At a meeting last night I presented a few ideas from Kenneth A. Halstead’s book, “From Stuck to Unstuck: Overcoming Congregational Impasse”. The book was published by Alban Institute in 1998 but hasn’t really had much press attention.
Despite having worked diligently at problem solving, a congregation may be dismayed to find that a difficult situation has actually become worse. The frustrations of becoming stuck can give rise to patterns that keep repeating themselves. Not just a different sort of action but different ways of thinking are called for to break such an impasse. The author, a pastor and family therapist, uses insights from systems theory and from several therapy methods to explain ways of becoming unstuck. This could be just the resource your congregation needs to make a breakthrough.
Halstead describes an ‘unstuck’ congregation as a place where there’s an energizing effect from taking part in and talking about congregation. He looks for open communication with few restrictions about what can be talked about. An ‘unstuck’ situtation is marked by confidence that leaders, fellow members and the organisation as a whole listen and respond to needs. There’s a sense of growing as a group towards maturity and greater faithfulness, while effectively adapting to a changing world.
A stuck congregation, on the other hand, features these factors. There’s a sense of ’spinning the wheels’ - putting lots of energy into going nowhere. In desperation people are overlearning, overgeneralising, and over applying past strategies, buying into systemic addictions but unaware of them. In fact lack of awareness would be the key factor Halstead identifies. There’s an assumption that ‘being stuck’ is normal. There’s insufficient language to describe what’s going on.
One of the key learnings for me from this book was the recognition of situations of paradox in which no simple solution can be found. Halstead says that we regularly see five attempts to ‘fix problems’.
Attempt to force something that can occur only spontaneously
Attempt to master a feared event by postponing it (e.g. avoiding conflict)
Attempt to reach accord through opposition - arguing people into support
Attempt to attain compliance through volunteerism - “you must want this”
Confirm accuser’s suspicions by defending oneself
Halstead gives two contrasting paradigms for dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty…
Old Paradigm
We should solve life’s unavoidable paradoxes - uncertainty, predictability, ambiguity, complexity, pain, vulnerability, aloneness, helplessness, longings of the soul, death - using linear, logical, fixated, analytic solutions.
New Paradigm
We should find humanising ways of living with life’s unavoidable paradoxes - uncertainty, predictability, ambiguity, complexity, pain, vulnerability, aloneness, helplessness, longings of the soul, death - using gracious, courageous, creative, compassionate, humorous solutions.
The office where I work is starting to fill up with school bags stuffed with books, pencils, scissors, basketballs and scocer balls.
“Why?” you may ask.
Educating children in the Solomon Islands is a challenge. As well as geographic isolation and the history of recent conflict in the area, the lack of resources available in the islands mean that the children have little access to study materials and educational resources.
School Packs for the Solomons is a project designed to allow you to provide school children in the Solomons with some educational resources.
The Uniting Church in Australia has asked the United Church of Solomon Islands, what would be useful in school packs. Together we have come up with a list of contents which would be used by children and young people who attend schools particularly in the Western provinces. It is here that the our partner church The United Church in Solomon Islands can best offer support to school children who are working with limited resources.
When you pack a school bag and return the bag to us, we will add a broad brimmed hat and an English language copy of the New Testament. The bags will then be shipped to the United Church in Solomon Islands who will distribute the resources amongst the schools.
“I do notice I prefer blogs that are not just content-rich, but also link-rich (and even conversation rich). To me this adds a degree of depth to the experience of the blog. By contrast, I don�t like to link blogs that have no comments or few links because they tend to provide little by way of discourse context; they feel conversationally shallow to me (despite how good their main content may be).”
A shallowcast blog, in Fernando’s terms, has a narrow focus, draws you in specificially to its conent but in some ways is like a room with only one or two doors. He describes a deepcast blog as having many doors, and possibly many ways of enjoying the view. Perhaps because of the number of comments, the wealth of links or the breadth of secondary information usually in the sidebar.
Content isn’t everything. Food for thought isn’t it. ‘Pacific Highlander’ is one of several blogs under my care at the moment. I’ll be taking another look at each of the sites to consider the relational quotient.
Of course developing a community of commenters is no easy thing. Duncan’s TV Ad Land has a number of posts with vibrant conversation over controversial or particularly brilliant ads. And of course the site is designed to point people to other sites. Just this last week I added a list of other advertising blogs. But references to other blogs in the sidebar don’t compare to the value of mentioning the posts of other bloggers.
Fernando mentions XFN at the end of his post - which stands for XHTML Friends Network. For more on this see this site.
And by the way, did you know that Fernando’s a jazz guitarist and composer with a profile at Berklee.
I’ve started down the track of ridding my laptop of Frontpage-based web sites. First step was to migrate the Queensland Synod’s “Continuing Education for Ministry” web site from www.cem.ucaqld.com.au to www.continuingeducation.unitingchurch.org.au.
The changeover was made necessary by the transfer of web sites from DoveNetQ to the UnitingChurch ISP in Western Australia. Thanks to Geoff Hurst and Darren Wright for the support in making this happen.
The new site is up and ready to go, powered by WordPress. Which means that I can have a few co-editors for the site. No longer will people have to wait for me to get around to publishing information on the Trinity College courses. People will be able to post on their research and report on the conference they’re planning to attend.
Take a look. Try registering. I’ve got some research papers to add over the next few days. Three that were on the previous site and one I’ve had waiting to put on. Let me know if you’ve got a paper you’d like to make available to someone other than your examiners.
The image above is based on a photograph of a sunset I took between Emerald and Mackay last year. I’ll be making this the first personalised header for the site when I can work out how to do it.
Hahn Premium Light - Gondola
The spot features a gondola in Venice in which a guy spoils his girlfriend’s romantic sensibilities by landing a fish into her lap.
Whatucando.org
A disturbing video challenging people to put energy into doing something about suffering as an alternative to watching the next sitcom television show.
Tabasco - Tan Lines
An ad from the 2005 Super Bowl in which a sunbathing woman’s suffers skin burn, not from the sun but by putting Tabasco sauce in with her prawns dip.
Apple - Intel Factory
Moby provides the ambient soundtrack for a clip inspired by the Postal Service music video, “Such Great Heights” Emerald Nuts - Unicorn
A fibbing father is caught out by a white unicorn, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
AOL - Discuss
AOL UK launch a balanced discussion of the pros and cons of the internet.
HP - Pictures of You
Francois Vogel directs an effects-enhanced video promoting HP’s digital photography technology, to the sounds of The Cure.
Honda - Choir
The Honda Civic’s driving sounds are provided by a 60 piece choir. Another classic from the team that made ‘Cog’
Volkswagen - Angel’s Day Off
An angel takes a day off in Rio de Janeiro, secure in the knowledge that his charge is driving a VW Polo.
Clarks - Shoe Repairer
An old Russian shoe repairer in Melbourne is not happy about the durability of Clarks school shoes.
Hansaplast - Maman
A cheeky precocious French-speaking boy takes on life’s challenges with the explanation that his mother said he could. The ending provides a playful connection with birth control.
Sharp Aquos - More to see
People in this advert live their lives with their eyes closed. Finally someone opens her eyes to discover the visual delights on an art gallery wall. A promotion for LCD technology.
Pepsi - Elephant Tower
A young Indian boy discovers his power of persuasion over elephants. Not all ends happily.
Ford Fusion - Particles
An iPod-playing man unleashes particles of sound. The ignition key in a new Ford Fusion has a ripple effect on its city surroundings.
Antena - Steering Wheel
A Romanian television station promotes its entertainment value through quirky practical joke stunts. Steering Wheel and other spots.
Cravendale Cows
Three spots in three years tell us that Cravendale milk is so good the cows want it back.
Diet Pepsi - Dancing Cans
Soft drink cans and bottles complain about the partying habits of the Diet Pepsi dancers on the top shelf.
Toyota - Knives
A Sydney man tests his reflexes by ducking and diving through a storm of knives inspired by the shower of frogs in the film, Magnolia.
Ikea - Persian Rug
A series of Canadian pedestrians are ‘taken out’ by a Persian rug on its way home from an IKEA store. A plea for people to use the free delivery service.
IRN Bru - Raoul
Sunbathing Scottish women are bemused by Raoul, a try-hard body builder/diver. It’s all a promotion for IRN Bru, Scotland’s national energy soft drink.
Careerbuilder.com - Monkeys
An office worker is driven to looking for a new job by the antics of the monkeys he works with.
Virgin Mobile - Kate Moss
Kate makes her comeback into modelling with this tongue-in-cheek TV Ad. Heineken - Disturbance
Men around the world are disturbed when a bartender accidentally breaks a dozen bottles of Heineken beer.
Puma - Gifts
Various animals present various Puma sports shoes as gifts on a white background.
Tuna - Elevator
Two spots, one in Thailand and one in the USA. A young slim woman walks to the elevator/lift, attracting the lustful stares of her male colleagues. As soon as the door shuts however, she breathes out, revealing that her skirt is too small for her. We’re encouraged to eat Tuna and lose weight.
World Vision - Gift Catalogue
Yesterday we celebrated Australia Day by taking part in the Robina Great Aussie Breakfast, an event organised by Robina Surfers Paradise Uniting Church. It’s a free cooked breakfast for 2,500 people, with entertainment laid on for the whole family. There was gumboot throwing, face painting, stick-on Australian tattoos and a fashion parade featuring garments from the church’s second hand clothes shop.
My 18 year old son Lachlan had a 20-minute gig - singing Australian songs. I came along as guitarist/keyboards/backing vocalist. We sang the traditional “Moreton Bay”, Rolf Harris’ “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”, Slim Dusty’s “Love to Have a Beer with Duncan”, Max Merritt’s “Slipping Away”, Crowded House “Better Be Home Soon”, and Tripod’s “Place Where We Found That Body”.
I was talking to a member of the church who I’d worked with back in 2001, when I was on staff there, who had recognised neither me nor Lachlan on stage. It was the beard and sunglasses. The disguise is working well.
One of the stories not written up so often is the ongoing hurt of a country that celebrates its national holiday by focusing on the arrival of Europeans in a country inhabited by the Aborigines. January 26 is the day in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor. We still have the challenge of extending our sense of national identity beyond the beginning of European settlement and back through to ‘Dreamtime’.
I spent today migrating the Educating Christians blog from blogspot.com to unitingchurch.org.au. It wasn’t too hard a job as there were only about 50 posts to deal with. It was a matter of changing the FTP settings, reloading the images, and changing the permanent links I’d typed in by hand in the headings and sidebar.
I haven’t worked out the archives or the atom feed yet. No great loss at this point as people had chosen to subscribe to the Google Mail feed instead of going with the syndicated RSS feed. I took the opportunity to change the template - into the crisp white background of my other blogs.
Now the challenge is to get back into adding content to the reviews of Christian education resources. I’m open for new contributors. I’ve told the existing team that only those that write for the blog get to have their name on it. So, I present the new, updated Educating Christians.
I was working through some links on leadership this morning when I discovered a new category in the Amazon.com book profile. The Drucker Foundation book, On Mission and Leadership: A Leader to Leader Guide, has an entry from one of the authors, Rob Johnston, with a reference back to his posting at 4nonprofits.org. Rob’s posting at Amazon.com is in the new category, “Amazon Connect”.
I looked up Amazon Connect in Amazon’s Help Pages:
Amazon is getting ready to launch a new and unprecedented program for authors whose books are sold on Amazon.com. By participating in the Amazon Connect program, authors are able to post messages to their book detail pages, profile page and blog on Amazon.com.
Authors participating in Amazon Connect will have posted messages to their book detail pages, profile page and blog. When we officially launch this program, you will be able to search for all participating authors from one centralized location. At this point, the best way to see if an author has posted content about a book is to check the book’s detail page under the “Product Details” section. You also can search for the author’s profile page using people search.
You cannot respond directly to an author through the Amazon Connect program, but some authors will provide you with their e-mail address, blog site or internet site to contact them directly.
Authors with at least one book for sale on Amazon.com are eligible to participate in Amazon Connect. To learn more about the program and to sign up visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/arms/role/.
Jesus and his disciples went to the town of Capernaum. Then on the next Sabbath he went into the Jewish meeting place and started teaching. Everyone was amazed at his teaching. He taught with authority, and not like the teachers of the Law of Moses.
Suddenly a man with an evil spirit in him entered the meeting place and yelled, “Jesus from Nazareth, what do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are! You are God’s Holy One.” Jesus told the evil spirit, “Be quiet and come out of the man!” The spirit shook him. Then it gave a loud shout and left. Everyone was completely surprised and kept saying to each other, “What is this? It must be some new kind of powerful teaching! Even the evil spirits obey him.” News about Jesus quickly spread all over Galilee.
Footnotes: Mark 1:23 evil spirit: A Jewish person who had an evil spirit was considered “unclean” and was not allowed to eat or worship with other Jewish people.
I’ve come across a few people who want to tell everybody else they’re God’s holy one. Or the Son of God. Or the new Christ. But to have people on the edge of psychological/spiritual stability yell out who Jesus is… that’s another thing. My first reaction when reading this as a young person was one of appreciation of the capacity of Jesus to deal with destructive and oppressive forces in the lives of people he met.
I had regular encounters with people who demonstrated the kinds of behaviours being described here. I was keen to see what Jesus did, and perhaps follow in his footsteps. I noticed, for example, that Jesus didn’t deal with shouting people by shouting back at them. His authority was not based on the using the ‘correct words’ or the ‘loudest voice’. Nor was it based on physical shaking.
In the 1980s I went through my own shaking. I was involved in a number of deliverance ministry sessions in which deeply wounded people sifted through the crisis points of their lives and claimed spiritual victory. In some cases there were deep sighs and cries of agony as painful memories were resurrected and dealt with in the name of Jesus. I began to wonder if what we were doing was really all that helpful for those in the ‘inner healing/deliverance’ sessions. The physical expressions of ‘release’ may not have been due to evil spirits leaving. They may have been just expressions of deep hurt.
I was deeply impressed by the advice given at a Vineyard Ministries conference around that time. The common sense approach he advocated involved honouring normal medical procedures including physical, psychological and psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. If it became clear that there was something more, something sinister, involved in the oppressed person’s life, then would be the time for spiritual discernment and careful ministry of deliverance. But again, no need for shouting, shaking or magic formula.
Pizza ads are spoofing God in Auckland this week. According to a report in AdNews Australia, Hell Pizza has launched an outdoor campaign spoofing the global phenomenon that is Godspeak, the portal proudly selling God.
Billboards and print ads from the global campaign, Godspeak, appeared in Auckland over the last six months. Godmarks, the New Zealand branch of Godspeak, featured ads that had their own sense of humour. “I love everyone. Even Christians. God.” “Every day I get more prayer for car parks than anything else. You people need to start thinking bigger. God.” One has “Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate anyone who’s gay. Jesus”.
Now it’s the turn of national fast food franchise Hell Pizza to put up their billboards, some in the same places.
Instead of “I was just thinking about you’ - God” and “I miss how you used to talk to me when you were a kid” - God, Aucklanders are seeing, “I like the way you talk to me when you’re drunk” - The guy from Hell, and “How do you know He is listening? At least I deliver” - The guy from Hell.
The Hell Pizza web site opens with an invitation to choose a Hell Hole - a location in New Zealand where Hell Pizza operates. TV Spots feature a demon muttering curses as it eats pizza.
I’d be curious to hear how New Zealanders are responding to both campaigns…
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
Halstead describes an ‘unstuck’ congregation as a place where there’s an energizing effect from taking part in and talking about congregation. He looks for open communication with few restrictions about what can be talked about. An ‘unstuck’ situtation is marked by confidence that leaders, fellow members and the organisation as a whole listen and respond to needs. There’s a sense of growing as a group towards maturity and greater faithfulness, while effectively adapting to a changing world.
A shallowcast blog, in Fernando’s terms, has a narrow focus, draws you in specificially to its conent but in some ways is like a room with only one or two doors. He describes a deepcast blog as having many doors, and possibly many ways of enjoying the view. Perhaps because of the number of comments, the wealth of links or the breadth of secondary information usually in the sidebar.
