It’s no secret that congregations experience times of increased anxiety. Those periods of acute anxiety can be triggered by any number of events, conditions, or situations. Here are the 15 most common triggers to anxiety in a congregation (in no…
June 3, 2019—Cleaning out some files I came across a listing of businesses for which I had done consultations some years ago. The list was from the early nineties when I was doing more consultations with businesses and corporations than…
May 6, 2019—An Episcopal priest played golf regularly with the local Baptist minister and two of his members. The priest kept inviting the Baptists to visit one of his services until they were embarrassed at not having gone. So they…
Congregational ministry associates are second chair leaders. They are the lieutenants of the congregation who “get things done.” For those called to this ministry, it can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience (“I can’t believe they pay me to do…
I have had many restless nights and feel the Lord is nudging me to tell my side of what actually happened to my husband and me.
Many people have been hurt by the termination of my husband from the church…
October 16, 2017—The organizational guru Edgar H. Schein pointed out that culture in organizations tends to not be directly visible because it is something that the members take for granted and which exists as part of the underlying and unconscious…
By Israel Galindo, Associate Dean for Lifelong Learning and Director of Online Education.
September 25, 2017—One of the first dollars I made on a job was knocking through a wall in a New York City brownstone. I used a…
By Israel Galindo, Associate Dean for Lifelong Learning and Director of Online Education.
September 4, 2017—The formation of the congregation as an expression of Church happened before the close of the New Testament era in the first century. Jesus’…
August 31, 2017—Sitting down to dinner with a group of friends with intellectual disabilities, I asked if they’d help me with this blog post on how churches can be more intentional about welcoming and fully involving people with intellectual disabilities….
June 26, 2017—I had an interesting conversation with a local church minister who expressed frustration about his congregation’s failure to live fully into its potential. That’s not an uncommon frustration for pastors and local church leaders. But I have found…
June 12, 2017—For those pastoral leaders who want to keep and develop quality ministry staff colleagues, here are the ten most common ways pastors ruin church staff—and how to avoid them. (For those pastors who want to get rid of…
May 29, 2017—Assessment and evaluation are critical practices for any organization. Yet, many congregations do a poor job of assessing and evaluating the multiple and often complex facets of congregational vitality. There are several reasons for this: a lack of…
Sabotage is a predictable reactive phenomenon to the threat of change. Anytime leaders work toward change, of whatever kind, they can expect reactivity. As such, we should always expect it. The form it takes, however, is often surprising.
Defecting in place isn’t about behaving in a passive/aggressive manner to get the point of your unhappiness across. It is about being clear about who you are, what your goals are, stating your purpose, and staying on course in living out that purpose, no matter what the sabotage or resistance that comes your way.
I offer three reasons why I believe the multi-generational transmission process (coupled with the notion of the emotional field) is the most important piece of Bowen Theory.
