Parish Development: Sustainable Change
Since the fall of 2015 Michelle Heyne and Robert Gallagher have been part of an intervention/writing team. They have been working with the past and present of WomenRising, a Jersey City non-profit. For the past 24 years WomenRising has used an organization development approach to improve and sustain their work and life. If you’re interested here’s a link to the article in the OD Practitioner – “Quality & Empowerment: Organization Development at WomenRising 1992 – 2016.”
The WomenRising effort got us thinking about our efforts to improve and sustain faithful and healthy parish life and work. Here are a few places of connection.
1. Parishes that use the same skilled parish development consultant over many years will benefit from the understanding of the parish that consultant will bring. The WR consultation lasted 15 years. Robert has had a few parish consultations lasting that long. That kind of connection brought a strong trusting relationship which in turn allowed Robert to see and publicly raise issues that a consultant with less time with the parish might miss or fear raising. It also helped the parish develop new competencies that were routinely used in yearly vestry retreats.
2. WR had a value about empowering women. It ran deep in the hearts and minds of the leaders. But they didn't know how to make the value incarnate. They needed a consultant to bring in ways-of-working and concrete skills that actually empowered people. This is often true in the parish church. A skilled consultant could work with leaders to integrate a set of group methods, emotional intelligence behaviors, and spiritual practices.
3. The sustainability of the OD effort at WR was grounded in the competence of a critical mass of staff members, including all the managers and and a number of team leaders. Those people went through the basic training of all staff members and they received advance training each year and coaching in implementing that training within their departments. A parish church will also find its health and faithfulness made sustainable by paying attention to the critical mass idea -- using the Shape of the Parish Model in regard to Christian proficiency and the general Critical Mass Theory in regard to leadership development.
