Transitions are common to us all. Our own life stages are bookmarked by the transitions we go through, and the communities we serve are made up of people facing their own life transitions. Add to that-both Church and society are in the midst of a major transition – sociologists and theologians agree we’re in the middle of an epochal shift in how people see themselves and the world.
The Transitions course is designed to help you navigate transitions in life and ministry. We’ll track with Moses, and with Maja and Dave Whitaker as we look at the impacts and invitations of transition in both personal and ministry settings.
SESSION ONE:
TRANSITIONS DEFINED
In this session we’ll introduce the course and the Bridges Model for transitions and look at the three stages common to all transitions.
SESSION TWO:
ENDINGS
In this session we’re looking at endings – what makes them challenging, and how to navigate them well. We’ll explore the endings we’ve been through in our own lives and communities, how we’ve navigated them, and how they continue to shape our responses to change.
SESSION THREE:
TEMPTATIONS AND INVITATIONS OF TRANSITION AND CHANGE
In this session we’ll consider how to discern when we ourselves or those we lead are ‘stuck’ in that no-man’s land between an ending and the longed-for new beginning – or, in Bridges’ model – the neutral zone. What might we expect to hear? What behaviours might we notice? How will we work with that? How will we manage our own impatience to get momentum, to see progress?
SESSION FOUR
TEMPERING: DEEP WORK AND MANAGING THE HEAT
In this session we look to the process of tempering steel for lessons about life and leadership, especially in the neutral zone when stress is high. Tempering is the hard hot work that happens in the forge of life, ministry and leadership challenges. It is undeniably challenging, but ultimately vital to sustainable and resilient leadership.
SESSION FIVE: COMMUNITY
According to Tod Bolsinger, we need “solid, safe... thick, heavy relationships” to support the forming of a tempered and resilient leader. In earlier sessions we identified the ‘heat’ that comes on during change and transition, especially in the neutral zone. In this session we look at the relationships we need to hold us in the heat and vulnerability of uncertain times
SESSION SIX: TRANSITIONS AND RESILIENCE
In a context where churches are consistently looking for ways to cultivate resilient leaders, this session looks at the relationship between transitions and building resilience. We’ll reflect on the capacity that transitions have to form leaders who are sturdy “keepers of the dream” of the Kingdom of God.
Karen is a senior coach at Laidlaw Centre for Church Leadership, and an ordained Anglican minister. She grew up in Chile and brings experience in nursing, community development, ministry, missions and theological education in Australasia, Chile, Mongolia, and the UK.
Her life has been shaped by her experiences in a war zone, working alongside people who are poor and marginalised, the hard knocks of advocacy and organizational leadership, and by working interculturally.
Through multiple international moves with her husband Hugh and their daughters, transitioning through life’s seasons, and leading organizational change, Karen has learned what it takes spiritually, mentally, and physically to navigate transitions.
Maja and Dave Whitaker are ordained ministers in ACTS Churches New Zealand. They spent ten years pastoring in Timaru, New Zealand, revitalizing the ACTS church there that became Equippers Timaru. In 2021 they handed the church on and relocated to Christchurch for Maja’s role at Laidlaw College, where she currently serves as the Academic Dean.
In that year and those that followed, they experienced significant transitions on multiple levels: relocating their family of four girls to a new city, leaving a ministry position, joining a new church, starting new jobs, adjusting roles in family life, and the death of Maja’s parents.
The accumulation of all these transitions takes its toll, and they share some of their experiences and learning from that season.
"It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions. Change is different from transition. Change is situational: the new site, the new boss, the new team roles, the new policy. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal. Change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not the events but the inner reorientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a re-arrangement of the furniture."
Laidlaw Centre for Church Leadership exists to bless, love, and serve the Church of Aotearoa New Zealand by providing its leaders with the tools, support, and guidance they need to flourish.
COACHING FOR CHURCH LEADERS
A focused, sustained, and purposeful engagement aimed at the wholistic development of leaders and the churches they serve
RESOURCING FOR CHURCH HEALTH AND DISCIPLESHIP
Cultivating a resource hub of contextually-grounded and research-informed best practice for church leadership in Aotearoa
GROWING A SUPPORTIVE ECOSYSTEM WITH AND FOR CHURCH LEADERS
Fostering peer support in geographic and missional contexts, curating spaces for local, regional, and national collaboration, and networking to disseminate best practice
SUPPORT THE GROWTH OF PASTORAL LEADERSHIP PATHWAYS
Championing healthy and innovative leadership formation and multiplication of people prepared to serve the Church in Aotearoa
