C. ”Family systems and emotional processes in the church and society”
may/june, 2007- (to be announced)
Learn to understand the underlijng causus or facts leading to conflict in churches and other social institutions and thereby learn to prevent them from growing.
This two day seminar will focus on the importance of seeing Bowen’s family systems theory
as a framework for understanding human functioning in all areas of life.
The particular value for churchworkers has to do with how one manages self in the midst of anxiety and how one can work with both individuals and groups who are in conflict.
With today’s rising level of anxiety in society and its resulting impact on families, such anxiety will impact the church with increasing intensity in the years ahead. The resulting heightened pressures in congregations and the increasing demand which that places on clergy and boards the demand for coaching and mediation will increase.
It is vital that the clergy, the boards and themselves to step back occasionally from the fray to assess their own capacity for managing themselves in a calmer, more differentiated way.
Course content:
The sessions will start of with plenary didactic, focusing on the basic concepts of Bowen family system theory, with presentations of Richard Blackburn as well as videotape input form Murray Bowen, Edwin Friedman, and possibly others.
During part of the session small group work will focus on case studies brought in by the participants as a way of reflecting on the material brought in during the plenary.
Presenter:
Dr. Richard Blackburn is executive Director of the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center. Chicago, USA. He has broad experience as a trainer, mediator, and consultant with conflicted churches and their leaders. The congregational mediation model he developed represents a transformational approach, placed within the context of Bowen family systems theory.
Program:
10:15-12.30 Introductions and Session #1- “Through the Impenetrable Thicket of Triangels: A Meddlesome Brother’s Adventures in in Differentiation” and small groupwork
2:00-3:30 Session #2- “Bowen Family Systems Theory: The eight concepts”
3:45-17.30 Small group work and Session #3- “The Road to Damascus: The Church and the Change in an Age of Anxiety”
20:00-21:15 Session #4- “The Process of Differentiation: Overcoming Resistance to Change”
21:30-22:15 Small group work
9:30-11 :00 Session #5 -“Overcoming Congregational Disease: Leadership and Immunity
11: 15-12:45 Session #6 -“For They Know Not What They Do: The scapegoat Mechanism and Church Conflic”
14:00-17.00 Small group work, evaluation, closing
This program is offered to you by:
Training and mediaton center “Geweldloos Samenleven” in coorperattion with the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center and the Doopsgezind Seminarie.
Logistics:
Date: may or june, 2007 ( to be announced)
Place: Conferencecenter Mennorode te Elspeet.
Finances:: The conference fee is: € 410,00. Included are also the overnight stay, the meals and
refreshments (tea/coffee) during the class hours
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