Healthy Congregations Workshop scheduled for: 

 Oct. 31 – Nov 1., First Presbyterian Church, 702 W Prairie St, Creston, IA. 50801.  For registration information call Pastor Scott Vandenheuval 641-782-5938 or dvanden1@mchsi.com

Schedule a Healthy Congregations workshop or Conflict Response Training in your church or district.

 “If you want your congregation to regain its vitality, transform its ministry and renew its vision, Healthy Congregations is a powerful tool for equiping leaders-lay and clergy.  Lola Peters leads with gentle persuasion and sincere committment to leadership excellence.”  Paul Fraser

Download a sample Registration Form(PDF)

In the Healthy Congregations Workshop you will learn about:

• Your Congregation as an integrated system
• The Interrelated parts and interactions
• How leaders care for, respond to, and oversee the congregation’s life together

Learn How To:

• Cultivate strong leadership capacities
• Develop healthy patterns of working in community
• Focus on strengths, resources and options
• Boost confidence in responding to challenges and opportunities
• Lead with calm and thoughtfulness
• Move the congregation toward healthy functioning
• Gain a renewed sense of purpose and mission

Eight Attributes of Healthy Leaders

• Accept differences
• Focus on strengths
• Focus on mission
• Respond thoughtfully instead of reacting emotionally to anxiety and change
• Manage conflict
• Act flexibly and creatively
• Promote health through their presence and functioning
• Challenge people

Who Will Benefit

This workshop is designed for:

• Pastors, Church Council, Session members, Elders and Deacons, other lay leaders, and Judicatory leaders.
• Recommend that clergy and lay leadership teams attend together.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE  Oct. 31-Nov. 1, First Presbyterian Church, Creston, IA.

Fri. night:

6:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. REGISTRATION
7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. What is Systems Thinking?
*Video Case Study:
“ The Anxious Congregation/The Responsible Congregation”

SATURDAY

9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Healthy Congregations:
* Respond to Anxiety
* Invite Self-Differentiation

10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break

10:45 a.m. – 12:00 a.m. Healthy Congregations
*Focus on Strengths
*Manage Conflict

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch on site
(included in registration)

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. In Healthy Congregations:
*Leaders Challenge People
*Leaders Focus on Mission

2:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Break

2:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. In Healthy Congregations:
*Leaders Promote Health Through Their Presence and Functioning
*Planning for a Healthier Congregation�

About Healthy Congregations

The Healthy Congregations Workshop is based on Bowen’s family systems theory as applied to church congregations. The workshop was developed by Dr. Peter Steinke and is based on the work of Dr Edwin Friedman, author of Generation to Generation: Family Process In Church and Synagogue.

In this workshop you will learn how you, as a leader, can have a positive influence on your congregation.

When you blame others for problems, you give away your power. When you learn what you can do differently, you take back your power to effect positive change in your congregation.�

CONFLICT RESPONSE TRAINING

Sample Schedule for a One-Day Workshop 

8:30 – 9:00 am    Registration

9:00 – 10:00 am  Introduction to Conflict

                                Understanding Conflict

                                Observations on Conflict in the Bible

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45 – 12:00 pm   Response to Conflict

                                   Individual Styles

                                   Emtional Responses

12:00 – 1:00 pm   Lunch

1:00 – 2:30 pm   Interpersonal Peacemaking Skills

                              Active-Empathic Listening

                              “I” Messages

                               Strategies for Win-Win Negotiations

2:45-3:00 pm  Break

3:00 – 4:30 pm  Congregational Responses to Conflict

OTHER WORKSHOPS OFFERED

• Comumnication and Listening Skills: 

                   How to respond in a caring way to help people          

                     cope with difficult feelings

• How to Stay Calm and Better Control Your Emotions

                    Be a more effective leader by controlling reactivity