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Appreciative Inquiry Based Guide to Mutual Ministry Reviews
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Christianity did not flourish because 11 people in an upper room took an anonymous vote
and 10 voted for the resurrection.
Christianity flourished because people shared their stories about meeting the risen Christ
and how he had transformed their lives.
Many years ago we developed and offered computer software called Parish Survey to take all the grunt work out of developing and collating a congregation-wide survey. Over the years we have discovered the many shortcomings of surveys:
One of things that clergy and church leaders detest are anonymous letters, that are often full of vitriol but offer no way to understand the nature of the complaint or how to fix the situation. These kinds of letters are destructive to the fabric of community and do not facilitate life and congregational vitality. At their core such anonymous comments violate the core values of Christian community.
Creating anonymous surveys reinforces these behaviors that violate these core values. In the search process we need to reinforce behaviors such as community dialogue, where every voice is valued, if we are to create wise and loving outcomes.
The path to our preferred future must be consistent with our preferred future. Just as we can't fight for peace, we can't create Christian community by encouraging anonymity.
We are now using Appreciative Inquiry processes to conduct information gathering as part of the search process.
>> Read more about Appreciative Inquiry
Using an Appreciative Inquiry process as outlined in our Search Manual Assessing Skills and Discerning Calls will not only provide information for the search but will also enrich the current community functioning. Appreciative approaches will:
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