Shiny Ojects Make Good Targets
Resources for Endowed Parishes - Take Two!
Capital Campaigns: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Affinity 5: The Challenges of Downtown Churches
Affinity 4: Small Groups in Big Churches
Cultivating Vibrant Institutions
According to Dr. Jason Byassee, Senior Pastor of Boone United Methodist Church, Boone, NC (and fellow in theology and leadership at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School) and the Rev. Nathan Kirkpatrick, managing director of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School:
"In the last few decades in American society, it has been fashionable to be publically anti-institutional. As public trust and confidence in institutions has waned, many of the loudest voices have urged the deconstruction of institutional life and spoken hopefully of a day with no institutions whatsoever. Yet, as Christians, we know that God has no blessing for us that is not in some way institutionally-mediated and that it is through institutions that God is bringing shalom to a hurting world. Given this, the quality of life of our institutions matters greatly."
Join Byassee and Kirkpatrick in Charlotte for an immersion experience as together, you will explore the current landscape of Christian institutional life and how institutions are holding on to their God-given missions in the midst of a culture that critiques and questions their existence. Participants will consider how we might sustain existing institutions and build new ones that are vibrant in their inner life and their public work. Finally, we will ask what kind of leaders are needed for these institutions and consider what resources they will need into the future.
These three sessions are intended to be taken as a whole course, for one or more persons from the same Church. Total time in the track with leaders is 6 hours. Participants will leave these sessions with:
- A clearer understanding of the opportunities and threats facing Christian institutions today
- An overview of the kind of imaginative, improvisational and courageous leadership that institutions need to challenge these threats
- Strategies for interrupting present institutional activities that are either not working or not working optimally as well as strategies for implementing new institutional practices
- Frameworks for considering what is working and what isn’t working within their institutional life
- An appreciation for the gifts and capacities of each person to be a leader at various levels within their institution
- Resources for ongoing personal and institutional development.
Participants must sign up for all three sessions during the conference:
A5 - Friday, 10:15-11:45 AM (1.5 hours)
A Sense of the Whole: The Present Landscape for Christian Institutions
B5 – Friday Field Work, 1:30-4:30 PM (3.0 hours)
The Institutional Imagination: What Might Yet Be
C5 – Saturday, 8:15-9:45 AM (1.5 hours)
The Character and Courage Needed: Leading into God’s Future
Austin, TX 78701
