Resiliency: Bouncing Back from Change

Resiliency is still our theme in ShortStop and tonight I found a very cool web site that addresses some of the issues that will help the tranistional minister develop resilency skills....


Resiliency: Bouncing Back from Change

CoolChurches - Resources for the Missional Church

Why Use Stories?

Six Stories Pastors Need to be Able to Tell.... check it out at the link below...

Bob Anderson

CoolChurches - Resources for the Missional Church

Interim Ministry Puzzles

Transitional leaders in congregations present a variety of puzzles that put energy into our inquisitive nature. Kevin Eikenberry writes about doing puzzles and some leadership lessons he learned. Check it out at the link below.....

Bob

Unleashing Your Leadership Potential - Puzzling Your Leadership Puzzles

I needed resiliance this week. I'm not sure I had a lot to withdraw from "the bank". A church interim job interview was in the offing. I woke up not feeling well (maybe a touch of that flu that's going around). The bedroom light bulb burned out when I turned it on and that put me behind schedule. Then I discovered that the toilet was clogged and running out over the floor and down into the kitchen. The good ol' plunger only made it worse.

From bad to worse went the day. I noticed that I was "cranky." Not enough sleep. I had to drive to the Sunoco station to use the bathroom. Yuk. I was grateful that the shower worked. Arrangements for a plumber made, I walked off to the day feeling rather off center.

Days like this hit us by surprise. We are not always prepared. I was fortunate in that I had my morning prayers before all this began. At least I had some spiritual nourishment. What got me through was a lot of deep breaths and short prayers. I had to keep reminding myself to stay centered and not give in to the overwhelming cloud of doom that was ready to burst over my psyche.

My learning came in that I had a repetoire of options and possibilities - I did have a plunger in the closet (even if it didn't work). I was able to cast pride aside far enough to make it to Sunoco. I also had the presence of mind to give up "fixing" the toilet and stay focused by delegating the task to the expert plumber whose number I had the manged to keep handy. Morning prayers helped - now I need make sure I don't delay them as I sometimes do.

This sounds like the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared". I will be.

Easter Blessings,

Bob

Easterweek, 2009

Resilience and Community


Resilience in times of change and chaos is not about toughing it out, making lemonade out of lemons or living in denial about your feelings. According to the Mayo Clinic medical web site
(http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/resilience/MH00078), getting connected with others is an important part of being able to bounce back. The author says to "Get connected. Build strong, positive relationships with family and friends, who can listen to your concerns and offer support. Volunteer or get involved in your community. "A sense of connectedness can sustain you in dark times." Pastoral leaders need the support of others to survive the challenges of transition. My best support comes from those outside the church - in other denominations or church affiliations. One of my best support relationships is with someone who is not yet a follower of Jesus in a confessional sense. We all know the value of our web of connectional relationships yet few of us nurture this network intentionally. I know that I didn't until my later years. I depended on spouse and family members solely and that was not enough to provide the full spectrum of feeback, spiritual direction and sheer "holding up" what we need at times.


Developing authentic community in a congregation is not easy. Most of our congregations are the heirs to a congregational culture that has tended toward religious faith as "private." Many church leaders live on "coffee hour sound bites" as sufficient for "community". A faith community will be resiliant as a body when they are bound in trusting faith relationships.


This is different than "trauma bonding." We've all heard the stories about the church building that burned and resulting in the congregation rallying around to support a rebuilding effort.
Trauma and tragedy evoke compassion for the short run. Most of the difficult issues we face today need intentional planning for confrontation, deep communication and the enslistment of all members to move ahead in a new or challenging direction.


A simple self assessment tool is available at the Mayo Clinic site mentioned above: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/resiliance/MH00078 I tried answering the questions from a congregation's possible point of view and it didn't go very well. Give it try - note your discoveries in the feedback forms on the blog.

Holy Week Blessings (2009)

Bob Anderson

Time Out and Resilience

I admit it.. I left Pittsburgh on a cold morning last month and enjoyed a warm weekend on a South Carolina beach. Thinking. Pondering. Wondering. Celebrating.

The vast Atlantic was in front of me and though I found very few shells that day, I did find solace and respite. Praying the "Hours" is teaching me that life has a rhythm and that rhythm is experienced daily. It is this "sabbath" rhythm that calls us to rest, work, and rest again. By creating small "time outs" in my day, I am able to fill up my reservoir of health that gives me the "bounce back" resilience that life demands of pastoral leaders.

For the interim congregation, the interim time itself is a "time out." This is a time for reflection, soul searching before pastor searching, prayer and discernment. As a pastoral leader in a time of transition, creating the "time out" space can be the key to helping the people hear what God is calling them to be and to do.

Bob Anderson

Transitional Ministry Leadership - Resiliency and Self Care

In these days of chaos and economic pressues, it seems critical to think about our ability to be resiliant in the face of such pressures. Resiliance, as I use it here, refers both to our personal resiliance in the face of change pressures but also the resilience of the congregation as they confront leadership change in the midst of cultural, economic and shifts in religious/theological thinking.

In any change process the transitional leader will recognize the value of two key factors, resistance and resiliance. Resistance to change occurs much as the the elastic band in the picture above. The further it stretches, the more resistance is built up as kinetic energy. Resilience in this case refers to the ability to stretch out and return without breaking or weakening.

Pastoral transitional leaders can model resiliency for congregations by excercising good self care. When I excercise regularly, I am able to stretch and bend easily. Good self care practices in the areas of physical exercise, emotional/relational life, intellectual and spiritual is like filling a reservoir of energy resources behind a dam. When change and pressure push against the dam, some of the filled capacity is released. In very turbulent times, huge amounts of resources are pushed through the dam so that it does not break.

However, the resources must be replenished if the reservoir is to be resiliant - to return to its full capacity and role of storing energy resources. What activities restore you, build up the capacity for leadership, keep you centered? Attending to our self care will be one key way to be resiliant in the face of ministry pressures.

Bob Anderson

Join the conversation using the response area in the blog...

Being the paragon of self care that I am :) I know that I have more capacity for challenging experiences when I am rested, physically fit, nurture life giving relationships and spend time working in the areas of my gifts and passion.

Resiliancy and Transitional Ministry

Personal resiliancy is a hot commodity in today's economic environment. The ability to "bounce back" after a financial portfolio hit, ministry faux pas or relational storm is critical to leadership.

This will be the first of a conversation regarding "resiliancy" in ministry, particular the "short stops" we call intentional interim ministry. I will commit to contact our various interim ministers around the country with the blog spot site so that we can communicate thoughts about interim ministry and transitions. When we exhaust that topic, we will take up a topic that seems to be current for our practice of interim ministry.

Resiliancy is an admirable charcterisitic. Leaders who keep their calm in the midst of anxiety, think on their feet when "under fire" or make tough decisions (that are "right on") in the midst of chaos are a rare breed. Most of us are too interested in "looking good" that we forget to focus on our leadership mission.

Resiliance, in my experience, is the ability to flex to incredible lengths and then return to the original configuration. For transitional ministry leaders this is an incredibly helpful characteristic to develop. My personal skill is lacking at times but I do teach myself to stay calm, extend myself to others past my normal thresholds, connect and then return to my "original shape" - kind of like the Slinky in the picture above.

When I was in college I spend several Christmas and spring breaks working in a factory in Cambridge's (MA) Kendall Square loading clip fasteners (much like the one in the picture) into shipping boxes for GM to use in attaching trim to cars. My location was next to the heat treating department, the last stop before shipping. The heat treat foreman took a liking to me and explained the entire process. The metal clips arrived to his department perfectly formed. By all appearances, they were ready to ship. He took one of the clips, bent it out and snapped it. It didn't. The clip bent outward and stayed in that shape. He took one that had gone through the process of high temperature exposure over time and did the same thing. The steel clip stretched out and then snapped back to its original form.

Resiliance is about snapping back after stress. Like the clip. Congregations with leadership change these days are full of stress and and anxiety. The leader will get caught in that turmoil and seeking to be "less anxious than the most anxious person in the group" needs to be able to stretch out, connect, minister, lead, and then snap back to normal (well, what ever normal is for us). In the next few blogs I want to consider some ways to develop and support resiliance.

One way to increase personal resiliance is to draw on spiritual practices. I recently went through one of my most stressful and difficult situations that threatened to undo me. My spiritual practice over the past couple years has been to "pray the hours" using a breviary (www.explorefaith.org/prayer/prayer/fixed.index.php). As I attended this practice through each day, I was startled by the increase of peace and centeredness. I had been stretched to a breaking point and the practice of praying the hours snapped me back into the shape God is creating for me.

Join the conversation - share your experiences and thoughts through the feedback posts available with this blog...

Lenten Blessings,

Bob Anderson

Pittsburgh, PA

Toying With Leadership


Recently I grabbed onto a fun book, Toy Box Leadership by Roy Hunter, Jr. and Michael Waddell (http://www.amazon.com/). I immediately went for an ebay search for a Captain Midnight Decoder ring. I couldn't find a ring, but I did find a variety of other Ovaltine Captain Midnight decoder items.

I figure that a Captain Midnight Decoder Ring is an essential tool for interim ministry. With it we can dial decoder for the answer to the question, "what in the world is going on around here, anyway?" That's fun. But on the other side of Captain Midnight is the reality that the church is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be embraced. That's a quote I use so often that I no longer recall where I read it. Maybe the Apostle Paul?

In a FastCompany web site post (http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/michael-waddell/leadership-lessons/leadership-lessons-presidential-toys), Waddell wondered in writing which toy from childhood would represent the presidential candidates. He posited that a Weebles toy (remember them?) wouild represent John McCain's leadership style (maybe the fact that Weebles made their appearance during the late Viet Nam Conflict era is important?). "Weebles® teach a valuable lesson in endurance – specifically that for the successful leader staying down is not an option. John McCain has endured a multitude of trials and bounced back each time. I bought Weebles for my kids in the 70's and I still remember the ditty, "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!"

Waddell suggests that Barack Obama's leadership style is represented by Lite-Brite®. I admit that I had to go to Wikapedia to recall "LiteBrite". Hasbro introduced this toy in 1967 and it consists of little pegs that glow like an LED. When placed on a special grid one's illustration will glow "britely" (?) Lite-Brite® vividly teaches the lesson that to get your message across you have to illuminate to communicate. Obama is a master of crafting and delivering this type of bright, clear message.

Depending on your political stance, you may find another toy to represent this month's electoral choices, I'm sure. What toy would my congregation choose to represent you? What toy would you choose? Some of us are diagnosticians who love to fix churches - that might be the game, Operation. When I fall into my ill advised "super hero" moments, it is Buzz Lightyear for me.
I'm going to go the process direction rather than diagnostic and choose the Slinky. My Dad introduced me the inventor at a Christian Business Man's dinner in Collingswood, NJ. when I was about 10. He was a machinist like Dad. As he worked at his metal lathe he discovered the unique properties of the steel coils that he tooled off the ends of his project. He picked them up and found that if you pulled one end, the rest would follow - even down a slope or stair. I must have been impressed to remember all this 50 years later!

Transitional pastoral leadership is about the process of transition moving over time. Like a slinky our vision will pull the whole forward. If we to to fast, however, the rest may resist and sling forward in momumental finger snapping pain.

Take some time to "toy" with your leadership and let the world know in a response to the ShortStop Blog.

Bob Anderson
Interim Executive Presbyter
Pittsburgh Presbytery
901 Allegheny Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15233

My personal mission statement is that I will live my life in a way that brings hope to those in times of change. Actually, the statement changes slightly every time I write it. Guess my MBTI type!

Of course, what I consider "hope" is often not hopeful for those on the transition journey. When church leadership change occurs, I often observe the "holding on" to how things have been.



Sometimes the hold is a way to honor the last leader - create a legacy for her/him. Other times it appears to be a fearful "grasping" -a "if I let go, nothing will be the same" kind of perspective.



You may experience a number of variations on these themes. On my way to share hope I several times took a painful spill called "fault finding".



I didn't realize that in a tender transition, a simple question like, "tell me about the Christmas Eve Service" is heard as, "Bob hates our service and is going to change it from our beloved tradition. Nothing was broken until he got here." I'm not sure there are easy answers. I do have some ideas based on my experience.

• Be sensitive. The fear is as real as the loss the church experienced. The push back is about protection from more hurt.


• Be positive. Maybe if I had tried, "tell be what you love about your Christmas Eve service may have softened the edge that fed the fear.


• Empty your agenda. If you have a great idea that will "help" these folks, it probably is not a good idea because it is not "their" good idea. That agenda stinks all the way to heaven.


• Listen for the message. As you probe, listen not only to the words but what it is they are saying, "I'm afraid", "don't fire me", "we love the Christmas Eve tradtion, it binds our people as one".

Those are some of my thoughts as I consider my practice of interim ministry - S short stop on the way to God's future.



Bob Anderson

This morning's scripture was about Jesus asleep in the fishing boat.
The crew of disciples surrounded him, stepped over him, almost on him, as the fought to control the bobbing craft in the swirling waters and stormy winds. The lightning and the thunder did not seem to disturb his peace respite.

How could he sleep?

Indeed. And how can Jesus be asleep at the switch of my life? For that is how it seems at times. The storms of ministry, family, marriage, children, and life swirl me about like a cork in the ocean. And there is Jesus asleep.

I guess that is true of churches, too. Jesus lays asleep in the chancel while the congregation bobs about, floating to nowhere, struggling to figure out what went wrong.

And there is Jesus. Asleep. Not concerned. Non-Anxious Presence.

Ahh... that's it. Non-anxious Presence.
In the midst of the storm.
My storm.
The congregation's storm
The world's.

So, wake him. Rouse the sleeping Christ within.

Why do I hestitate to disturb him?

Probably because I like to see how much I can do
on my own.
In control
by myself,
I can do this, thank you very much.

Now I yearn for sleep. Rest for my soul.

Jesus, wake up! Please?

rca

As I typed an email to a younger Colleague who is beginning his first pastoral call, I realized that I was spilling my guts blogstyle... so... from the Interim Ministry Pilgrim, Bob.


Hey Brian - I wanted you to know that you are in my prayers as you begin your ministry in Vineland this weekend. I remember my first call and I think I was mostly afraid that people would discover that i didn't know what I was doing. I discovered that I did, in fact know what I was doing. What I didn't know was what I had gotten myself into! Then,and year after year of this ministry. Ministry is so much bigger than me, so much about the Spirit breezing around with apparent randomness and wonder, that it leaves me breathless and in awe. And sometimes wishing I could control God more so I'd feel better and get better personal "press"!

And thus concludes my Blog for the morning!

God Bless You, my friend!!

I just finished reading Margaret Wheatley's book, Turning to One Another. Her premise is basic: Once people start having conversations (not just talk at each other) we develop relationships, then community, then peace. Once we know someone's story it is more difficult to fight with them. Hmmm. I guess even in families that may hold true! Knowing the story certainly does help the family/community begin to define boundaries and values by which we will live, love, and fight.

I think her volume is worth reading for interim ministry practicioners because it gets at a high value for congregational study (from Bob's perspective, anyway) that getting the community into dialogue, conversation, is a critical support for the congregation's transitional dynamics (read: Developmental Tasks). See also the new book by Alice Mann and Gil Rendle, Holy Conversations - a congregational study approach that includes conversation as a key element of "data". Yes, finally someone values narrative approach and the risks and excitement of qualatative data.

So anyway, last night I ate supper at Appleby's and took a cue from the book by talking to the server using a different type of conversation starter - I asked her what dreams she had... she responded for her life, career and then I pushed her to ask what kind of person she wanted to become...

We could also ask: what surprises have you had this week? What goals have you accomplished? Are you any closer to finishing one? What do you like about clouds? so go ahead, make some up...

So, after my brief experiment, I realized that if she (actually two shes - there was a servier in training as well) it could lead to a more extended conversation that could include faith and witness. They were "on the clock" and that isn't fair!

So, what has surprised you this week?

Copyright Bob Anderson May 4, 2004

Last week at our Pittsburgh Seminary Interim Education Program, I came across a copy of a monograph about the cerlgy spouse called "Shadow Dancing". I didn't read it - I suppose it is about how the minister's spouse must grapple with the problems and opportunities of living in the shadow of the pastor - spouse. The image of shadow dancing did not leave me however.

I'm in between moves right now and my books are stored in boxes in the garage attic. But somewhere is a copy of a book entitled, The Shadow Side. It might be by Jay Congers but I'm not certain. At any rate, he recounts in theory and cases study that effective leaders are often undermined by their "shadow side: - that's the part of myself that I may not see (and you might!); that part of myself that lies quietly under the surface and breaks forth in tumultuous disarray when scratched by stress, criticism, or other combinations of life's underside.

In my classes I make a big deal about the need to be self aware. Only then will we catch the glimses of this shadow as it rears up to undo some, if not all, of the good that I have managed with God's grace.

So shadow boxing is a leadership art of the inner heart. Shadow boxing is not about beating down, it is about knowing where the shadow is, to puch and jab, to keep it at bay. I will never have a knock out punch with my shadow, but if I can get to know my shadow, I can live with it in a way that helps and doesn't hinder.

The more I live in healthy ways in my relationships, inner needs of the ego, sexuality, physical health, the better I am able to live an integrated life. And in that is integrity. At least then the shadows will be short and easier to manage!

Copyright May 2, 2004

Digging in God's Garden...

It is said that we live in an age of fast change, rapidly changing technology, quick turnarounds; we live at the speed of change says the title of a management book in my library. That’s true I guess, but those who ride to work each day on SEPTA's rapid transit system tell me otherwise!

We like speed. 0-60 in 4.8 seconds. But despite our penchant for fast, life is not always so. Most of our life and living is one of time stretched long. My first born took nine months of careful formation before he was ready to be born. He’s pushing 30 now. And he is still being formed into a new person every day. Everything in its time, the psalmist says. Maybe I have to learn to respect process. After all it take God six days to create the universe. And even if those six days are literally six 24 hours days, God did it in six days, not one; 144 hours, not one; God created over time, not in an instant. And maybe that is more the point of the creation story. This is not about how fast God created. This is a wise story that tells us that all creative living takes time. Creative, vibrant living is a process.

I don’t always respect process. When I lived in Boston in the 70’s, the church manse had a big yard for a city house. So, I dug myself my first garden since high school. I planted my radishes, carrots, lettuce, Swiss Chard, tomatoes and zucchini. After the seeds were planted, I read the little packages and they informed me that it would take six days to see the first tinge of green that would become lettuce. Carrots would take 28 days. I’m hungry, now - not later!

That’s when I learned my life lesson about process. Each day, I would visit my sleeping garden to see if there were signs of seeds waking up! After a few days of this boring observation, I decided to see what activity there was under the soil. I dug down carefully around some planted area. Aha – a seed! It was moist and cracked! A little sliver of plant tendril had burst through. I did this again and again. When I told my father in law, the consummate gardener, he told me, “You know, if you keep doing that you won’t have any plants. If you mess with the process, you can kill the plant”.



Life is a process. Each relationship and congregation, a tendril of green bursting into a new future every day, each Sunday, fertilized by worship, preaching and the sacraments. Protected by the plowing, etching, weeding – the cultivation of pastors toiling in the Garden of God. No 0-60 in 4.6 here. No 3 minute miles. Only the tender hand of God carefully forming frail garden clay into people after God’s own image.

Given that, the effective interim pastoral leader will always have some dirt under their nails. I think of the parable that Jesus used to help us understand life with God. God's ways are like seeds. Each seed contains a plant, a fruit, a way that sustains life, within it. Some seeds end up on rocky soil and get burned by the hot sun. Other seeds fall on good soil but are choked out by thorns, thisles and entangling weeds. Yet other seeds of life fall on the tilled, fertile soil of a soul ready to nourish this new life. Here's process. Rocks can be cleared and hardpan clay softened with humus. Thorns, thistles, weeds, are difficult but not impossible. Tough work, this Garden of God we call the Church.

But, what about my soul's soil? I'm thinking that maybe effective interim leadership needs to begin with the process of developing fertile soil in my inner life. Effective leadership will be revealed as the fruit of my inner life. I may be able to lead people in a technical way, but to lead people as a pastoral leader means head and heart, technical and pastoral, must be integrated. And that is a process that means diggin in the dirt - soil - of my own life. Weeds, thorns, rocks, clay - these are in me, too. Prepare my heart, O God.

Digging in God's Garden - a faithful calling - for this is truly Holy Ground.




Copyright, Bob Anderson, April 29, 2004

Part of our house renovation this year is to build a garage and tear down our rotting shed out back. The garage is built. Yesterday I finished my shed destruction.

Underneath the rubble I found an old plastic trash bag filled with leaves - they were leaves, anyway. Now the bag is filled with rich compost of humble humus.

The word "humble" has the same roots as humus... to be close to the ground... maybe it's humility that we are looking for when we say to somebody, "get grounded"... or "earth to Bob, where are you?" ( I hear that when I start thinking too much!). Another version of humility might be the common, "get real!" I never thought of those phrases as connected with humility.

But these phrases do remind us to stay connected, stay close to the ground, to stay located, not lost in oneself in a way that disconnects. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul speaks of humility in Philippians 2. He connects the life of Jesus as one that is humble and describes it as a kind of "emptying" of personal power and any divine perogatives.

In interim ministry leadership, my goal is to help a congregation find its own "voice". That will empower them to do mission, be effective in their goals, to be and to do what God is calling them to be and to do. BUt as a transitional leader, if I stay full of myself (if I were your permanent pastor, I would...), if I can't let go my own preferences (why don't they like contemporary worship? They are nuts!), if I focus on my needs (if they don't come to terms with the last pastor's beloved status, I'm out of here) then I'm filling all the creative space with Bob and not the whole people of God.

Parker Palmer, somewhere in his book, The Courage to Teach, writes about this vtopic as a teaching challenge. When a teachersempty themselves of their own agendas, then they are creating space for the student (congregation?) to explore on their own terms, to discover their voice, to learn.

This is risky of course. Letting go of my way of teaching, leading, programming, means I let go of power to empower others. And of course that is exactly what Jesus did. He emptied himself and created new space for a new kind of life and a new kind of people, a new way of being and doing. He let go of the power that was his by "authority" and shared it with the world, with me.

That is humility. Good stuff grows in humus, but it takes the death and decay of nature to share the inner new life with the world.

Bob Anderson April 21, 2004

Can't believe it's been since September since I thought of this. Now I am in exiting mode. A new pastor has been selected and one of the tricky tasks now is to keep the congregation moving toward a welcoming "embrace" of the new pastor while helping them also say goodbye to me. That's usually more wearing on me than them! Staying engaged and energized while interviewing for new positions, packing and moving is very tricky and tiring.