The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with New Faith Communities, presents…
Failing Boldly: A Day of Learning with Christian Coon.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 9am*-3pm (*9-9:30 is registration)
Hayes Barton United Methodist Church (2209 Fairview Rd, Raleigh, NC 27608)
Registration Fee $50**, includes lunch
**Current Leadership Fellows and members of 2018 Partnering Congregations receive complementary registration. If you would like to learn more about either of these opportunities, let us know!
What to expect: In this workshop, Christian Coon will build on his recent publication, Failing Boldly: How Falling Down in Ministry Can Be the Start of Rising Up, to inspire participants to:
- Take a few risks!
- Be more comfortable with failure!
- Embrace the old idiom that one needs to crack a few eggs to make an omelet!
What if failure was a gift from God? When church leaders feel the pressure to grow and succeed, it makes the thought of failing even more anxiety-producing. But making failure your friend may be exactly what is needed to spur creative ways to connect with your community.
Bring your team: As with most Days of Learning, attending with your team gives you the opportunity to explore the topic together, enhancing your learning and team perspective. The day will allow time for table discussion so you can delve into the content.
Four Main “Take-Aways”
- You may fail, but you are not a failure.
Before attempting any new ministry or trying something creative, leaders must take stock of how they see themselves. Is your self-worth tied up in worship attendance? Do you believe you are only as good as your last review? These insecurities are a barrier to innovation. The first step to “failing boldly” is to embrace and live into our own belovedness. We need to see ourselves as God sees us.
- Five Steps to Introducing Failure into Your Ministry
Like getting a vaccine in order to prevent a more serious illness later, we must also consider “inoculating” our ministries with small failures to prevent larger failures down the road. In this workshop, we’ll learn a five-step method to introducing failure into our ministries that creates opportunities for new ideas and innovation. Failure need not be scary! Indeed, it can be the seed that allows for true growth and change to occur.
- Tools for Generating New Ideas
Once we get ourselves ready to try new and creative ministries, a good question to ask is: How exactly does a church come up with a new idea? Should we bless iPhones? Tractors? How do we decide what kind of venture to try? In this workshop, participants will acquire different tools to spark new ideas among their own church and community – and tools for discerning which ideas ought to be pursued.
- Remedies for Recovering from Failure
It’s one thing to celebrate failure, but we can’t escape the fact that failing hurts. It deflates our egos, punctures our pride, and generally makes us feel pretty bad about ourselves. What’s the best way to recover from failure? Participants will leave this workshop with a set of remedies that don’t take away the sting, but help us to heal.
About Christian Coon: Christian Coon is the co-founder of Urban Village Church, a United Methodist congregation in the heart of Chicago. Urban Village started worshiping in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago and now has three other worshiping locations throughout the city. In addition to his recent book, Christian produces a Failing Boldly podcast where he has conversations with leaders about failure, resilience, and perseverance. Christian grew up in Iowa and has degrees from Simpson College, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Before entering the ministry, Christian worked in non-profit public relations. He’s been married to his wife, Anne, for 24 years and has two children, Caroline (17) and Ethan (13). He’s an avid runner and is a fan of the New York Times crossword puzzle, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, baseball, and The West Wing.