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Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Applied Research Project
Degree Name
Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
TREN ID #
125-0067
Recommended Citation
Nybo, Neal. "A strategy for member-driven discovery of leadership problems at PC(USA) churches in the Presbytery of San Diego." (2012). https://digitalshowcase.oru.edu/tren/1435
COinS
Comments
To help Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches in San Diego Presbytery (SDP) to discern and be prepared to address problems within their leadership, which the leaders are not addressing, this paper will present a presbytery-based strategy that provides resources and training and a means for presbytery-church-member interaction and feedback. Since 2000, at least one-third of SDP has experienced public church conflict. Consequences include church splits, membership loss, and pastors removed or resigning. The strategy proposed here prepares members and churches to discover and begin to face challenges before they become public conflicts. This discussion will be presented in three sections.
Part One describes general, harmful, and self-preserving leadership problems and the consequences of these issues for the members who face them. A recent history of church conflict in the last ten years in San Diego Presbytery provides specific context for examples of the three leadership problems in three SDP churches. This includes my own Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church (RBCPC) and two others referred to as “Church Y” and “Church Z.”
Part Two will introduce three biblical concepts central to preparing members and church for discovery: the concept of “environment” from Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, the concept of “community” from the encounter between Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10, and the concept of true versus symptomatic problems from 1 Corinthians. Additionally, four theological principles based in the Presbyterian heritage will be set forth in order to guide the process of confronting leadership problems.
Part Three will provide a ministry strategy for preparing members to discover and address leadership problems, before they become public conflict in churches in San Diego Presbytery. Implementation and evaluation of the strategy will be accomplished in RBCPC and will be introduced to the other two congregations as well. The results will be presented and analyzed.