Quick Overview:
More than 85% of Christian congregations in America are either plateaued in their membership or are actively declining in the midst of a growing national population (Whitesel & Hunter, 2000:14). This course is designed to address this situation by attending to the four greatest barriers to renewing congregations. The first barrier is the lack of understanding among leaders of the four forces that control change, which of the forces are present in each congregation, and what strategies are effective for bringing about change in each scenario. Secondly, a clash of modern and postmodern cultures is yielding tensions between groups in methods, goals and strategies for turnaround change. These cultural predilections will be analyzed and a strategy designed for your unique context. Thirdly, turnaround change is often thwarted by failures at change in the past, and thus a post-mortem on previous change experiences will be followed by an investigation of the six-stages and five-triggers needed for bringing about unifying change. Finally, facilitating turnaround change will require leaders to adapt and shift their leadership styles and strategies as change occurs. Subsequently, from this seminar will emerge a personalized and strategic plan for assisting a church or churches in changing their course toward more effective fulfillment of the Great Commission. What Others Have Thought: "Dr. Whitesel gave me a framework to help me plan and organize a turnaround strategy for my church." "Dr. Whitesel was very engaging and encouraged student participation." Course Project: All
students will do a project that proposes a strategy for facilitating turnaround change in one's ministry. Students will also reflect on their level of skill as a facilitator of turnaround churches as well as present a plan of personal growth. Sample Readings From This Course May Include: Gilfford, Mary Louise. The Turnaround Church: Inspiration and Tools for Life-Sustaining Change . Alban Institute, 2009. Grenz, Stanley J. Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era
. Baker Academic, 2006. Volf, Miroslav. After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity
. Eerdmans, 1997. Whitesel, Bob. Preparing for Change Reaction: How to Introduce Change in Your Church
. The Wesleyan Publishing House, 2008. If you would like more information about this course please email the DMIN office at dmin@fuller.edu
For a sample course description please click here. NOTE: This is not to be used as a source for course preparation. |