COLLECTIVE DECISION MAKING: BEYOND ROBERT’S RULES

AN ONLINE CLASS

DATES

March 9-April 3, 2020

OVERVIEW

Do you tire of church meetings where decision making is tedious or contentious? Are your processes indistinguishable from standard parliamentary procedures used everywhere else? Have you ever wished to try a different way? In this course, you will learn decision methods that are at the same time slower and wiser, respectful and goal-oriented. You will get to experiment with consensus processes, prayerful processes, and more.

Churches will register as “one person” and send two representatives (ideally, a clergy leader and a lay leader). These leaders will take the learnings back home to their church’s decision-making body and do some ‘homework’ each week with that body.

OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this class, participants should be able to:

identify what they and their churches value most in a decision-making process;
select the right decision-making process for the right situation;
lead a consensus process; and
lead a prayer process.

INSTRUCTOR

Barbara Blodgett is associate dean for academic programs and assessment at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Most recently Blodgett served as Donald and Lillian Nunnelly Assistant Professor of Pastoral Leadership at Lexington Theological Seminary, where she designed and taught a new curriculum in leadership studies, chaired the academic program committee for institutional re-accreditation, and redesigned the orientation course for online students. Prior to teaching at Lexington Theological Seminary, Blodgett was an instructor at Case Western Reserve University, director of supervised ministries and instructor of ethics at Yale Divinity School, visiting instructor at Oberlin College, and coordinator of Working at Teaching, a teacher-training program for doctoral students, at Yale University Graduate School. Additionally, as an ordained minister Blodgett served as minister for vocation and formation for the United Church of Christ and was associate pastor of First Congregational Church in Amherst, Mass.

REGISTRATION / CEUS / QUESTIONS

FEE

$100 per church (If someone from your church already has an account on our system, they can serve as the registrant for your church’s team of two attendees.)

CEUs

1.0; certificates are available upon request to the Office of Continuing Education.

QUESTIONS

E-mail [email protected] or call 412-924-1345.