Transforming Church

In addition to daily keynote addresses, relevant and engaging workshops will be offered on a variety of topics including:

· The Lead or Senior Pastor: What Your Congregation Needs from You in Today’s World
· Why Theological Precision Matters: Lessons from Columbine
· From Here We Stand to Here We Go:
An Evangelism Strategy Based on Winning the City· Having Fuel for the Mission: Raising People and Not Money
· Worship that Unites All the People for Mission
· 40 Developmental Assets: What Our Kids Need to Succeed
· The Connective Ethos of Missional Living: Coaching Discipleship in your Local Congregation
· Time with the Keynote Speaker

The numbers don’t lie. While the U.S. population has steadily increased throughout the last several decades, the membership numbers of mainline denominations have decreased. We have a problem .... a leadership problem. The technical skills taught in our seminaries, although at one time useful, have limited value. Perhaps the reason is the end of the Constantinian era, the advent of Post-Modernism or simply the perpetual whitewater of the rapidly changing North American landscape. In any case, the church of the 21st Century needs persons who can exercise adaptive leadership principles which transform congregations from their allegiance to the meta-narrative (individualism, consumerism, fear-based values) of our culture to the great news of the Gospel!

Walter Brueggeman, Professor of Biblical Studies at Columbia Seminary in Atlanta, studied a number of major narratives in the scriptures, old and new and discovered a predictable pattern. He described this pattern as a drama with three different scenes.

Scene 1 - God wins a victory over something of ultimate concern to us. God does it completely out of God’s initiative. Humans take no responsibility. God does it all. (i.e. creation out of chaos, rescuing the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery, raising Jesus from the dead, to name a few).

Scene 2 - Somebody – a preacher, prophet, or messenger – announces the victory in the midst of a gathered assembly. The announcer had nothing to do with the victory. She or he simply proclaims it. (i.e. Mary Magdalene to the disciples on Easter morning, “I have seen the Lord).

Scene 3 - Those who hear the news respond. They reorder their lives in light of what they have heard. They change directions in their lives. They take on a new vocation. They do something! (i.e. the shepherds hear the angel’s announcement of the birth of Jesus, they go to Bethlehem to see for themselves, they report what they were told, and they return to their fields glorifying and praising God).

The 2006 Abiding Hope Adaptive Leadership Academy is an opportunity to grow as an adaptive leader as you engage authors who are on the front edge of leadership development. You will also grow as you develop life-giving relationships with brothers and sisters from around the country. In addition to pastors and congregational leaders, representatives from at least three ELCA seminaries will be in attendance. Don’t miss out on this unique event. Register Today.