Appreciative Inquiry Assumptions

Appreciative Inquiry Process – designed by Scott Woolridge – September, 2016 - page 5

Seeking God's Direction for Us

An Appreciative Inquiry process for your congregation

led by Scott Woolridge

1. Vision team – orientation and training + prepare for visioning retreat

Qualities in a team member - positive about the church and its future, willing to listen, willing to put aside own interests for the church's interests, willing/able to attend all meetings of the committee, willing/able to follow through on commitments

Team job description - organize the one-day vision retreat & the follow-up meetings, assist w/publicity, invite members and friends to retreat - cards + follow-up phone calls, participate in all planning meetings, and follow through.

2. Everyone – participate in vision retreat, answering questions, listening to one another, sharing ideas, dreaming big

3. Vision Team – looking at the vision ideas and the writings from the retreat, draft a “preferred future story” and a 3-year ministry plan

4. Everyone (members and friends) gather again – Vision Team presents preferred future story and asks the group, “What’s most exciting to you about the story?” “How can we make it better?” Then ask – “What’s best about the ministry plan?” “What suggestions do you have to improve it?”

5. Vision Team – visit with groups in the church to get buy-in for the ministry plan, asking, “What parts of this look like they belong to you?”

6. Get approval of revised “preferred future story” and 3-year ministry plan from the Board/Session and the congregation

7. Make the ministry plan the agenda for every committee meeting, every Board/Session meeting.

Seeking God's Direction for Our Church

Appreciative Inquiry Process - Outline for the Vision Team

Time: 1 month to 6 weeks
Pastor and 1-2 key leaders - select Vision Team (and a Team Leader) Qualities in a team member - positive about the church and its future, willing to listen, willing to put aside own interests for the church's interests, willing/able to attend all meetings of the committee, willing/able to follow through on commitments
Team job description - organize the one-day vision retreat & the follow-up meetings, assist w/publicity, invite members and friends to retreat - cards + follow-up phone calls, participate in all planning meetings, and follow through.
Team – meet 2 months before the retreat to map out the visioning process
Team - encourage prayer support for the process
Pastor - prepare/preach 1-2 sermons re: who are we and what is God calling us to do?
Team - finish planning the one-day retreat
- host a one-day retreat for church members and friends - see agenda
- based on the information from the retreat, write and edit the church's "preferred future story" and draft a ministry plan to help make that story a reality
- host a meeting for all members and friends - talk about the "preferred future story" and the draft of a plan to make it happen. Ask what people like about the story and the plan - "What is most exciting about this? Where do you see your gifts plugging in to the plan? How can we make this better?"
Team - meet with the committees/teams of the church and ask them what parts of the plan look like they belong to them. Revise plan where needed. Continue to build excitement and buy-in for the plan
- hold a work session with the Board/Session (and others) to help finalize the plan
- get Board/Session and congregational approval
- make the ministry plan the agenda for each Board/Session meeting – churches die of amnesia – they forget what God is calling them to do!

Materials - flip chart, markers, handouts, Post-it notes, tape, Bible, white paper, pencils

Retreat Day – 9am or ______- start time

Opening devotion on Phil 4:8 - set up flip chart sheet in 2 cols – on right column – true, honorable, just, etc – ask the group to fill in the opposite word in the left column – then write across the top – “What we focus on becomes our reality” – today we will focus on what is positive.

Optional - Intro remarks – do you want this church to be a success? What is success? "Find out what God wants you to do and then do it." God's path/plan for us? Jer 29:11 + Exodus

Our day today - a combination of writing, talking, considering God's direction for us as a church - a positive path into the future. God knows us and walks with us and wants what's best for us.

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4:8

Hand out sheets of paper with the 5 questions – make sure everyone has pen or pencil

Questions

9:20 am

1. Reflecting on your entire experience at our church, remember a time when you felt the most engaged, alive, and motivated. Who was involved? What did you do? How did it feel? What happened?

Write, talk in triads, share with whole group – listen for recurring themes in the stories shared

9:45 or so – break for worship, 10 am - regular Sunday morning worship service

After worship - Lunch – or start Question 2

(Brief presentation (optional) - What is Appreciative Inquiry? - handout (pages 5 & 6 of this document) with 10 assumptions, the process & the 5 questions)

2. When you consider all of your experiences at our church, what has contributed most to your spiritual life? What relationships or programs or events have been most powerful and helpful in fostering the congregation’s relationship with God? Are there particular characteristics or traits of our congregation that are most valuable as we grow spiritually, both personally and as a church? Tell me what has made a difference and how that has happened.

write, talk in triads, share some with whole group -

listen - review answers - again, what recurring themes?

ask people to write about questions 3,4,5

3. Don’t be humble; this is important information: What are the most valuable ways you contribute to our church personally—your personality, your perspectives, your skills, your activities, your character? Give me some examples.

4. What do you think is the most important, life-giving characteristic of our church? When we are at our best, what is the single most important value that makes our church unique?

table discussion on 3 4 - optional

5. Make three wishes for the future of our church. Describe what the church would look like as these wishes come true.

a. What are we doing well that we should continue?

b. What do we need to improve?

c. What new ventures are we willing to consider in order to be faithful to God?

table discussion on #5, ask them to record their wishes (vision ideas) on a flip chart piece of paper,

While each table group is writing up their vision ideas, put the following list of Next Steps on the flip chart – the cover it until all the vision ideas have been shared

ask a person from each table share their list of vision ideas with the whole group, noting similarities as well as unique answers

After today - next steps -

1. Vision Team – looking at the vision ideas and the writings from the retreat, draft a “preferred future story” (or provocative proposal according to Mark Lau Branson) and a 3-year ministry plan

2. Everyone (members and friends) gather again – Vision Team presents preferred future story and asks the group, “What’s most exciting to you about the story?” “How can we make it better?” They present the draft ministry plan then ask – “What’s best about the ministry plan?” “What suggestions do you have to improve it?”

3. Vision Team – visit with groups in the church to get buy-in for the ministry plan, asking, “What parts of this look like they belong to you?”

4. Get approval of revised “preferred future story” and 3-year ministry plan from the Board/Session and the congregation

5. Make the ministry plan the agenda for every committee meeting, every Board/Session meeting.

Gather in a circle for closing prayer, ask “What’s been the best thing about today?”

End with prayer around 2:00 or 2:30 pm

After the retreat, meet with the Vision Team and talk more about Next Steps –

Plus -

· Any more Inquire? interview more people with the 5 questions?

What is best about us? Focus on the recurring themes

What do we want to carry with us into the future?

· more Imagine - what is the picture God wants us to paint about our future?

What is our preferred future story? draft a preferred future story - explain

turn wishes/vision ideas into a direction, a path, a ministry plan

ask for input, response, commitment from others

· start to Innovate

new learning

new relationships and resources

new assumptions

new commitments

If this process is used during an interim period in the life of the church, reflect on the value of this process for the Five Focus Points developed by the Center for Congregational Health –

Heritage: reviewing how the congregation has been shaped and formed

Leadership: reviewing the membership needs and its ways of organizing and developing new and effective leadership

Mission: defining and redefining sense of purpose and direction

Connections: discovering all the relationships a faith community builds outside of itself

Future: developing congregational and pastoral profiles

Reflecting upon these Five Focus Points helps a congregation to answer the questions: Who are we? Who are our neighbors? What is God calling us to do?

For more information about this Appreciative Inquiry process, please contact Scott Woolridge at

- May God bless your journey!

Appreciative Inquiry Process

1. Initiate - choose appreciative inquiry as a focus

2. Inquire - stories of life-giving forces, locate themes

3. Imagine - create shared images for a preferred future

4. Innovate - find innovative ways to create that future

Appreciative Inquiry Assumptions

1. In every organization, some things work well.

2. What we focus on becomes our reality.

3. Asking questions influences the group.

4. People have more confidence in the journey to the future when they carry forward parts of the past.

5. If we carry parts of the past into the future, they should be what is best about the past.

6. It is important to value differences.

7. The language we use creates our reality.

8. Organizations are heliotropic (like plants leaning toward the sun), organizations lean toward the source of energy, whether that energy is healthy or not.

9. Outcomes should be useful.

10. All steps are collaborative.

Questions

1. Reflecting on your entire experience at our church, remember a time when you felt the most engaged, alive, and motivated. Who was involved? What did you do? How did it feel? What happened?

4. What do you think is the most important, life-giving characteristic of our church? When we are at our best, what is the single most important value that makes our church unique?

5. Make three wishes for the future of our church. Describe what the church would look like as these wishes come true.

a. What are we doing well that we want to continue?

b. What are we doing that we need to improve?

c. What new ventures are we willing to consider in order to be faithful to God?