

The church development planning processes involves looking at the journey of faith in the parish so far, looking at the communities served by the Church, looking at how God has gifted the Church, creating a vision of the journey ahead and deciding the immediate steps on that journey.

Feedback from one parish has been

‘We held a successful on Saturday, but found that we needed a few hours more to complete the full agenda.  We’ve produced a wonderful village map and decades frieze (soon to go up in the Church), and also did some  community profiling.  However we ran out of time at that stage, prior to compiling of the tasks and their assignments.  But we fully intend to have the second session soon.’

Besides producing a plan the process also grows relationships amongst the Church and its understanding of those around it.