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PREPARATION FOR SESSION THREE

 BEYOND THE STARS - GOOD SHEPHERD LEADERSHIP

Image by Jeremy Thomas

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Allow 40 minutes preparation time

Reading: ~20 minutes

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This session provokes us to consider what a transformative community might be in Good Shepherd. It prepares us for the deeper conversations that the Inter-Continental Assembly and Congregational Chapter will explore.

 

We are in the midst of dramatic and historical societal change where the world is experiencing grief and loss on so many levels.  Our ministries bring us into contact with suffering, war, hunger, poverty, human trafficking, forced migration, gender inequality, violence, racial, ethnic and religious intolerance.  We are called to explore how our culture needs to change towards more collaborative and inclusive practices, rethinking our worldview and the mental models that have previously shaped Good Shepherd.  This impacts our sense of identity and challenges us to commit to ‘radical transformation’, rooted in our charism and requiring a new cosmic understanding of spirituality. Our charism calls us to bring about reconciliation in a broken world.  We need to move out of our comfort zone and reframe our ‘interior’ culture.  Who are we being called to become in order to remain relevant to the needs of these times?  What if our greatest work is waiting for us?

We have become frozen in our stories, historically fixed in our problems and we fail to see the work of the Spirit breathing new life in our midst. We are at the beginning of a significant global shift that will affect religion, politics, economic and socialization.

 

God empties Godself of divine power to become God for us (cf. Phil 2:6). We must do the same. Focus on the power of God who is within and ahead, be attentive to what the Spirit is calling us to, be ready to change and to enter into new structures of relationship. There is no “story” out there – we are the story as it unfolds through our lives. It is time to stop relying on the institution and to become the vanguard of the new world.

(Ilia Delio,  ….. )

Slide 1 of 9

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Reflection Questions & Journalling

Select some of these questions to reflect on in your journal.
 

  • What is in the stimulus content for this session that most strongly excites you or gives you energy? Why?
     

  • What is the inner work of transformation I need to do at a personal level? 

 

  • What do we need to relinquish or reshape so that the new can fully emerge?

 

  • What is the worldview and mindset that needs to be accepted so that the mission can be carried out by all who are called to this work? 

 

  • What are the stories and struggles that Good Shepherd needs to share as part of our own healing? 
     

  • What is the current global crisis and situation revealing to us about Radical Transformation, Leadership, Global Good Shepherd Culture, Loss and Grief, Reconciliation? How is this revelation preparing us for the ICA and CC?​
     

  • What is a key question that is arising for you from this content?

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