Organizational Effectiveness & Team Building
A Northern Colorado church had divided into rival factions over whether the regional district and national church had departed from traditional church beliefs and principles. The congregation wanted help deciding whether and how to separate into smaller groups or stay together. Parties included senior and junior clerics, lay leaders, congregational membership, select prayer/study groups, and church district regional officials.
A core issue was whether the national church and the regional district had drifted from traditional principles of denominational faith. Debate centered around whether to allow female and LGBTQ+ ministers and support abortion funding, which would require the local church to separate from the national church.
Amid these debates, there was growing concern that the senior cleric was out of touch on these issues compared to mainstream views held by most of the congregation. Debate began over whether the divergence of opinions among the local church’s subgroups meant that it might need to separate into two or three new groups.
Working with church leaders, our team employed the following processes:
- Dialogue concerning reconciliation
- Collaborative learning
- Consensus building
The goal was to determine whether these issues warranted separating from the national church or preserving the existing church community in a constructive and healthy way.
1. Reconciliation and Mediation Phase
Co-mediating with a local professor, Confluence Collaboration organized and facilitated a reconciliation task force. The role of this task force, which also served as a steering committee, was to reconcile and mediate on behalf of small prayer and service groups.
Meeting over several evenings, we tackled a specific subject in each gathering, including repairing relationships, property management issues, theological principles, and what a split from the church would mean for members.
Throughout this process, members shared their hurts, perceptions, tensions, obstacles, and motives. This facilitated more clarity and community among the members in these meetings and the groups they represented.
During the reconciliation phase of this mediation, the Confluence Collaboration team drafted an agenda before each meeting and circulated it for comment. In a contentious setting like this one, where several parties hold different viewpoints and want to discuss issues of importance to them, the strategy was to draft an agenda addressing three main issues:
- Determining which issues are up for discussion
- Deciding how to frame those issues for discussion
- Prioritizing a productive order in which to discuss the issues
Sending an agenda like this out in advance ensures that all or most parties will see their items on the agenda, which motivates them to attend the meeting to talk about them.
After mediating each meeting, the Confluence Collaboration team debriefed the steering committee and discussed which elements to include in the next agenda.
2. Collaborative Learning and Consensus-Seeking Phase
The steering committee organized a church-wide three-part educational series, held twice a day over three Sundays. Confluence Collaboration worked with the steering committee to define the topics for each education session. The agreed-upon subjects were the history of the congregation, theology, and practical consequences of moving forward together or separately.
The Confluence Collaboration team designed the process for each educational meeting and helped set guidelines and time limits for each presentation. Each educational unit contained short presentations on these topics, followed by oral and written questions. The written questions option allowed people who felt too shy speaking in front of a large group to submit written questions.
The regional district and the executive committee of the local church each distributed surveys to the congregation. The regional district survey covered administrative, practical, and fiscal issues related to staying or leaving the national church. The local church survey primarily asked about church-related theological issues and perceptions about the local congregation. Confluence Collaboration reviewed and commented on the draft surveys and attempted to improve coordination between the two levels of church governance regarding their surveys.
- The steering committee made progress in addressing and reconciling their differences and became more focused on the good of the church than their individual needs.
- The education planning team that grew from that original group worked to organize and implement the educational series, which was viewed as a pressing need for the congregation.
- The regional church district helped design and present at the third educational session, which demonstrated progress in cooperation between the district and the church leadership.
- Results of the survey circulated by the regional church district indicated that the educational sessions were a substantial benefit to many members of the congregation in deciding whether to stay affiliated or leave the national church.
- The regional church district conducted an informal vote shortly after the conclusion of the educational sessions. The voting results showed that the local church decided to remain affiliated with the national church and continue together as a single church without further division.
