Healthy Congregations Yearly Report

HEALTHY CONGREGATIONS YEARLY REPORT
(July 2003 – July 2004) – Luther Mauney

This year marked the second full year of Healthy Congregations activity. During this year we led 45 workshops, and conducted 5 Healthy Starts programs. To date we have worked with 1735 leaders from 85 congregations in one or more workshops. Three focus groups involving 20 pastors were held in the spring to evaluate the effectiveness of this program from the pastor’s perspective. Comments were quite positive. Suggestions for improvement primarily centered on assisting the pastors in continuing the use of this material as they provide leadership. In response we will begin to offer facilitator training for parish pastors this winter to help them work with their own congregational leadership. We will also be making this available for a layperson, who can assist the pastor in providing leadership training within the congregation.

Another response we have taken to the needs of the pastor is to offer a leadership development/coaching group to small groups of pastors. A pilot group is currently being held in the Tidewater area. A goal is to make these available in all areas of the Synod. For those who would like to reinforce the information of the Healthy Congregations workshops with their parish leadership, a book of devotional material, written by Pastors Bob Holley and Paul Walters, entitled CALLED BY GOD TO SERVE (Family System Theory Reflections for Church Leadership), is being published by Augsburg, due out in early September. Learning new material takes time, and constant reinforcement, especially when it is contrary to the early training of most of us, who were raised on the individualistic model of human behavior.

Financially, we are extremely grateful to Lutheran Family Services who has underwritten the bulk of the expenses of this program. The support and vision of LFS has been instrumental in helping make this affordable. It is also noteworthy to recognize that our own facilitators have contributed $1040 to the work of this program. That characterizes well the dedication and commitment of those who are working most intimately with this program. All of us are committed to the health of our Synod, our congregations, and our pastors and laity.