Our Future is Bright
Kim Sweeney, Courageous Faith Consulting
Last year’s release of The Death of Sunday School and the Future of Faith Formation provoked a lot of conversation and was received with mixed feelings among New England religious professionals. Join us as we take some time to:
- dig deeper into what the death of Sunday school means for our New England congregations
- explore the future of faith formation through a family ministry lens
- address the top 3 myths associated with “how to do this work.”
Kim Sweeney is a credentialed Religious Educator and independent consultant who worked for seven years as the Lead for Faith Formation and Safe Congregations on the UUA’s New England Regional staff team. She is the author of The Death of Sunday School and The Future of Faith Formation. Kim brings an indomitable spirit, contagious hope, and a willingness to embrace change.
Come Into The Forest and Find the Trees: Change Management as Flexibility and Flow
Cindy Beal, (CB) M.Div. of Justice and Peace Consulting
We are frequently invited to think about managing change as though it is something to be conquered. The metaphors abound. Change is a chasm into which we might fall and across which we must travel, a fiery pit in which we might burn if we do not navigate it well, or a forest within which we will be lost until we forge a way through, cutting out the old to make room for the new.
In this workshop we will experience ideas about change in ourselves that invite us to experience flexibility, openness, even a state of flow.
We will use another metaphor. It begins with entering a forest, but rather than slashing a path, we will embrace change by noticing the trees, the floor, the scent, the light. We will explore the concept of rootedness differentiated from being stuck, and flexibility differentiated from indecision.
We will identify some of the things that are challenges to effective change, and explore a couple models that will help serve as a framework to support fluidity and experimentation.
The experience of this day is intended to be useful for anyone for any kind of change, but the focus will be on personal change not change of others. Participants will be invited to bring a particular idea that you want to work. It might be a change in how you communicate within your family, it might be a change about how you set boundaries at work or another obligation, or it might be a focus on a change that is about your internal perspective, willingness, openness.
Each person’s choice of what to work on will remain private, while we will be sharing with one another about processes, thoughts, and reflections throughout our time together. We will not be advising one another on the content of the challenge we have selected, and or options for outcome, but on the means of change, on change as a process.
This workshop will involve story, ideas, internal reflection and external processing, and hands-on activities. Everyone is invited to bring curiosity, openness, and whatever handwork will help them remain engaged throughout the day.
CB is an educator, consultant, and writer who grew up on a small farm, went to college (where they were the fastest dishwasher and short order cook in the world) and seminary (where they once jumped upon the roof to see if certain professors could hear the noise). CB was an educator and activist in Philadelphia in the 1980s, and a researcher, trainer and UU religious educator in western Massachusetts from the mid-1990s to the present. They live and work in a rehabilitated mill building, where they photographs shadows thrown by the sun throughout the year. They love good coffee and vodka, (at the appropriate times of day,) and geek-out talking to people about how they want to grow as a person or group.
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