Resilience

 By Deacon Sunni Richardson, Director for Leadership Development

RESILIENCE! 

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. For Matt Bloom of the University of Notre Dame, resilience shows up in both the capacity to respond to challenges and the capacity to grow and learn from those challenges at the same time. Resilience requires both strength and flexibility. 

First, a big round of applause to all of the congregations who quickly exercised flexibility. We need a photo gallery on the Synod web page with showing worship leaders with smart phones balanced on hymnals, cardboard boxes crafted in to recording studios and teen tutors with pastors, deacons, and PMAs learning to use new apps. Bravo! 

But … I have to ask, have we been adaptive? I know we adapted. Online worship was new for the majority of our Nebraska Synod congregations. It was a steep learning curve for many. The learning, however, was technical. Learning how to record worship, downloading video to the web site, complying with copyright laws, and measuring the sanctuary so you could have families safely spaced 6’ apart, were all technical skills. These are challenges that were identifiable, required only a handful of changes and were solved by an authority or expert. I am not saying the solutions were always easy, but they were technical tasks. 

Adaptive challenges, in contrast, are difficult to identify and easy to deny. They require changes in values, beliefs, roles, relationships, and approaches to the work. The solutions require new discoveries and cannot be implemented by an edict. I think the adaptive work is yet to come. The adaptive challenges come to play when we start to ask, “What’s the new normal?”.  Because my friends, there is no going back to normal! We are never going back to pre-pandemic days. Life has been changed. Is the church going to change? 

I challenge you to engage in conversation about the new normal. It may help to start with what has not changed. I would offer these examples: our theological grounding has remained the same, prayer continues to be vital and we still celebrate the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Eucharist. And, we continue to be terrible evangelists afraid to share our faith stories. 

Adaptive questions are vague, and answers require teamwork, imagination, trust, deep listening, and experimentation. Moving to a new normal means asking hard questions and being willing to take risks while remaining true to the core purpose and mission. It requires an openness to growth and the ability to learn. This is where resilience comes into the picture. As I said earlier, resilience requires strength and flexibility. Resilient leaders keep going because they are committed to the cause. Yes, they get tired, have doubts, and suffer from fatigue. Through intentional reflection, prayer and practice, resilient leaders, lay and rostered, find a new sense of commitment and refuse to throw in the towel. They adapt and are adaptive. 

The pandemic has brought much pain and suffering. Let us not forget. The church prevailed, gathered for worship, and continued to care for neighbors. We adapted. Now, let’s be resilient, adaptive leaders and be the church of the future for the sake of the world. 

Resources: 

• “Tempered Resilience - How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change” 
         – Todd Bolsinger 

• “Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory
        – Todd Bolsinger 

• “The Post Quarantine Church – Six Urgent Challenges & Opportunities That Will
        Determine the Future of Your Congregation” – Thom S. Rainer 

• “Weird Church: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century” – Paul Nixon and
        Beth Ann Estock 

• Check out this less than 4-minute video explaining adaptive leadership.   
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRMOLKGFLJk


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stories from Across the Synod

Image
 Three Rural Churches Doing Worship in a New Way   In response to the pandemic, the three congregations of Sonrise Parish (St. John’s, Eustis; American, Cozad; and St. John’s, Cozad) moved to video-only worship beginning on March 18, 2020.  Three months later, as warmer weather had arrived, the churches decided to do outdoor Word and Sacrament at each site on a weekly rotating basis, beginning at Eustis on June 14.  A weekly virtual brief worship recording was also continued!  The city street, parking lots, and grassy areas became the places to gather in lawn chairs or in cars in a physically-distanced manner.  A low-power FM transmitter broadcasted to those who wanted to stay in their vehicles.   A music group with percussion, guitar, horns, vocalists (and sometimes keyboard) led the services.  For sixteen weeks through the end of September the outdoor services continued, with attendance ranging from 50-60 to as high as over 100.  Two c...
Read more

150 Years of Mission & Ministry

Image
 By Bishop Brian Maas We have now formally kicked off the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Nebraska Synod. We’ll spend the next year reflecting on our shared history and inviting each congregation to reflect on its own history as well. We do this not to rediscover some glorious past to which we might return (we won’t—we can’t); rather, we study our histories because they remind us of our stories. Our story reaches back not only 150 years, but millennia, to the very origins of God’s people. The Bible is our story, every bit as much as our local histories. We reflect on that story so that we might continue to live that story; to see what chapters are yet to be written. This is the why behind the reflection and the history-telling; to remind ourselves of all of those times when God was present in spite of what seemed to be happening in the world—to see God at work in the joys and celebrations we’ve known, and to recognize God’s presence with us in the sorrow...
Read more

Arise! Wake up! Look around!

Image
By Deacon Connie R. Stover Director, Seeking the Spirit Within Today as I write this blog article, I cannot see the sun, and it is bitterly cold outside.   It looks like the sun has disappeared and abandoned me, as the sky is a dulling, gray slate of sameness.   I want to wrap myself in a warm, soft blanket and hibernate.   But alas, today is the deadline for this article to be written.   People are reaching out to me with their questions through phone calls, text messages and emails.   As I sit at my computer, I realize that I am hungry.   It is as if God is saying to me, “Arise!   Wake up!   Look around!” For me, God’s call to arise, wake up, and look around, comes each morning as I sit myself down in my sacred space to spend time with God.   This is a daily intention to first look to God for the gifts of light and warmth in all days – the gray days of routine sameness and the bright days of exciting newness.   If I ...
Read more