Below is description and plan for the continued development of the Ecclesia Project for 2111 and 2012. The description below continues to be in the service of the original four fold vision of the Project: 1) Build a culture of innovation and creativity within the Presbytery, 2) Encourage Church transformation through energizing and incubating new ideas and experiments, 3) Identify and support innovative leaders and groups, 4) Start, cultivate and animate new expressions of Christian community.
Foundational Ideas and Assumptions
1) Multiple Worldviews - An Assumption of Theological and Ecclesiological Diversity – The Ecclesia Project assumes there are a variety of different worldviews from which theology and ecclesiology arise (See Spiral Dynamics). Each of these worldviews gives rise to a different but valued expression of Christianity and Presbyterianism. The Ecclesia Project seeks to honor each of these worldviews inviting each into a creative, vital and health expression of it’s form of Christian community . We are not uplifting or focusing on one particular worldview with its theological symbols and ecclesiologic expressions. Instead we are seeking to engage each worldview within the spectrum providing appropriate guidance and support.
2) Christian Communities – We are intentionally using the term “Christian Community” instead of the more traditional term “church” to refer to the types of communities we want to cultivate and support. We feel the term “church” is associated with one type of Christian community and may be too limiting for our use. So, “Christian Community” is the umbrella term we use in reference to variety of types of communities, including more traditional types of communities that have buildings, worship services, sessions and programs. We can envision some of these new Christian Communities becoming traditional models known as churches. However, we do not want to limit innovation and creativity with the assumptions connected to the term “church.”
3) Experimenting with a Network of Reformed House Churches and Intentional Communities – We are especially interested in cultivating an emerging concept of a Network of “Reformed House Church or Intentional Communities” which may look and function like the “early church” described in Acts. (A brief description of these terms is provided below) Within this model the assumption is that communities will remain small while being connected to each other through a network. Within this model small groups are the essential structure needed for Christian Community and the primary means through which personal and social transformation happens. “Where two or three are gathered I am there.” The network seeks to identify and cultivate leaders for local communities, which take on their own ethos, while remaining connected to a larger network grounded in reformed theology and practices. Leadership emerges from those communities and is equipped and trained appropriately to provide effective and transformative leadership for that community. This may require the Presbytery to develop new roles and responsibilities, like a presbytery evangelist and community developer who can function more like the Apostle Paul who created and supported a network of Christian communities and cultivated leaders.
4) Bi-Vocational Leaders – The Ecclesia Project is committed to building a leadership development program and network especially for those doing Bi-Vocational ministry. We want to empower and equip those who feel called to leadersip but who do not rely upon it for the majority of their employment. We understand that a leader is anyone who is gifted and called. This does not necessarily mean they possess a Mastor’s of Divinity degree or is officially ordained by a denominational body. This being said, the Ecclesia Project expects leaders and communities to participate in an intentional leadership develop program and be accountable to the Presbytery for their work and ministry. We are seeking leaders, who are called and gifted, who have creativity and wisdom and want to develop skill and cultivate accountability. These leaders will also have jobs which provide much of their financial support and health care. As we explore working with a new “type” of leader we will continually learn and develop the needed tools and practices for support, training accountability. The questions and issues which arise from intentionally recruiting these bi-vocational ministers will need a different kind of education, resources and support that we will seek to develop through specific examples as we move into unique relationships and circumstances with leaders.
5) Positive Deviance - The Ecclesia Project seeks to integrate the model and practice of “positive deviance” as defined in the book, “The Power of Positive Deviance.” The essential idea is that we should learn from those individuals and communities which are innovative and vital against all odds. Learn from the successful outliers. It also assumes that we should look for good ideas and innovation on the outside ring of any community or organizations.
6) Prototyping – The Ecclesia Project are using a concept called “prototyping,” which understands that the education structures and the new initiates we are creating are not envisioned as a final products. Instead, they are prototypes of the future that is still emerging. Prototypes are brought into reality as a means of learning and evolving. We understand that the programs we create are learning labs which will continue to change and develop as we create them. In times of great change and transformation experimentation and real time learning are more important that getting it right the first time. There may come a time when we can again make broad assumptions about how Christian community will look and how to start them, until them we prototype
7) Leadership Development - Identifying, equipping and forming leaders in and for a particular and contextual Christian Community is central to the work and vision of the Ecclesia Project. The curriculum for this type of leader is a creative mix of essential learning modules, determined the Ecclesia Project Commission and self directed learning determined by the specific leaders.
Reformed – The Christian Communities we seek to cultivate and support are grounded within the theology and tradition of the Reformed and Reforming Faith. Through our education and equipping, specific modules we will seek to cultivate in our leaders the essential theology and practices of the Reformed tradition while encouraging its creative expression in their unique contexts.
9) Connectional Networks – A particular Christian Community is a more true expression of the Church Universal when connected, networked and interdependent with other Christian communities and integrated into a larger fractal of support, learning and mission. This is an essential tenet of Reformed faith and guiding value of the Ecclesia Project. Even though a small group is all that is needed to be affirmed and celebrated as Christian Community, each community must practice interdependence and be in covenant with other churches and communities. The communities we seek to cultivate with the Ecclesia Project, will by their very nature be connected to a larger network of communities. We will encourage a variety of networks and learning communities to organically. These networks may form based upon theological worldview and/or ecclesiological style like the network of Intentional Communities and House Churches we are envisioning.
10) IN, WITH, OUT - In, With, Out are essential Practices of any Christian Community and are necessary elements of the communities which the Ecclesia Project seeks to support and cultivate.
- Inward Practices – cultivate the vertical dimension of our lives and relationship with God and can be understood in the categories of transcendent and imminent spiritual practices.
- With or Community Practices – cultivate the horizontal dimension of our lives focusing on our interpersonal relationships and experience of intimate, healthy and dynamic communal lives.
- Outward Practices – cultivate our passion and engagement in the transformation of the world through our sense of calling, gifting and responsibility
11) Innovation and Creative Leadership – Innovative leaders and communities need:
Diverse ideas and people to stimulate thinking and novelty.
Freedom to pursue their passions and sense of call.
Others, just one or two others, who can join them in the creative process and provide needed accountability.
Permission to try things that are different and unusual without the fear of failure or being considered a heretic.
Organic peer learning and support.
12) Central Values and Practices of Innovation & Creativity - At this point in the life of the Presbyterian Church innovation, passion, creativity, chaos, risk, experimentation and permission giving need to be central values, practices and postures. As the pendulum naturally swings between poles of order and chaos we must make way for things to become more messy, confusing and creative before they move to order, structure and solidification. The Ecclesia Project is seeking to shift the pendulum to chaos and creativity trusting it will return as needed.
13) Fractal Transformation – In order to deepen personal transformation and cultivate healthy and sustainable Christian Communities we need to be connected to a larger fractal of transformation (See Christian Community Fractal). Each level of complexity within the fractal has a unique function and purpose. The Ecclesia Project seeks to work at all levels of the fractal to provide sustainable change.
Christian Community Incubator & Innovation Process:
The Phases of Christian Community Innovation
Working with the larger Presbytery, especially the Congregational Development Unit and the Education Unit we will develop an integral and holistic formation process described in the diagram above – A Christian Community Incubator Process, An Integral Leadership Institute, Networks and Fellowships and A Community Innovation Hub. Each of these four components would work together to identify, equip, cultivate and support new leaders, ideas, initiatives and communities and help transform existing communities through encouraging innovation and creativity. Using principals and practices taken from the social innovation field we envision this incubation process in three separate but integrated phases described below.
How do we move a leader or community with an idea for a new Christian community or ministry initiative through the stages of conception, birth, growth and sustainability? What structures and processes need to be developed to facilitate this ongoing process within the Presbytery? These are the guiding questions for the Incubator process described below.
Phase 1 – Cultivating the Soil (Encourage Creativity, Create A Presbytery Wide Christian Community Mission Map, Identify and Recruit Ideas and Innovators)
Cultivate, encourage and reward creativity and innovation within the Presbytery.
Invite Presbytery to encourage innovation and creativity at all levels and areas of its work. Integrate open and creative processes (i.e. Open Source, World Café, Theory U) in committee meetings and gatherings of Presbytery.
Through Integral Leadership Institute host workshops and retreats on Theory U and alternative discernment models.
Uplift and identify those in established congregations who are thinking creatively and being innovative. Finding ways to support them even when in congregational settings where they may feel limited and boxed in. Grants could be given to installed pastors who are seeking to do creative ministry outside the walls and scope of their community.
Start a Presbytery emphasis, “Every Church Birthing A New Community.” Create energy, passion and expectation for every church in the Presbytery to start a new community or new initiative in the next 2 years. This could be a house church, intentional community, immigrant fellowship or new outreach or ministry to underserved populations. The mother church, or established congregation would give birth to the leaders and new community, provide initial support (i.e. financial, people, resources) and give them permission to grow and become outside the bounds of the traditional structure. Partnerships between different churches to start a new communities and initiatives would be encouraged.
Preach at worship services, speak to sessions and Sunday school classes
Begin Covenant Partnership program between established communities and new innovators, especially those doing Bi-vocational ministry. Relationship would include possible financial support or other resources (housing, connection with
Identify larger established communities who could move into Covenant Partnership with Innovators.
Through the Village Network (described below) we will create an ecumenical wide “Christian Community Mission Map” that allows those with different gifts and passions and denominational charisma to support one another, share experiences and cultivate broader knowledge bringing their emerging communities together for regular interaction, learning and networking.
These new leaders, communities and initiatives would fit into a larger community network, vision and plan for Presbytery/Metro wide transformation.
Identify denominational leaders (the networkers) who can join in the creation of a “Missional Mind Map”
Specific leaders and communities would be sought based on the missional needs of the Presbytery.
Identify leaders in the presbytery, whether they be lay, ordained or seminary students who have creative ideas, an entrepreneurial spirit and possess the needed gifts to envision, cultivate and birth new communities, ministries and initiatives.
Host innovator conversations across denominations
Educate Presbytery and potential leaders on different models for new community developments (i.e. Intentional Communities, House Churches, Immigrant Fellowships)
Annual Ecclesia Project Road Trip (Summer 2011)
If money is needed, invite and guide the innovator in applying for a Berry Blvd New Community Grant and introduce them to Congregational Develop Unit for ongoing conversation and support.
If the idea and leader are awarded the grant they would inter into phase 2 and official enroll in the Incubator Process and Innovator Program and Integral Leadership Programs.
Develop a covenant partnership with another Presbytery in the Synod (most likely, Middle Tennessee Presbytery) for cross Presbytery learning and co-creating and to discern what elements of the Ecclesia Project are worthy of replication for other Middle Governing Bodies.
Develop and deepen ecumenical and interfaith partnerships in Louisville around leadership development, training and education. Cross traditional denominational boundaries to find new partners in ministry, mission and community building.
Phase 2 – Growing The Seedling and Supporting The Emerging Plant (Award Grants, Develop Learning Covenants, Cultivate Coaching Relationships, Create and Expand House Church/Intentional Community Network)
Congregational Development Unit awards $5,000 grants on behalf of Presbytery to new leaders, communities and established congregations for new initiatives.
Start a bi-vocational (alternative credentialed) leadership track within the Presbytery, partnering with the seminary and working with the CPM and COM to expand its role to develop the needed structures and resources to encourage and recruit bi-vocational and entrepreneurial leadership.
Leaders and new communities form “learning covenant” relationships with Ecclesia Project and or CDU which may include
Coaching relationship with Presbytery staff and/or Ecclesia Project
enrollment in nine month long learning programs hosted by the Integral Leadership Institute.
Monthly happy hours for fellowship and support
Leaders and communities have access to Innovation Hub for office, work, resource and creativity Innovation Hub
Help with needed infrastructure of communication, networking, budgeting and resources.
Possibly hire an Administrative Assistant who can work with all
Those participating in the Reformed House Church/Intentional Community Network – “The Village,” meet monthly for shared worship, learning and networking of small groups.
Monthly “Village” Worship services – planned and facilitated by leaders of established communities and small communities to connect small groups and communities to one another and their work in the in Metro Areas/Presbytery.
Phase 3 – Harvesting The Fruit
One of the unique aspects of this program is to create an open learning environment where new community leaders and established church leaders can learn from one another. Partnerships and learning events would be created between new and established communities for shared support and mutual learning.
Create web sight and continue blog as a primary form of harvesting and learning. Loop information back into Presbytery for continued evolving.
Each new initiative and community is considered a prototype where the whole Presbytery learns by “doing.” Continual learning feedback loops will invite the whole presbytery to learn from those who are experimenting and explore new ideas, models and practices encouraging every community to be more creative and innovative in their common life and ministry.
Berry Blvd. New Ministry Grant Fund
The Berry Blvd. new grant program with an initial amount of $100,000 to go directly to starting new Christian communities and cultivating ministries and initiatives in established congregations. We will provide one-year grants for up to $5,000 to cultivate and support new ideas, leaders, communities and ministries. Our vision is to use this money to cultivate 20 new communities and ministry initiatives over the next two years. The work of the Ecclesia Project is to create within the Presbytery the needed structures and process to cultivate, train, support and these new leaders, communities and ministries. We believe this seed money can provide initial support without creating a sense of dependence of to support a large budget or full time leader. Within a year each community would be encourage to sustain itself with at least as much.
Integral Leadership Institute (ILI)
The Integral leadership Institute would serve both new leaders and communities (including those receiving the Berry Blvd grant) and established leaders and churches within the Presbytery. The Institute would be a joint project between the Ecclesia Project and the Education Unit. The curriculum would be focused around cultivating integral leadership in emerging and established communities and inviting shared learning between different types of contexts and communities. We can envision a variety of learning models that cultivate adaptive and missional leadership and provide continual education within the Reformed theological tradition. As the program develops we intend to partner with the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary and the Wayne Oats Institute to experiment with new models of education for both pastors, educators and emerging leaders of Christian communities. We intend to use a variety of educational pedagogies including;
classes, workshops and retreats with predetermined themes and curriculum
self directed and organized and open source learning environments which trusts and supports the individual learner to determine both the content and container of their learning.
online learning that integrates the latest in online web technology
peer group learning and communities of practice
Programs of ILI
City Dive
City Dive is designed around a similar program offered by Leadership Louisville and The Faith Leaders Institute (Atlanta, GA). One full-day each month a different sector of Louisville is experienced and reflected upon from a missional and theological perspective (i.e. health, business, immigration/refugees, education, social service, judicial system). The purpose of Integral City Program is to equip faith leaders with an experiential knowledge of the Louisville context to promote cross sector learning and partnerships in ministry and service. It will encourage faith communities to join with and help focus the efforts of families, schools, law enforcement, business, professional societies, and political entities to be more integrated, aligned, and synergized. The name for this type of integral approach to community change is called MeshWORK solutions.
We would encourage the Presbytery to make the Integral City program a requirement for “Teaching Elders” (pastors) who are new to the Presbytery’s metro area as a way of introducing them to the city. We would also encourage established congregations to send both a Teaching Elders and a Ruling Elder to participate in the monthly program so their learning can be further shared within the community and demonstrate equality of leadership.
We are seeking to partner with other denominational and interfaith groups in Louisville to broaden the participants and networking possibilities of the program. The greater the diversity the more potential for creativity and transformation.
The book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive will be the guiding text for the nine month program)
Monthly Themes Include:
City Dive & Integral Maps – Exploring diverse neighborhoods, street interviews
Interfaith – Visit houses of worship and listen to interfaith leaders (CIR, KIC)
Media & Entertainment – Visit local news and media outlets, meet local musicians
Justice & Court System – Visit jail, hear from police Chief White
Health – Conversations with those in health and medical system.
Business and Economics – Meet with representatives YPAL and Chamber of Commerce
Politics – Visit with metro council representatives and new Mayor
Education – Meet with College/University and JCPS leaders, visit local high schools
Social Service – Visit a variety of social service agencies and non-profits
Integral Leadership Formation Program
We envision a variety of learning containers and experiences each designed to cultivate integral leadership. The first is a nine month commitment consisting of a once a month, full-day learning experience, beginning with a retreat in September and ending with a closing retreat in May. Each month the learning day will be centered around a central theme or topic discerned to be essential for dynamic and creative leadership in Christian community. The pedagogy of learning will address the multiple intelligences – balancing information, experiential learning, discussion and praxis. The first class of 20 participants will be scheduled to begin in September 2011. We will seek to recruit 10 traditional/established pastors and 10 new leaders to participate in the 9 month program. As with the Integral City program we will seek to develop partnerships with other denominations and faith groups to encourage diverse learning and networking.
Monthly Learning Modules may include:
An Integral Presbytery: Cultivating a Missonal Mind Map
The Art of New Possibilities: Alternative Discernment and Process Modalities (Open Space, Conversation Café, Theory U, etc.)
Life Togethering: The Essential Practices, Principals and Patterns of Christian Community
The Alchemy of Worship: Liturgy, Creativity and Transformation
The Enneagram & Leadership: Strengthening Your Gifts, Uncovering Your Shadows
Integral Spiritual Practice: Cultivating Practices For the Body, Mind, Soul & Spirit
Being A Spiral Wizard: Worldview Theory and Adaptive Leadership
Ecclesia Project Road Trip
(Tentitivly set for July 31-August 10)
One of the best ways to learn about innovative forms of Christian Community is to have first hand experience of them and their leaders. The Road Trip is a 10 day intensive experience in the dynamics of Christian community which happens in the context of visiting a variety of ecclesiological expressions throughout the southeast. The 2011Trip will visit communities in Louisville KY, New Harmony IN, Atlanta GA, Durham NC, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Pittsburg PA.
Purpose:
to experience a variety of ecclesiological forms and expressions,
to deepen one’s one participation, experience and skills in Christian community through a praxis model of action and reflection.
to cultivate a practical theology based on best practices and diverse ecclesiologies
to deepen ones relational network of sister communities
to share the vision, creativity and energy of the Ecclesia Project.
Short Term Classes, Courses & Retreats
A more traditional approach yet still effective is to provide short term courses, classes and retreats around practical theology, discipleship and ecclesiology, which would address the diverse needs of our congregations, including rural communities, immigrant fellowships and larger congregations. The Ecclesia Project, working with the Education and Development Unit will help to determine the educational needs co-create appropriate responses. For those unable to make a nine month commitment, short term classes, courses and retreats will be provided. Again with the purpose of cultivating creative, adaptive and missional leadership for Christian community within the reformed tradition.
Covenant Networks & Fellowships
We will encourage the formation of organic relationships through environments and processes that promote self organizing networks, fellowships and peer learning groups which come together around shared theology, ideas, energy and passion. We are also planning two intentional types of relationships;
1) Covenant Partnerships – We are planning the formation of intentional relationships between established churches and new innovative leaders to encourage mutual learning and support. This relationship is being specifically designed for larger more traditional congregations who may have more financial and networking resources.
2) The Village – A Network of Reformed House Churches and Intentional Communities The Village Network connects creative and missional leaders and communities to one another and to the larger work of Presbytery in order to engage underserved groups and communities. We envision the network to look much more like the early church described in Acts, where small Christian Communities gather in homes and/or other locations, practice shared leadership and develop contextual forms of worship, spiritual formation, communal life and outreach into their community (In, With and Out). The Village Network would work with the current Presbytery structures and Units to provide support and accountability to these emerging and potentially alternative forms of Christian Community. Other types of organic, networks, fellowships and gatherings would also be encouraged and supported.
Community Innovation Hub/Social Innovation Center
The Community Innovation Hub is a physical location, environment and ethos that cultivates a spirit of innovation and creativity while providing practical resources for emerging leaders, communities and non profit organizations. The Community Innovation Hub is based on other successful models of social innovation centers which seek to create shared spaces for cross sector learning, support and creativity. (See Center For Social Innovation in Toronto www. socialinnovation.ca/)
Innovative leaders want and need peer networks, open spaces for gathering and sharing information and places and people with whom they can create and play. They seek out places where diverse thoughts, ideas and people can interact, work together and create. The Innovation Hub provides both the space, environment and culture where innovation and creativity can thrive. Innovators and networkers seek out opportunities to gather with one another for friendship, shared learning, thus the Innovation Hub will provide opportunities for open sourced, self organized social gatherings. A variety of social events both planned and self organized make up the relationship web of the large network of innovators.
The Community Innovation Hub will also function as an online learning space and global classroom, integrating the latest communication tools and technologies into local learning and action. The hub would connect local leaders with global information as well as share what we are learning locally with other presbyteries, judicatories, denominations and groups. The hub would allow groups and speakers to be broadcast across the web in real time and previously recorded sessions. This would allow us to extend the work and learning of the Ecclesia project across geographical space to include other communities and presbyteries.
The Ecclesia Project would seek to prototype these Community Innovation Hub’s and cultivate them in other areas using the denominational structures which already exist. Linking Hub’s would provide for greater creativity and for the emergence of new ideas across geographical boundaries.
Christian Community innovators and leaders and those receiving the Berry Blvd Grant would become members of the Community Innovation Hub which would provide basic resources (meeting space, internet access, copy machine, library resources, etc) as well as opportunities to network with others who share similar values and interests. The innovation hub would be a playground for creative innovators.
Louisville Presbyterian Seminary would be invited to partner with the Innovation Hub to provide students with a “hot desk” membership where they could study, network and participate in the class offered for social change entrepreneurs.
James Lees Presbyterian Church, which is turning their building into a community coop space, may be location of the Community Innovation Hub.
Oversight and Leadership
The Ecclesia Project will be organized and empowered by a Commission of the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky. It will have the authority to hire and oversee the staffing, programs and the budget. It will work with the Congregational Development Unit to recruit, review and extend grants to new ideas and emerging communities.