Parish Purpose, Life Cycle, Relationship Cycle, group development (Module One)
Saint Scholastica Cycle
2024 - September 20, 27, October 11, 18 and 25 (we skip October 4)
Friday Eastern 12:00 pm Central 11:00 am Mountain 10:00 am Pacific 9:00 am
This module
Every parish church has three intrinsic cycles. Each describes a process that is inherent in the parish’s life. They are “given” rather than something we create. They will happen with or without our awareness of it, with or without our cooperation. And yet, our cooperation matters. We’ll seek to understand how each of these cycles functions in our parish churches and how they can be used in the parish to generate fruitful discussion and decision-making.
The Parish Life Cycle explores stages of creation, formation, stability (healthy/stable, and static), decline, disintegration, and death. The ministry of maintaining, developing, or revitalizing the parish is seen as the community’s movement back to the issues and dynamics of formation.
The second cycle is the Relationship Cycle, which can help leaders keep the parish in a renewal cycle while avoiding the high level conflict cycle.
And the Renewal-Apostolate Cycle is primary to understanding the Christian life—our need to form an inner core of silence as we act as instruments of God’s love in daily life. (Note: The Renewal-Apostolate Cycle is primarily addressed in the Saint Benedict Cycle, module one)
In addition, we will also give attention to the formation of your small groups. You’ll be in the same group through this module (new groups in modules 2 and 3). We’ll provide you with resources during each session that ask you to pay attention to certain areas of group development. Our hope is that by the time you have finished this module: 1) your small group will have improved its ability to self-manage, and 2) you’ll have learned a few things about group development.
Overall preparation for Module One
There are particular readings and assignments provided for each session below this overall comment. This “overall preparation” is more of a heads up about both the bulk of the reading involved over the course of teh cycle, and two small projects you’ll carry out. You may want to make arrangements for those projects in advance.
1) Readings from An Energy Not Its Own, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2 and 3, Appendixes A, B and C. That’s the whole book except Chapter 4 on the Renewal-Apostolate Cycle which is covered in the St. Benedict Cycle. The specific readings needed for each session are provided in the material about the session.
2) Two things you may want to line up before the module begins:
First, we want you to come into session 2 having had the experience of explaining the Parish Life Cycle to someone else (could be one person or a group), having them identify where they believed the parish to be in the life cycle, and having had a discussion with them comparing your and their answers. More detail on this is provided in “Between Sessions 1 and 2,” below.
And second, we want you to enter session 5 having interviewed at least one person in the parish about a critical moment, between 1 and 25 years ago, when there were significant tensions/rubs that brought on conflict or where it was managed in a way that serious conflict was avoided and instead something productive and faithful happened. You’ll use the Parish Relationship Cycle as the resource in conducting the interview.
In both of the above, please take into account the impact of doing this assignment in the parish as a whole. For example, if you are the rector and you do this with a large group or a group of leaders, that will amount to a significant intervention. You need to be clear that’s what you want. An alternative would be to engage just one person or a small group and introduce this as an exercise related to the education program you are participating in, and explain that they are helping you with your learning process. Either is fine from the STP perspective. However, we want you to be clear in yourself as to whether you are engaging a development process that will impact the parish or whether this is mostly about your learning process.
Also, if as you look ahead you realize that one of those weeks is likely to be especially busy, you may want to carry out the assignment sooner.
For Session 1 September 20, 2024
Assignments and reading:
There is a significant amount of reading that needs to be done for this session.
1) In An Energy Not Its Own, The Introduction and Chapter One, “The Purposes of the Parish Church” Then fill out the Purposes of the Parish Church Assessment. You need to do this before you begin to work on #2 below.
2) Purposes of the Parish Church Issues & Dynamics– Read the document. It offers three options for your work. Select one of them, do the related reading and make notes.
A. Worship and sanctifying presence. You are offered a choice as to what aspect to work on
OR
B. The purpose of formation
OR
C. Threefold Rule
When you are in your small group during the session you’ll be asked to share your thinking from all the work on purposes of the parish church — what did you find most useful? How is that useful for you?
3) Read and download: Shared Leadership: The Maintaining of Task and Relationship Functions Focus your attention on the first page. You want to come into the session with a grasp of the idea of task and relationship behavior in a group as well as the issue of individual needs and wants. Skim the rest of the document so you have a sense of some of the specific actions related to the three areas. Have the download in front of you during session 1
Session 1 (times are Pacific time zone)
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Time |
Activity |
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9:00 – 9:10
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STP Prayer Overview of the session Other announcements |
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9:10 – 10:00 |
In groups of 4-6 – Introduce yourselves (name one thing you want the group to know about you). Then - In all your work on the purposes of the parish church – what did you find most useful? How is that useful for you? |
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10:00 – 10:10 |
Break. Ensure your group takes a 10-minute break. The breakout rooms won’t close. |
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10:10 – 10:35 |
Same group of 4-6 - How well did the group attend to task and relationship functions? Take into consideration factors such as being in a new group, having 50 minutes to work, being on Zoom, etc. In the discussion note the specific behaviors of specific individuals that contributed to effective task and relationship maintenance. You may also find it useful to take note of how in this discussion the group is addressing the functions. We suggest you stay with identifying the positive contributions at this point. |
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10:35 – 11:00 |
Whole group, Q&A, comments – purposes of the parish church or Shared Leadership: The Maintaining of Task and Relationship Functions. Check in on assignment for next week. |
Between Sessions 1 and 2
Reading:
1) An Energy Not its Own, Chapter 2 Parish Life Cycle
2) Section on Parish Life Cycle, Chapter 7, Finding God in All Things. This provides an intervention design for using the Cycle with a group. In carrying out the assignment below you need to use your judgment about what elements of this design are appropriate for the group gathered.
3) Establishing and maintaining group norms and Using Meeting Norms to Increase Efficiency and Inclusivity and The norms assignment
Download and study:
Parish Life Cycle - You may want to save this link for long term use in your work. It’s the one page image and description of the cycle. You can use a copy of it for making notes on as you complete the assignment below.
Assignment:
Facilitate a formal or informal assessment of where your parish is in the Life Cycle, and come into session 2 having had the experience of explaining the Parish Life Cycle to someone else (could be one person or a group), having them identify where they believed the parish to be in the life cycle, and having had a discussion with them comparing your and their answers.
If you are using the life cycle in a formal manner (e.g., with the vestry, in a larger parish meeting, with a parish development team), once you complete the individual assessments and have collated the results, the conversation moves toward the question, what does this say about what this parish church needs to pay attention to?
If you are using the life cycle in an informal manner (e.g., with your best friend in the parish, as part of a small class, with a small group doing you a favor by participating in this process), once you complete the individual assessments and have collated the result, the conversation moves toward the question, what does this say about what I personally need to pay attention to that may contribute to the health and faithfulness of the parish?
Session 2
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Time |
Activity |
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9:00 – 9:10
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STP Prayer Overview of the session Other announcements |
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9:10 – 9:40 |
Same groups of 4-6. 1) Go around the group – share your name (again) and share something about your best experience in a group – identify the group and describe was so good about the experience. (3 minutes each) 2) What norms do you want in this group? Note: it only stands as a norm if everyone has said “yes.” Relax with this. You may only identify a few norms. Others are likely to emerge over time. |
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9:40 – 9:50 |
Break. Ensure your group takes a 10-minute break. The breakout rooms won’t close. |
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9:50 – 10:30 |
Groups of 4-6. 1) Discuss the Parish Life Cycle – What about it do you find helpful? What about it do you find confusing, challenging? 2) Share your experience with the assignment process. For example: How satisfied are you with how you facilitated it? (You might use a 1 to 6 scale to indicate the level of satisfaction). What were significant events within what happened? Any surprises? What did you learn about facilitating such a process? What might you do differently? |
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10:30 – 11:00 |
Whole group. Q&A comments, observations. |
Between Sessions 2 and 3
Reading:
An Energy Not its Own, Appendix C About Models
Force Field Analysis background How to do a FFA
Watch this video on Force Field Analysis
Download and bring to the session:
Worksheet for doing Force Field Analysis
Session 3
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Time |
Activity |
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9:00 – 9:10
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STP Prayer Overview of the session Other announcements -How to use holding up fingers testing process (1 thru 5) to get quick assessment. Application – 1) How new was the information in About Models? 1- not at all, already knew it 5- totally new for me. 2) In exploring the Life Cycle with others in the parish – 1 – I totally blew it. 5 – It went well |
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9:10 – 9:25 |
Presentation: Looking at the Parish Life Cycle in regard to a system’s tendency to create an equilibrium. Connecting the theory of Force Field Analysis. Note: this is not an explanation of using the FFA method. We assume everyone will have done that in their reading. |
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9:25 – 9:55
9:55 – 10:05 |
Using Force Field Analysis (FFA) as a “green line” process In your groups – Use FFA in analysis of the dynamics common in many smaller parishes (let’s say ASA 35 – 60) and slowly declining in numbers and energy. What forces would you think might typically be active in such a situation? Use the FFA worksheet. Each person make notes on their copy of the worksheet to bring into the following total group activity. At this point you are simply naming forces. (30 minutes) Quick assessment – how well are we doing with our group norms? 1- awful. 5 – great. Brief discussion |
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10:05 – 10:15 |
Break. Ensure your group takes a 10-minute break. The breakout rooms won’t close. |
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10:15 – 11:00 |
Return to whole group. Walk through FFA Working off of the FFA sheet you worked with in your group. Trainer will walk through next steps using FFA to develop strategy. |
Between Sessions 3 and 4
Reading:
1) An Energy Not its Own, Chapter 3 The Relationship Cycle in Parishes
2) Note on the Parish Options model: We are using Parish Options as an example of a green line process that can be used when a parish is ready to face into its significant decline.
Appendix A Parish Options. Also review two sections in Chapter 2: “Second parish – All Saints” and “Improvement process: from Static Maturity to Formation.”
Parish Options with description of Basic Choices - read and take note of the elements in the model
Parish Options - read this article in “Means of Grace, Hope of Glory”
Parish Options – download this page for use during the session
Worksheet #1 Worksheet #2 Ranking Worksheet Look over the three worksheets
3) Possible futures - An intervention to move into a green line. Leader or consultant has considerable experience with the parish and creates several “possible futures” based on that knowledge. It’s essential that parishioners will be able to see where each “future” came from, i.e., it will seem familiar to them.
Parish on a Maine island – download this for use during the session
Two parishes considering merger - download this for use during the session
4) Download and study - Relationship Cycle in Parishes - the image
Session 4
The routine engagement of standard processes of planned change are usually enough to keep a parish along the green line. These are the fairly simple processes of problem solving. In this session we’re going to give special attention to more complex situations involving times when the parish faces major changes: Possible Futures and Parish Options.
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Time |
Activity |
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9:00 – 9:10
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STP Prayer Overview of the session Other announcements |
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9:10 – 9:30 |
Groups. This is a brief small group time to identify questions and test assumptions we have about the Relationship Cycle in Parishes. |
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9:30 – 10:00 |
Whole group – Q&A, comments about the Parish relationship cycle |
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10:00 – 10:10 |
Break |
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10:10 – 11:00 |
Presentation and discussion on the use of Possible Futures and Parish Options. You need to have these items with you as we go through this session - Parish Options, Parish on a Maine island, Two parishes considering merger |
Between Sessions 4 and 5
Reading:
Review Stage 5: Process of Planned Change and Negotiation in Chapter 3 of An Energy Not Our Own, in the paperback edition this includes pp. 95 - 106. The St. Mary’s Case used a Possible Futures Process.
Read and download: Levels of Conflict and Relationship Cycle in Parishes
Assignment: Conduct an interview — it might be one person, or it might be a small group. You want to have them talk about a time in the parish’s life when things were unsettled, there were irritations and rubs that were significant. And there was a choice between moving into the red line, the green line, or to letting it simmer, like an open wound, unresolved and unhealed. You’ll use the Relationship Cycle in Parishes as the resource in conducting the interview. That is the lens you will use. You may decide to share the model with those being interviewed or not.
Session 5
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Time |
Activity |
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9:00 – 9:10
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STP Prayer Overview of the session Other announcements |
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9:10 – 10:00 |
In groups. Share - 1) What did you learn about the Relationship Cycle in Parishes from the interview? 2) How did the interview go? Insights, emotional responses? Anything you would do differently? |
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10:00 – 10:10 |
Break |
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10:10 – 10:30 |
Presentation on the Levels of Conflict. How it relates to the Relationship Cycle in Parishes. Please have the Levels of Conflict in front of you during the presentation. |
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10:30 – 11:00 |
Q&A and comments on Levels of Conflict, the Relationship Cycle in Parishes |