Deep Shift Transformation Update - April , 2008

On April 1st and 2nd, Denise Van Eck visited Ashland as a part of our Phase II engagement with church transformation consulting group 'Deep Shift' (www.deepshift.org).  Denise spent time with Pastor Morgan, Katie Churn, small groups, the Session and then during a congregational dinner on the evening of April 2.  Denise is a very engaging person who continues to share her insights and experiences with us.  We are including a little background taken from the Deep Shift web site:

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Denise Van Eck began her ministry journey in the early 1990's. The journey has taken her from youth ministry to church consulting.  In whatever role she is in, Denise finds herself drawn to the development of healthy leadership structures and team dynamics. During her eleven years of youth ministry, Denise developed a leadership training program for students that trained an average of 75 students each year. The curriculum developed for that program has since been published by Youth Specialties as Leadership 101.
After transitioning from youth ministry to holistic church leadership development, Denise began to interact with churches around the US, and her company, Endurance Leadership, was formed.  Through her years of consulting and coaching work with churches of all sizes and denominations, Denise began to notice that something was missing.  Tried and true methodologies and philosophies just didn't seem to be cutting it anymore.
Many people were asking questions for which their old systems were giving unsatisfactory answers.  Good-hearted, well-intentioned, highly-skilled people seemed to be struggling in their ministry roles and responsibilities.  In Denise's heart grew a passion to help people navigate through organizational whitewater and the turbulence of changing times.  She is eager, with God's help, to help leaders experience emotional maturity and spiritual wholeness - because to survive in times of external change, leaders themselves must experience internal transformation.
That passion is evident in Denise's work with Deep Shift and was also put into practice over the last 2.5 years in her role as Community Life Pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI. The fast-paced, ever-changing environment at Mars Hill was the perfect "luminal space" for keeping Denise on the learning edge of ministry.  Transition, exploration and change have been the norm for her personally as well, as she has four kids (one of whom is still a teenager) and has begun transitioning into the role of a grandparent.

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Comments regarding Denise's visit were overwhelmingly positive and those attending the congregational dinner were very engaged in the exercises that Denise led us through.  One of the exercises required us to recall some of the stories that are part of Ashland's history.  Those stories include some major events like recovering from the flood of 1972 and rallying around the goal of building our Education Building.  However, the Ashland stories also include creation of a reserved parking place for "church pillar" Frances Cookman (and her embarrassment that we had done so) and Lee Pribble's joking threats to 'send an anthem down Western Run' that she or other choir members thought we had sung too often or just didn't care for.

Our discussion of these stories has suggested a need to document as many of them as possible, lest they are lost and completely forgotten in the coming years.  Therefore, we are inviting everyone to select a story or anecdote, write it down and submit it to the church office.  You may submit hardcopy or send an e-mail to office@ashlandpc.org.  As we collect the stories, we plan to create an Ashland Storybook which could be published to the entire congregation and to new members to help them get to know us (and the saints who have gone before us).

One of the comments that surfaced during Denise's visit was some disappointment that little information had been published about Phase I of the transformation process which ended this past February.  We agreed with Denise that this was a tactical error and have published a ten page report of findings and recommendations.  That report was distributed this past Sunday after kickoff of a 'Time for Transformation' segment during both worship services.  As updates are available, we will use 'Time for Transformation' to share them.

Please pray for Ashland and our transformation process.  A simple prayer might be:  "Dear Lord, we give you all honor and glory.  We want to be your servants.  Through our transformation process, please help us to hear what you want us to be and help us to discern what you want us to do.  Bless our congregation, bless Pastor Morgan, bless our leaders and bless our coach Denise.  In Christ's Name, Amen."

Elder Ron Baldwin