Transcending Tensions: Steps toward healing in the ECC
An Adaptive Process for the Evangelical Covenant Church on Sexuality
“Being able to think differently from those around us and being able to function lovingly with people who think otherwise is the ultimate in human endeavor. It requires three things: a heart large enough to deal with conflict positively, enduringly and kindly; a keen sense of personal purpose, the notion that there is something on the horizon that is worth debating; and a soul sensitive enough to transcend the tensions of the immediate for the sake of the quality of the future.”
–Joan Chittester, “Differences,” Called to Community
The Challenge
The ECC is experiencing conflict and woundedness from tensions surrounding human sexuality. A complex and multi-dimensional challenge, pastors, leaders and church are uncertain how to faithfully move forward.
The Solution
The adaptive leadership framework provides a way forward. Developed at Harvard University, this framework creates a safe space for people to do transformational work. It doesn’t assume or even expect a solution, rather the goal is to guide the people to make progress together on a difficult challenge. It trusts that a solution will be discovered in time . The adaptive framework acknowledges a problem in all its complexities. It honors the past while seeking to live faithfully into the future.
The Process
A cohort of 10-12 Central Conference pastors will gather through a ten-session journey that will engage participants in honest dialogue about homosexuality using the adaptive leadership framework.
Participants will prepare for each session by reading key biblical texts and articles provided by the facilitator. The sessions will feature:
- Learning and interacting with material that complements each week’s reading.
- Sharing stories from ministry contexts.
- Practicing the tools on the adaptive process.
- Praying with and for each other.
Topics covered will include the Covenant Context, biblical and theological perspectives on sexuality and marriage, the adaptive leadership framework, incarnational inclusion and Kingdom vision.
By the end of the course, each participant will:
- have a deeper understanding of different theological and biblical perspectives of sexuality,
- be more comfortable engaging with the topic with one another and others, and
- have adaptive tools to guide congregations toward similar goals, taking this topic “out of the church’s closet” in an intentional way.
The Costs
- Fee: $400 total per participant. Scholarships are available.
- Time: Approximately 4 hours/session, which includes 2 hours of personal study; travel time not included (limited sessions may be provided online)
- Comfort: Participants will be challenged, experiencing some personal (mental, emotional, spiritual) discomfort as we explore value-laden topics
Apply Online
Questions?
Contact Amanda Olson mandy@adaptivechurch.com
O Lord, My God… Give your servant a discerning heart
to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
-Solomon, 1 Kings 3:9
Always. Be. Reforming.
Adaptive Church 