UMASCE

The UnitedMethodistAssociation of Scholars inChristianEducation

 

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Building the Future in Leadership Formation

Welcome to the UMASCE web site! We hope that you can find here what you are seeking. Use the links in the right hand box above to navigate the site. If you need information you cannot find here, just email us at rben@airmail.net

UMASCE Consultation 2009

Moving Into God's Future: Educational Leadership as Improvisation

July 27-31, 2009

Fall Creek Falls State Park, Pikeville, Tennessee

A Time of Visioning and Strategizing with Dr. Gil Rendle as our Guest Facilitator

Call to the Consultation

The church into which we were born no longer exists. What the new church will look like is still emerging. This reality requires new skills, structures, and processes. This reality calls for deep listening and learning as we discern where God is already at work in the world and join in partnership with God and one another. Radical transition, such as we are experiencing in the world today, requires improvisational leadership. When the old ways of doing things no longer work and we aren't sure what the new ways need to be, we improvise!
Improvisation can be understood as a fusion of awareness and understanding that allows leaders to act within a range of options that best fit within their context. Improvisation includes creating, experimenting, testing, and playing. How might this metaphor explicate Christian discipleship as a process of learning and creating new responses to the issues facing the world today? What if we play around with the concept of improvisation as one possible metaphor for our task as educational leaders?

Envisioned Outcomes of the Consultation

1. We will identify the “hard questions” upon which we will focus our dialogue and work with each other in the coming two years.
2. We will name and plan specific actions (research, resource development, etc.) that will be taken to address the “hard questions” identified through our dialogue and consultative process.
3. We will have a younger, more diverse group of people as part of this intentional community.
4. We will continue work on ongoing projects identified at the last consultation and celebrate our accomplishments.

Pre-Consultation Reading: Phyllis Tickle's The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why.

Process and Leadership
We are fortunate to have Gil Rendle with us to guide our process which will involve *presentations by Gil
*with responses from selected members of our group including Mai Anh Tran, Jonathan Smith and others
*followed by “processing sessions” in small groups.

During our time together we will explore:
Mental Models, Norms and Practices that Create Barriers
Images/Visions in Christian Nurture
Shifts in Leadership

In addition we will be following up on accomplishments of this past two years through reports and further strategy decisions Including:
--The General Conference Resolution
--The Consultation on Christian Education Course Content, May, 2008
--Strategy on a required CE Course for ordination
--Designing a course on “Living the United Methodist Way”

About Our Guest Facilitator

Gil Rendle serves as Senior Consultant with The Institute for Clergy and Congregational Excellence of The Texas Methodist Foundation in Austin Texas and as an independent consultant working with issues of change and leadership in denominations and large churches. Prior to this position he served the Alban Institute as an author, seminar leader and senior consultant for twelve years. An ordained United Methodist minister, Rendle served as senior pastor of two urban congregations in Pennsylvania for sixteen years and as a denominational consultant for The United Methodist Church for nine years.
Rendle has an extensive background in organizational development, group and systems theory, and leadership development. He frequently consults with congregations on planning, staff and leadership development, and issues of change. He is well known for his work with middle judicatory and national denominational offices and staff as they wrestle with denominational and congregational change.
In training workshops and conferences, Rendle has led numerous large and small groups in practical learning that directly impacts participants’ decisions and practice in their leadership roles. He is the author of five books, a contributor to four books, and the author of numerous articles and monographs. Gil is a resident of Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife, Lynne.

Location

Fall Creek Falls State Park is located in a beautiful area of eastern Tennessee near Pikeville, TN, approximately 2 hours drive from Nashville and 1-1/2 hours from Chattanooga. The location was chosen especially to encourage more of the staff of GBOD and Cokesbury to participate. We will let you know about arrangements for shuttles from Nashville or Chattanooga as plans progress.

Costs
The registration fee will be $35 per person payable upon registration for the Consultation.
The lodging at the Park for the 4 days and nights will be $368. 92 (tax included) for a couple or single in one room. The meals will be $99.40 per person if you eat all of the meals which will be up to you and depending upon whether we have special banquets for the whole group.

Our Officers for 2007-2009

President: Patty Meyers
President-Elect and Design Team Chair: Wanda Stahl
Secretary: Susan Willhauck
Design Team Members: Carol Krau and Debora Junker
Executive Secretary: Ben Marshall

Documents from 2007 Consultation

Minutes of the Business Meeting
Summary of the Small Group Work
Final Draft of the General Conference Resolution
Copy of Chuck Foster's Opening Presentation

About this Web Site

It seems best to use this web site more as a location for documents to which we need to refer than for ongoing information, except for the purpose of providing for consultation registration, etc.

The list of members of UMASCE will no longer contain contact information, so if you are wishing to locate someone please contact Ben Marshall at rben@airmail.net and he will provide you with how to contact that person. This change seems best for security purposes.

 

BECOMING A MEMBER OF UMASCE

If you are not already a member, or have let your membership lapse in the last year or so, we strongly encourage you to join or renew your membership now. The Building the Future project is a very important one and will yield some exciting results, but only if we have everyone possible working on it.

You can join or renew by simply clicking here on Member Sign-Up and filling out the information and sending it on by email. Then send your check for $35 for regular membership or $17.50 for retired or student membership to the address foung on that page.

If you have questions or need further help please email Ben Marshall at rben@airmail.net.