A more expansive view: a blog about encounters with Presbyterians and seminaries

Listen More, Talk Less

The Committee on Theological Education gathered at Princeton Theological Seminary for last week.  It had been a year since we last met as an entire committee and we welcomed eight new members elected by the 218th General Assembly.  Institutional Representatives/ PC(USA) Seminary Presidents, Corresponding members, staff, and guests were also assembled for the meeting.  A mountain of business items confronted us but we did not allow it to prevent us from thinking and acting in more generative and creative ways.

Most importantly, we listened to each other.  Fran Lane-Lawrence, the new Chair of the COTE and Executive Director of Laughlin Memorial Chapel, a Presbyterian Community Center in Wheeling, West Virginia, along with the Executive Committee set the tone with the planning of the opening plenary session.  Laura Mendenhall, who recently announced she will step down next summer as president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, introduced to us a methodology employed by the Theological Schools and Church Project of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). 

It seemed simple enough, put a part of the group in the center of the room and have the others listen in on the conversation; a fishbowl, so to speak.  The elected members and the institutional members/ seminary presidents switched places in the fishbowl and discussed Dan Aleshire’s recent presentation to the ATS, “Making Haste Slowly: Celebrating the Future of Theological Schools.”  We learned what the ATS project experienced as well; we need to listen to each other more.

When I was in campus ministry one of the most successful projects we did was set up a listening post.  The idea was to provide a welcoming space at a regular time weekly in a public spot with a sign, "The Listening Post: A Place to Talk."  It was a place to be heard without judgment.  Advice and counsel of “listeners” was discouraged.  It was truly a place for people to talk and be heard.  Unfortunately, this is a rarity in our busy world. 

We learned the value of it once again at COTE.  Ideas began to emerge from our conversations in a short debriefing period after each group had a conversation.  This was not one group responding to the other, it was each group responding to a common text and listening deeply to the other.  I encourage you to do the same.

Lee back in Louisville from Princeton

Adaptive, Appreciative, and Prophetic

I have been deeply moved over the last few weeks while reading the book Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder edited by Max Sherman, a Presbyterian Elder from Texas. The book is primarily a collection of important speeches given by Jordan from 1974-1995, two years after she was elected as the first African American woman from the South to be elected to the United States Congress to a year before her death. After reading the book I have played the accompanying DVD of a few of those speeches. A 1976 Keynote Address is particularly powerful and instructive. There is a great deal to learn from her speech about leadership, no matter where you are politically. Masterfully she describes qualities of leadership that embody what I hope will characterize the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Committee on Theological Education: adaptive, appreciative, and prophetic.

I hope we will be adaptive in our approach. Jordan praises innovation and the willingness to "adapt to changing circumstances …(and) … to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future." (Sherman, 37) Set agendas for all times and places will fail us in these changing times. If there is anything we can expect in theological education, it is change; change to a greater degree in the next twenty-five years than in the last twenty five. Daniel Aleshire, Executive Director of the Association of Theological Schools, makes this point in his new and outstanding book Earthen Vessels: Hopeful Reflections on the Work and Future of Theological Schools. I think the same will be true in the PC(USA). Adaptive leaders are at their best when they respect the past but do not ignore the current context.

Jordan also practices what contemporary authors are calling appreciative inquiry. It is the same methodology that Aleshire embodies in his book. For Jordan and Aleshire, they encourage leaders focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. Aleshire points out that if we look for problems we will find them. Instead, we need to pay attention to what is working. Others talk about "best practices" in this same way. Appreciative inquiry values deep listening. How could the PC(USA) utilize this methodology to enhance and deepen our ministry together?

What may be most moving about the Jordan speeches are the prophetic moments in each of them. She seems to have ...a more expansive view... of the future and a hope that sees beyond current crises toward the place the country was being called to go.

What do you think? What are other marks of leadership that you think will be essential as we move over the often stormy seas of change? How do you manage change and use it for the glory of God?

Lee in Louisville and getting excited about being in Princeton, NJ for our COTE meeting in a few weeks!