How Your Congregation Learns: The Learning Journey from Challenge to Achievement

by Tim Shapiro

Change isn’t always easy or intuitive. How Your Congregation Learns introduces churches and leaders—both lay and ordained—to the process of the learning journey. By understanding learning dynamics and working to become a learning community, the congregation will be able to move more purposefully to achieve its goals.Congregations face many kinds of challenges. Some are the roof leaks; the parking lot needs repaving; the microphones don’t work well. Some tests are How should lives be honored? What is God calling the congregation to do and be? How can generosity be taught? Throughout life people face challenges for which they are not prepared—the death of a parent, a new job offer, making a decision about where to live. So it goes that congregational leaders face challenges that are just beyond the grasp of their abilities. This book addresses the just-beyond-the-grasp challenges and shows how real congregations can learn from them.

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 9, 2017

Reviews

[Ryan Motter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a helpful tool in congregational leadership. Gives lay leaders a good handle on how to confront a particular challenge, specially through its seven-step process. Implementation was a little more challenging- at least in our usage this year, one important step needed to be dealt with that was not: urgency.

[Norman Falk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever a congregation needs to change and learn something new, they will take certain steps and experience certain stages. Since these processes will inevitable take place, Shapiro argues that is is wiser to engage them with more congregational self-understanding.

Specifically, the congregation needs to pay attention to the following eight elements: how the challenge itself is defined (the definition of a problem determines the solution), the quest for clarity and solutions, possible disappointments, fresh discoveries that put the project back on tracks, the implementation process itself, celebration of accomplishments, and next steps...

The book is helpful in thinking through some fundamental issues even before considering to introduce changes on the congregational level.

[Ben Adkison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly overly ecumenical for my tastes. Also a little boring. A long blog post could sum up the important aspects of this book.

[Maggie Johnson Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my "Leading Change in the Church" class in seminary.

[Stephanie Nelson]

Gold for any pastor. So much helpful info.