MODULE COMPETENCY GRID
MODULE OBJECTIVES
Preparing the Ministry Development Team members to fully participate in their faith community and the wider community. To expand the understanding of all types of diversity in these communities and to be able to integrate diversity in one’s personal and community life. Team members will be able to:
1. Complete a Team and Individual Assessment and develop a Learning Plan.
2. Recognize and encourage the gifts each person brings to the congregation.
Discern the kind of “gifts inventory” that best fits the congregation.
Determine a process that encourages the practice of gift discernment in an ongoing way in the congregation.
3. Demonstrate a collaborative leadership model.
Demonstrate skills in dialogue, engaging with those holding a variety of options about issues.
Strengthen conflict resolution skills.
4. Understand various decision making processes and which process to use in various situations.
5. Demonstrate a balance between congregational ministries with focus inside the congregation and those outside the congregation.
Ability to lead the congregation, as a whole, to balance its ministry inside and outside the church walls.
6. Demonstrate awareness of and appropriate responses to the current affairs locally, nationally, and globally.
Ability to discern a good understanding of the local ministry setting and demographics.
Ability to discern the ethical issues faced in the local community.
Demonstrate an understanding of context in order to enable the Christian community to respond.
Participate with the community in dialogues concerning current affairs.
Collaborate with others in the community on responses to issues.
7. Demonstrate an openness to understanding various faith traditions.
Discern the relationships with other faith traditions in the local community.
Develop ways of sharing with other faith traditions with the focus being increased understanding of the tradition.
READING
by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, Sep 20, 2016
Inclusion: Making Room for Grace by Eric Law, 2000
The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community by Eric Law, January 1993
God’s Tapestry: Understanding and Celebrating Difference is a wonderful resource for the breadth of diversity
Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation by Stephanie Spellers
A House of Prayer for All Peoples: Congregations building Multiracial Community by Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook
Where the Edge Gathers: Building a Community of Radical Inclusion, Yvette Fluner (focus on diversity in the spectrum of sexuality)
I Have Called You Friends: an Invitation to Ministry by Kevin Thew Forrester, 2003
Conflict and a Christian Life by Sam Portaro, 2003
Sacred Acts. Holy Change: Faithful Diversity and Practical Transformation by Eric H. F. Law, 2002
Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass
The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of America's Public Life by Parker Palmer
“Alinsky for the Left: The Politics of Community Organizing”
RESOURCES
Visualize Diversity An activity to illustrate the diversity in a person’s life.
Cultural Diversity An article on defining “cultural diversity”
Even the Stones Cry Out for Justice: 3-5 season Bible study or retreat
Alban Institute has many resources for congregations.
A Call To Action Report: foundational information on domestic poverty
Guidelines for Interfaith Dialogue from The InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFC)