Toward Covenant
Articles
Leading in a New Space: Part 1
These long, disruptive months have been more than a hiatus, a hard-pandemic space that will soon rectify itself. Many in the churches sense that we’re facing something more challenging than managing congregations through a pandemic. We’re awakening to the reality that our world is changing in unprecedented ways and we are woefully unprepared for what lies at our doorsteps. These threats to our ways of life mean huge changes to how we live but we don’t know how to go about such transformations.
Leading in a New Space: Part 2
We’re in a moment of institutional and structural unraveling. We want to lay out proposals for addressing what we might do. But, first, we have to be clear about what’s at stake in this call for a refounding of congregational life and its leadership. As we looked for ways to describe the scope of these transformations, the reflections of farmer James Rebanks, in his book Pastoral Song, continue to offer a helpful perspective.
What Kind of Leadership do we Need Going Forward?
In this short video Alan begins by pointing us towards the questions our pandemic-disrupted congregations are asking. He discerns in these questions three themes: identity, community and the ways we make decisions together. As leaders we’ll want to help congregations address these questions. Our default, as leaders, will be to find the solutions. Alan suggests another way of leading...
Proper Confidence: Being God’s people in a New Era
This is an anxious time across the churches when they must find a ‘proper confidence’ to guide their responses. This confidence, rather than in an immediate search for ecclesial survival, lies in our engagement with the mission of God. How will we reweave a future rooted in the mission of Jesus? What is our ‘proper confidence’ based in as we plan and act in this massive unravelling of church and society?
