How Leaders Shape Congregational Culture

5 paths to leading change

How do we lead in an age with an unprecedented pace of change?

The temptation is to double down and work harder. You might think,

I could preach more effectively, organize differently, spend more time on pastoral care or church administration.”

And while we’re not suggesting those things are unimportant, we are saying that they’re not enough.

For generations, leadership was about finding the right map to guide your leadership efforts. It is becoming increasingly clear that map reading is no longer an effective leadership strategy. Leaders must learn to be map makers.

We want to help you learn the skills necessary to do ministry in a rapidly changing world.

For more than a decade, we have been working with hundreds of congregations across North America to learn the skills of map making.

And now, we are excited to announce that we are launching an online course for pastors and congregational leaders who are interested in learning or increasing their capacity around these skill sets.

This course adapts our one-on-one, in-person consulting process into an online collaborative group course, making this process accessible to church leaders across the globe at a fraction of the cost.

But we want to be clear; we offer no quick fixes or leadership techniques. We will offer a leadership map that will empower you and your congregation to journey into this new era with greater effectiveness.

What others have said about this course:

The time I spent with the learning materials, group discussions, and coaching sessions, was rich and powerful. Through this course, Jim and Trisha have created a learning experience where we as leaders can intentionally pause and reflect in our personal life in leadership and at the same time examine the life of the organizations, churches, and ministries we have impact. In this course, you’re not going to learn a magic formula but you will be equipped. Equipped with tools and a framework to approach ministry in fresh ways.”
– Andrea Leigh Capuyan

I think this is a really timely cohort for anyone who is in leadership or ministry right now… There’s something about seeing leaders from all over the country who are all experiencing some of the same challenges you are coming together and simply saying that.”
– Bill Flavin, River Rock Church

This course acknowledged that the church in North America is now in uncharted territory and so what we learned were map making skills. One of the things I liked about the course was that I did it over Zoom and I got to meet with pastors of all different denominations all over the nation, we got to meet in group sessions where we digested content together and processed together and then we got broken up into smaller coaching groups where we had at least one peer… I can’t overstate the richness of the learning that was involved as we processed things together. And maybe most of all it made feel like I wasn’t alone.”
– Jonathan Hart, Mulder Church

Course Overview

The course contains seven modules over seven months and will meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 10 am beginning January 23, 2024 (except in March when we will meet on the third Tuesday, same time). Each module will include a workshop with teaching and dialogue, as well as small group coaching in between each workshop and following the final workshop.

Course Modules

1. Introduction

In this opening session, you will get connected to the course leaders and fellow participants, get a course overview, and make connections to your coaching group. You'll also get assignments for the next session on mission.

2. Mission

Developing a clear, simple statement that captures the cardinal direction of the congregation.

What is your congregation’s mission? How clear and shared is it? What metrics do you use to assess progress toward your mission? Tell a story of congregational conflict in which the mission trumped (or didn’t). What was the impact of that?

3. Guiding Principles

Learn to name congregational guiding principles aligned with the mission. Effective leaders monitor gaps between espoused guiding principles and guiding principles in practice. Then they learn to take meaningful action to close the gaps.

What are your congregation’s guiding principles in practice? How aligned are they with your mission? What work can you do to bring alignment around a new set of espoused guiding principles? How do you monitor their integrity? What happens when the values are ignored or violated? How do you honor and celebrate the integrity of your values?

4. Narrative

Clarify the story of the congregation, connect the story to the mission, and then share it broadly.

What is the narrative of your congregation’s life, history, and future? Are these narratives positive and aligned with the mission and guiding principles of the congregation? Are they broadly shared? How do you know? What are the competing narratives that are out there? How are you helping people in your congregation share a common narrative?

5. People Practices

Congregations must have practices that reflect their mission and guiding principles and that increase participants’ capacity to live into those values.

What are the practices that you engage to help people know and master the mission, and values of the congregation? How do you help them align their passion with that mission? What training is offered? How is feedback given? How is mastery rewarded? How are you developing both intellectual knowledge of your mission and values and internal strength to live into the mission and values in the face of resistance, breakdowns, and apathy? How do you invite people into this journey?

6. Place

Context and space shape congregational culture.

How well do you know your geographic context? What demographic and psychographic changes have occurred in the past 5 years? 10 years? What are the felt needs of those in your congregational context? In your geographic context? What does the physical space where you meet communicate about your mission and your values? What does that space invite people to do and what does it minimize or make impossible?

7. Wrap-up

In this closing session, we will do a high level review and help you develop a long-term implementation plan.

Armed with strong theological training, I was supposedly ready for pastoral leadership. Truth be told, I didn’t have the emotional maturity to lead a congregational well—especially through change. Possessing a rare combination of skills and relational intelligence, Jim and Trisha possess the ability to catalyze the transformation leaders must experience in order to be transformational leaders.”
Nate Pyle, Christ’s Community Church in Fishers, Indiana

About the Course Facilitators

Jim Herrington Trisha Taylor The Leader's Journey

For more than 20 years, Jim and Trisha have worked with hundreds of pastors and congregational leaders across North America. They developed a working theory of personal and congregational transformation that they have tested in an ongoing series of pilot projects in a wide variety of contexts and with congregations from very small to very large.