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What is the future of Christian education

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Leaders are selected who lack the maturity and sense of self to deal with sabotage. ... Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1978. p.485. What is undifferentiated ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: What is the future of Christian education


1
What is the future of Christian education?
  • APCE workshop 50
  • Thursday 4-530 p.m.
  • Rodger Nishioka, Ph.D.
  • Associate Professor of Christian Education
  • Columbia Theological Seminary

2
  • We continue to organize our educational
    ministries as if present experience extends the
    experience of the past, as if old images are
    adequate for the contemporary quest for meaning.
  • Charles Foster. Educating Congregations.
    Nashville, TN Abingdon, 1994.

3
  • 1. Existing approaches to Christian education
    are no longer adequate for the task of building
    up communities of faith to praise God and serve
    neighbor for the emancipatory transformation of
    the world.
  • Discuss What are our existing approaches that
    are no longer adequate?
  • Tribal education traditioning information as
    if it leads to transformation.

4
  • 2. With increasing demands on limited resources,
    the education in different congregations will be
    linked more by the participation of their members
    in shared events of the Christian story than by
    denominational strategies for church education,
    curriculum resources, or leadership training
    programs.
  • Discuss What are the increasing demands and the
    limited resources? Why are denominational
    strategies on the decline?

5
  • 3. In our increasingly pluralistic world,
    congregations can no longer assume that their
    values and commitments will be taught and/or
    reinforced by other educational institutions in
    their larger communities. If not hostile, more
    likely the culture is indifferent to us.
  • Discuss How is our world more pluralistic?
  • More Muslims than Presbyterians.
  • Loss of family support.
  • Shop in Little Five Points

6
  • 4. If congregations are to become communities of
    praise and service for the sake of Gods
    transformation of the world, they must assume
    primary responsibility for the education of
    people into the responsible embodiment of those
    ministries.
  • Discuss Why is the focus shifting to
    congregations? What does this mean for our life
    together?

7
  • As we look to the future of Christian education,
    much relies on you, the leaders.

8
  • To do this, Edwin Friedman says we must
    demonstrate leadership with nerve (healthy
    self-differentiation).
  • A Failure of Nerve.
  • Leadership in the Age
  • of the Quick Fix.
  • New York Seabury
  • Books, 2007 (revised).

9
  • Peter Steinke builds on this in his book
  • Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times
    Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What.
    Herndon, VA Alban Institute, 2006.

10
Why do we not have nerve?
  • Friedman and Steinke both claim we live in a time
    of chronic anxiety.
  • In a time of chronic anxiety, we focus on fear
    over courage, comfort over challenge, good
    feelings and accommodation over tension and
    dialectical engagement, being reasonable over
    adventure, shrinking resources over innovation
    and change.

11
Why do we not have nerve?
  • A trend in which the most dependent members of
    any group set the agenda and where adaptation is
    constantly toward weakness rather than strength,
    thus leveraging power to the recalcitrant, the
    passive-aggressive and the most anxious members
    of the group rather than toward the energetic,
    visionary, imaginative, and the motivated.

12
  • Actually, religious institutions are the worst
    offenders of encouraging immaturity and
    irresponsibility. In church after church some
    member is passive-aggressively holding the whole
    system hostage, and no one wants to fire him or
    force her to leave because it wouldnt be the
    Christian thing to do. It has nothing to do
    with Christianity. Synagogues also tolerate
    abusers because to ask them to leave wouldnt be
    the Christian thing to do. Edwin Friedman

13
Why do we not have nerve?
  • A devaluation of the process of individuation so
    that leaders tend to rely more on others
    expertise than on their own capacity to be
    decisive. Many consultants and professional
    coaches contribute further to this denial of
    individuation by offering solutions instead of
    promoting their clients capacity to define
    themselves more clearly.

14
Why do we not have nerve?
  • An obsession with data and technique that has
    become a form of addiction and turns leaders into
    data-junkies and their information into junk
    yards. As a result, decision-makers avoid or
    deny the very processes within their groups that
    might contribute to their institutions
    persistence of form.

15
Why do we not have nerve?
  • A widespread misunderstanding about the
    relational nature of destructive processes so
    leaders believe that toxic forces can be
    regulated through reasonableness, romanticized
    Christ-like love, insight, role-modeling,
    inculcation of values, and striving for
    consensus. This prevents leaders from taking the
    kind of stands that set limits to the
    invasiveness of those who lack self-regulation.

16
How is this failure of nerve manifested?
  • 1. Reactivity automatic responses, boundary
    erosion, exaggeration of extremes, loss of
    playfulness.
  • 2. Herd Instinct togetherness as the supreme
    value, emphasis on empathy over responsibility,
    harmony over what is just and right, organizes
    around dysfunction, adapts to immaturity, wills
    conflict, polarization, and isolation.

17
  • 3. Blame displacement fault projected outside,
    quickness to blame, loss of integrity and
    accountability, cynical pessimism, paralyzed by
    fear and unwilling to seek adventure.
  • 4. Quick-fix mentality low tolerance for pain
    and hard work, seeks simple answers,
    vulnerability or snake-oil remedies, quest for
    certainty, cut and dried answers, binary logic.

18
Results in a failure of nerve as leaders.
  • Leaders lack the distance to think out their
    vision clearly.
  • Leaders end up running from crisis to crisis.
  • Leaders are reluctant to take well-defined
    stands, if they have any convictions at all.
  • Leaders are selected who lack the maturity and
    sense of self to deal with sabotage.

19
How do we as Christian educators lead with
nerve?
  • Separate yourself from surrounding emotional
    processes.
  • Be clear about ones principles and vision.
  • Be willing to be exposed and vulnerable.
  • Persist in the face of inertial resistance.
  • Self-regulate in the face of reactive sabotage.

20
Leadership as Differentiated Leadership
  • A differentiated self is one who can maintain
    emotional objectivity while in the midst of an
    emotional system in turmoil, yet at the same time
    actively relate to key people in the system.
  • Bowen, Murray. Family Theory in Clinical
    Practice. Northvale, NJ Jason Aronson, 1978.
    p.485.

21
What is undifferentiated leadership?
  • Reactive, instinctive, defensive, thoughtless
    behavior.
  • 1. Accommodates, pleases, or acts to take care
    of the others pain. To maintain a relationship,
    the leader gives in and gives up self is anxious
    about losing the approval of others.
  • 2. Focuses outside of self. To stay close to
    others, the leader pays attention to the actions
    and feelings of others, not her own. How someone
    else will react is more important than how she
    can take a position.

22
What is undifferentiated leadership?
  • 3. Connects emotionally. To sustain a
    relationship, the leader reacts to anything that
    might disrupt or threaten it.
  • 4. Sets vague, nebulous goals. To have a
    direction depends on the moment. The climate and
    goals change with events and moods.
  • 5. Seeks security. To feel safe, the leader
    acts cautiously so as not to upset anyone.

23
What is differentiated leadership?
  • Intentional, responsive, responsible, thoughtful
    behavior.
  • 1. Takes a stand. The leader works on
    self-definition based on values knowing what she
    believes, the leader takes positions.
  • 2. Focuses on self. The leader can see how he
    contributes to a situation being self-aware, the
    leader makes changes in his own behavior has the
    capacity to step back and see his own
    interactions with others.

24
What is differentiated leadership?
  • 3. Stays connected to others. The leader
    relates to others by listening, exchanging ideas,
    and working toward goals greater capacity for
    cooperation and altruism.
  • 4. Sets clear goals. The leader knows where she
    is headed not sabotaged by others reactivity
    because she lives with a purpose in mind stays
    on course.
  • 5. Seeks challenge. The leader seeks adventure
    she knows that tension stretches a persons
    growth and stimulates the imagination.

25
Key Non-anxious presence
  • The non-anxious presence is an anomaly, never a
    full-blown reality. It is the capacity to
  • Manage our own national reactivity
  • Use knowledge to suppress impulses and control
    automatic reactions
  • Keep calm for the purpose of reflection and
    conversation
  • Observe what is happening, especially with
    oneself
  • Tolerate high degrees of uncertainty,
    frustration, and pain
  • Maintain a clear sense of direction.

26
  • To be less defensive and automatically reactive
    to the attacks of others requires tremendous
    discipline. Nonanxious practices include
  • Being thoughtful before acting
  • Staying calm and poised
  • Using I statements
  • Maintaining awareness of self
  • Focusing on larger purposes rather than winning
    an argument
  • Asking questions.

27
  • When dealing with reactive people who are
    attacking you, remember that justifying,
    explaining, or any verbal defending (J.E.D.) will
    simply add fuel to the fire. Withdrawing and
    blaming have the same effect.

28
Old World vs. New World
  • Friedman argues that for families as well as
    institutions (and even for our nations), our
    chronically anxious civilization inhibits
    well-differentiated leaders from emerging and
    wears down those who do. He discusses old
    world superstitions and juxtaposes them against
    new world understandings.

29
Old World vs. New World
  • Old Leaders influence their followers by the
    model they establish for identification and
    emulation.
  • New A leaders major effect on his or her
    followers has to do with the way his or her
    presence affects the emotional processes in the
    relationship system.

30
  • Old The key to successful leadership is
    understanding the needs of your followers.
  • New A leaders major job is to understand his
    or her self.
  • Old Communication depends primarily on ones
    choice of words and how one articulates them.
  • New Communication depends on words as well as
    emotional variables such as direction, distance,
    and anxiety.

31
  • Old Stress is due to hard work.
  • New Stress is due to taking responsibility for
    the relationships of others.
  • Old Hierarchy is evil and is about abuse of
    power.
  • New Hierarchy is a natural systemic phenomenon
    and can be empowering for all.

32
Emerging models for the future of Christian
education
  • Religious instruction emphasizing study of
    scripture and theology. Could be in classes
    (academies especially for large churches with the
    reliance on expert teachers) but more likely will
    be small groups, many intergenerational, in home
    settings (early church). Specific role-oriented
    or seasonal instruction (church officer,
    confirmation, teacher training,
    Advent-Christmas-Epiphany, Lent-Easter).
  • Emphasis on worship as the focus for the
    community. Intergenerational with consistent
    education. Emphasizes formation through ritual
    and traditions.

33
  • Spiritual development focusing on spiritual
    disciplines and spiritual practices more episodic
    in nature and, like the ancients, more ascetic.
  • Missional opportunities to enact the scriptural,
    theological, and liturgical practices through
    participating in ongoing missional activities.
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