Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

New six week program begins April 19 @ 10 am

In 1803, Lewis and Clark set out to explore the western half of the United States. They made a basic and erroneous assumption that the west was like the familiar east. This book comes from the premise that churches are moving from the familiar way of being church to a new way of being church, and that leaders might learn some lessons about how to adapt to unforeseen changes.

When Fr. Gary and the Vestry decided to read this book as a parish, way back in the fall, it was a different time, a time before COVID-19 and ZOOM church. The thought was that the book might help us in the visioning period of the Priest-in-Charge process. As COVID-19 began to force us into a new way of being a church, it felt like a time to involve the entire parish in thinking about how we are church, not just in COVID-19 times, but beyond.

So, we’ll be thinking about how Good Shepherd can be church, and we’ll use Canoeing the Mountains as the framework for that discussion during the Faith Formation part of our Sunday mornings together. After ZOOM church, refresh your coffee and come back to ZOOM for this interesting discussion. Each week will have a different leader or leader team. It is not essential that you read the book, but it will help us move as a team.

Week 1: Introduction -- The Landscape, the Challenge, Your Leadership Adventure – each member of Good Shepherd is a leader in his/her own way. It may be a small act of leadership by when you arrive at church, how you interact with people you’ve never met before, whether you wear a name tag or go to coffee time.

Week 2: The World in Front of You is Nothing Like the World Behind You – all that we have assumed about being church is out of date. Just as Lewis and Clark discovered that canoeing was a fine way to get around in the eastern U.S. and a terrible way to get up a mountain, we now know that we need to portage, hike, and scramble to a new way of being church.

Week 3: No One is Going to Follow You Off the Map Unless They Trust You On the Map

Week 4: In Uncharted Territory, Adaptation is Everything

Week 5: You Can’t Go Alone, but You Haven’t Succeeded until You’ve Survived the Sabotage

Week 6: Everybody Will Be Changed (Especially the Leaders)

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