Growth Mindset
It’s back to school and school-like routines for our Siblings in Christ, and us adults find ourselves in the fall vibe too. A rising tool in working with children and youth is being employed by educators, parents and coaches - it’s called theGrowth Mindset. We think it’s time for United Church leaders and congregations to embrace it as a tool, too.
A growth mindset is about identifying the fixed thought patterns that travel along established pathways in our brains, then writing new phrases that - when used instead of the fixed thinking messages - forge new routes in the incredible plasticity of our brains. Allow yourself a few minutes to read and wonder about growth mindset; invite yourself to identify one or two places in your ministry where employing a growth mindset practice will benefit you and those you serve.
Inspire Participation
We can't all make it to all things - wish though, that we might. For a lot of our church leaders across the Regional Council, the trip to Seattle for Inhabit Conference, Tom Keel in Maple Ridge, Holy Shift! Sowing Promises in Nanaimo, and more means we do have to know our limitations, and carefully choose what we can do next. If that's your situation, own it! Location, price, and at-home responsibilities are an ongoing juggle for everyone - leaders and organizers alike. We trust you to know what's possible for you. We also invite you to find ways to encourage others who want to, to get to the next great event.
Encourage others to go and share your wisdom - on group travel, good places to stay, ways you've supported your congregation in getting pulpit supply or covering your time away, sources you've accessed for additional funding, etc etc etc. We're excited for you to be part of fostering success of our events.
Fostering Closeness
A key emerging piece of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council work is bringing our United Church communities of faith closer together and supporting the rise of new ministry clusters across our Regional Council. It's a huge shift in our collective thinking of how to organize ourselves into relationships beyond our communities of faith. We heard at the GM that this is what our United Church people want - a belonging to a larger church family. LeaderShift is one way the PMRC is doing this relational work.
We hope you’ll reach out for funding and support to join your wider-church community at HolyShift Size-Mic Upgrade, Mental Health First Aid and Beyond Good Intentions.
Faithfully,
The LeaderShift Team
