We are adaptive
As the saying goes “Change is the only constant”
Artwork by Sophie Killingley
Intro
by Rev Tina Hodgett
‘These are uncertain times.’
‘This is an unprecedented situation.’
‘Things don’t seem to work anymore.’
How many times a week do you hear these kinds of phrases on TV, social media, the radio? They appear in articles and book titles like ‘How to lead when you don’t know where you’re going.’
I wonder if you ask yourself what you can do to make it (whatever ‘it’ is) better, particularly in the context of leading in the parish church?
Often what needs our attention is our own posture towards God, ourself and others. What ways of being, listening, talking and doing do we bring to these areas of our life? Our existing ways of being may be wise and wonderful.
On the other hand they may have been formed in early life to keep us feeling safe, and it may be time to carefully, with self-compassion, with the help of our community, open ourselves to change them.
This is the essence of being adaptive. Understanding that new ways forward will depend on giving up existing beliefs and habits and adopting new ones; being willing to let go of aspects of ourselves and our familiar practices; take a risk for the sake of discovering something we hadn’t imagined; trying out new things and celebrating failure as learning.* This is, I would add, the essence of the life of a disciple of Christ.
All of this can be uncomfortable, but it will be more fruitful than applying an ‘off-the-peg’ solution that assumes our deep-rooted challenges in parish churches are purely technical and can be fixed like a faulty boiler (unless of course they are a faulty boiler).
Pioneering Parishes is an adaptive organisation. We try to model adaptive approaches and we encourage parish churches to do likewise.
*You can read more about technical v adaptive solutions in Heifetz, Ronald A., Marty Linsky, and Alexander Grashow. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World. Harvard Business Press, 2009 or find short articles on the internet.
Find out about how your church can make being adaptive part of who it is at Pioneering Parishes Values Day.
