We offer the following four suggestions that will help you and your congregation maximize your learning from participation in the Indianapolis Center for Congregation's events.
Bring a Team of Learners
Learning increases greatly as the number of participants from a congregation increases.
In addition to being cost effective (a discount is offered to congregational teams of three or more), participating as a team creates energy. Attending with a team of folks from your congregation increases the volume of information that gets absorbed and taken back for use. Several sets of ears can hear different ideas – one person may pick up on something that another might miss. This team can also help you positively communicate the information to your ministry staff, lay leaders and committees.
If your congregation has existing boards or committees that deal with the subject matter of the workshop, you can maximize learning by sending several persons from those committees or boards to attend the workshop.
Teams that include both clergy and lay representatives add another significant dimension to the learning.
Create Time to Reflect
Teams that attend a workshop together and then create a time and place to reflect and discuss what they learned are more likely to apply their new understandings in their congregations. (For example, one team that attended a workshop on The Inviting Church met weekly for breakfast to discuss the implications of what they had learned for their own congregation.)
Develop an Action Plan
An action plan is a complete guide for applying the information gained at a workshop to the participants' congregation.
A congregation that develops an action plan learns more and finds their learning more useful than a congregation whose participants do not develop an action plan. (For example, the same team that attended The Inviting Church workshop included in their action plan a presentation to the Board of Deacons and approval of a new strategy for assimilating new members.)
Connect with Others
A rich way of enhancing learning is to contact persons from other congregations who are experiencing challenges similar to your own.