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Here are several statements by CDI
Participants on the results they have experienced --
I have found my own strengths as parish priest in
teaching, preaching, and spirituality. I only had a vague sense of what I was doing
as an ordained leader beyond these roles. I could psychologize
relationships in the parish with Friedman and theologize decisions and visions with Scripture and the mystics, but most of the administrative parts
of my work were done just to get them done and with very little real connection to God. CDI helped me to have the confidence to lead in ways I
never thought I could. I now not only come to the role of ordained leader with new techniques, models and understanding, I also come with an energy
and excitement that is contagious. Leadership is no longer something I
have to do as parish priest, it is a gift from God, a joy, and a wonderful challenge.
-- Gary J.M.Barker, Vicar and Priest, Grace Episcopal Church, Stanardsville, VA
Grace is a mission church of about 150 people in quickly changing rural area of the Diocese of Virginia. Graduated CDI-NYC 1998
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Understanding organization development and using OD
concepts has been a twenty-five year process for me as an Executive Director in the nonprofit
secular world. As a retiree, the CDI program is keeping me updated and showing me how to use these concepts in a parish environment. It's
exciting to be able to share these competencies with our church leaders as we face
future changes together.
-- Marilynn Daily Swenson, Layperson, Church of the Ascension, Lexington Park,
MD
Participant in CDI-Washington 2000
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Just a note about what CDI has meant to me and our
parish...
Both my Rector and I have completed the CDI training course. As a result
of his training, our parish now has a Parish Development Committee of which I am a
member. We spend time each month looking at more long-term directions for
the parish in order to present specific proposals and recommendations to the Vestry.
The CDI training I have received has specifically helped me be a more focused, productive member of that committee.
As a result of my training at CDI, I have implemented a Newcomers Committee in our parish with outstanding results. The working committee focuses on
issues around welcoming and incorporating new folks into our parish. We have an
event each month - alternately a Rector's Welcome Tea or a Wine/Cheese/Lemonade social - to which these folks are issued invitations. These events are
structured to give new folks a chance to meet with the Rector, the committee
and leaders of the parish in a non-threatening, informal setting.
We have been told over and over by new members that we are a warm and welcoming parish that does not overwhelm its visitors. The increases in our
membership roll and our extremely successful pledge drive this past fall only underscore
those observations. I cannot help but believe that the CDI training has
been a tremendous contributor to all of this!
I am currently Senior Warden of our parish (the second time around) and am employed as a Project Director for BellSouth Corporation here in Atlanta.
-- Terri Tilley, CDI-NYC Graduate - 1999
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CDI is providing frameworks and tools that are
transforming my vision of ministry and the leadership
I am providing my congregation. I am able to make better assessments
and help other leaders, especially the vestry, create an environment where our congregation is growing in
competency and trust. We are moving through a time of growth and an intensive long range planning
process. The CDI training has helped us improve our community's ability to listen with care, to gather input,
to focus on what we do well, to more effectively channel feedback into the system, and move forward
with a common sense of mission. In addition, the training has enhanced my ability to set healthy
limits. My spiritual life has been blessed by our immersion in Benedictine spirituality. There are no
short-cuts with CDI. It requires real commitment and honesty. It's worth all the effort!
-- Sherry Hardwick Thomas Rector, St. James' Episcopal Church, Louisa,
Virginia; Participant CDI-VA 2000
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CDI training has reoriented my thinking/visioning
processes about the congregation in the following ways:
1) bring in others, an imaginative conversation about parish life is usually helpful even with the most troublesome nay-sayers;
2) we're soaked in therapeutic talk as a culture and it being "all my fault
and/or problem", this training kicks me out of some of my more egregious self-centeredness;
3) people want to become invested in their faith not simply in compartmentalized ways and the more the church models how faith speaks to
even whether or not we keep the building clean, the better shot people have at letting their faith and God speak to the rest of their lives.
-- Mary Sulerud, Rector, Church of the Ascension, Silver Spring, MD; Participant CDI-Washington 2000
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When the Diocesan Academy of Congregational Development (CDI-WMA) graduated
its first class in June of 1999, three participants from St. John’s,
Williamstown, were among those receiving certificates for successfully
completing the two-year training program—and a fourth parishioner will
graduate in 2000. Senior Warden Laurie Glover, Vestry member Jamie Martin, and
their Rector, Peter Elvin, enrolled in the Academy’s first class and St. John’s
Junior Warden, Alison Kolesar, enrolled in the second cycle. All four of them
are convinced that this kind of training has its benefits multiplied in a parish—like
the loaves and fishes—when a team, including the priest, make the investment
together.
Investment is also what their Vestry has done, paying the tuition of each
parish participant while each personally pays for books required for the course.
The Diocesan Academy expects each member to design, implement, and report on
a major congregational development project. Laurie’s has been the developing
of more and better feedback loops and channels for communication in the parish,
especially to assist parish leaders. Jamie’s project picked up on St. John’s
growing youth ministry, and has resulted in a lending library of compact discs
and tapes featuring a wide range of Christian music. Alison, a member of the
Parish Choir, worked with their Principal Musician to design and facilitate a
process for the Choir to assess its life and work together in the parish, and
set some new directions. Peter focused on new member ministry, and a small team
of parishioners joined him in sharpening and improving the parish’s patterns
of welcome and incorporation of newcomers.
This quartet has assisted the Vestry in their first attempt at strategic
planning. All four have had a hand shaping and leading the parish’s new
Christian Foundations course. Other parish leaders have helped teach this
ten-session, twenty-hour course that is laced with Academy insights and learning
tools, now being offered twice a year and getting a positive reception from
newcomers and veteran parishioners alike.
"These past two years have been rich in new initiatives here," says
their Rector. "And in unexpected ways. The four of us, as a team, have been
using our new skills in a number of parish settings and people respond well and
act in empowered ways. One of our team reports lots of carry-over between
Academy learnings and the secular workplace. Another has found such affirmation
of personal gifts that she has gone after additional training and may well have
a vocation as a church consultant. Along the way, the four of us are teaching a
common language and showing people how to use a helpful set of tools and
skills.
Now I’m greedy and want two or three more Academy enrollees!"
Diocesan news -- Diocese of Western Massachusetts
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I learned -- how to make my church a better place ... how to use problems as
challenges and stepping stones and to grow from my encounter with them ... how
to listen and understand.
-- Diane C. Jakel, Buffalo, NY; Certified Social
Worker, Graduate of CDI-WNY 1999
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The effort in congregational development should not be
seen as one more
program to keep the people busy. Congregational development teaches
me to
see the Christian community as a whole -- with its identity, boundaries,
disciplines and commitments -- and to seek an entry point into making the
church grow. For me, the entry point is prayer. Spiritual
growth of the
parish is more important than the growth of membership. And the work
must
begin with a small group, in hope that others in the church will join in.
-- Tinh T. Huynh, Rector, St. Patrick's Church, Falls
River, VA |