Next Webinar Scheduled: Tuesday June 3, 2025 — Tuesday July 1, 2025

Apply the Appreciative Way
to the Task of Transitional Ministry

• Can be used for transition between clergy leaders.
• Or transitions that arise as a consequence of strategic planning and intentional organization development.

An incarnational approach to ministry where we join with a congregation to discover and call forth the life-giving best from them as they engage in change and transformation.

Appreciative Transitional Ministry

Rather than relying on a "one size fits all" formula for transitional times the Appreciative Way provides an incarnational way of joining with a congregation to develop a unique ministry for each ministry setting.

It is about aiming for and discovering "what in God's name is going on in a congregation" and then growing these Godly realities to co-creating with God the congregation's future.

Article: One-Size Doesn't Fit All: Inventing a Transitional Ministry

X

Designing a Transitional Ministry
One-Size Doesn't Fit All

Download will be sent to this email address.

Privacy: We will never rent, sell, or share your
email. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Who Should Attend This Program: Not Just for Clergy

This Transitional Ministry Training Programs would be very appropriate for:

• Clergy ministering during a transition between senior pastors
• Clergy joining new congregations as the settled pastor
• Clergy on extended, but time limited ministries, as a response to special circumstances in the congregation
• Settled clergy embarking on a significant change in congregational culture or ministry
• Consultants and coaches to congregations in transition

Course Description

The overal objective is to introduce people to the work of Transition Ministry and Congregation Development using the philosophy, practice, and strategies of the Appreciative Way

This program is typically offered as a follow on from the Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry

Because this program builds on the Appreciative Way, participation in one of our Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry Programs is a pre-requirement for taking the Introduction to Transitional Ministry.

Specific Topics

• Designing a Specific Ministry for a Specific Congregation
• Designing an Appreciative Inquiry Summit
• Creating a Shared Vision
• Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Congregation Trauma
• Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Loss
• Resolving Resentment and Conflict Through Forgiveness and Reconciliation
• Engaging in Mutual Ministry Reviews
• Stopping and Starting Ministries

Because this is a multi-session program specific learning objectives are provided for each webinar session.

Specific Leaning Session 1: (3.0 hrs.)

Participants will be able to:

1. Apply the basic theory and practice of Appreciative Inquiry to the task of Transitional Ministry.
2. Use appreciative strategies to design a specific transitional ministry to meet the unique needs of a congregation.
3. Engage a congregation's leadership to set positive goals for a succesful transitional ministry.
4. Transform resistance into positive motivation to ensure sustainability of goals.
5. Use appreciative strategies to incarnationally join a congregation that is in transition.

Specific Leaning Session 2: (3.0 hrs.)

Participants will be able to:

6. Design and implement an Appreciative Inquiry Summit as part of strategic preparing congregation profiles and search criteria.

Specific Leaning Session 3: (3.0 hrs.)

Participants will be able to:

7. Discover how people uniquely organize and structure their internal experience such as memories of past injuries, griefs, resentments, and states of forgiveness.
8. Use appreciative strategies to resolve an organization's history of distress and trauma.
9. Use appreciative strategies to resolve an organization's grief over the loss of a pastor.
10. Use appreciative strategies to innoculate a congregation against grief.

Specific Leaning Session 4: (3.0 hrs.)

Participants will be able to:

11. Resolve internal objections and resistance to forgiving; - seeking and satisfying objections to forgiving to ensure sustainable outcomes.
12. Teach people the difference between forgiveness and reconciliations and to discover when reconciliation would be unwise.
13. Restructure internal experiences of resentment into internal experiences of forgiveness.
14. Create internal resources to enable clients to remain grounded and engaged, rather than resentful or avoidant, in the presence of people who violate the client's values.
15. Discover the differences between guilt and shame and use the forgiveness strategies to achieve self-forgiveness.
16. Apply the resolution of forgiveness process in large group settings to teach an entire system how to forgive.

Specific Leaning Session 5: (3.0 hrs.)

Participants will be able to:

17. Engage a congregation in a mutual ministry review.
18. Appreciatively engage with a congregations leadership to prune, stop, and start ministries.
19. Establish staff development plans.

Continuing Education Credit

This program qualifies for 15 hours of continuing education credit.

Partial continuing education credit is not provided. You must attend all 16 hours to receive continuing education credit.

Webinar Schedule: Appreciative Transitional Ministry

Tuesdays, 9:00 am-12:00 noon PDT.

Five, 3 hour sessions on Tuesdays from 9:00 am-12:00 noon PDT.
Classes begin on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 and end on Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Please see training schedule for a complete listing of all webinar programs

Webinar Format

The webinar training sessions are live online via Zoom. You will need a reliable computer and internet service to participate in the webinar.

To allow for participant engagement, each webinar is limited to twenty participants to allow.

Each session will be recorded and made available for participants to review after the class.

Some "home-work" to practice specific strategies will be encouraged and subsequent sessions will allow for follow-up question and answers to debrief and learn from the exercises.

Each 3 hour session will include a 10 minute mid-session refreshment break.

In-Person Workshop Format

No In-Person Transition Ministry Training is currently scheduled.

Please Email Rob Voyle if you would like to host an in-person training in your congregation or organizational setting.

The inperson workshop will typically be conducted in a residential/commuter setting with:

• Didactic presentations
• Personal practice and experience of appreciative process
• Time for personal reflection and meditation
• Corporate prayer
• Opportunity for creative reflection on the past and anticipation of the future

Costs for 2025

Appreciative Transitional Ministry

Tuesday, June 2025 — Tuesday, July 2025
15.0 hours of live online content plus online access to training manuals and other resources.

Early Registration Cost (Before Saturday 31, May 2025): $395.00

Cancellation and Refund Policy

Tuition Refunds

Your registration is completely refundable, minus a 15% service fee, up to seven days before the start of the program. Thereafter the registration fee will be forfeited.

For more information please see our Cancellation Policies.

Presenter: Rob Voyle

Rob Voyle is a New Zealand born and trained Mechanical Engineer, Episcopal Priest, and Psychologist. He has a doctorate in clinical psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary in addition to degrees in Theology, Counseling and Mechanical Engineering.

Rob’s employment history includes extensive work as a teacher, an interim pastor, interposed with research and development engineering, behavioral medicine, clinical psychology, coaching and organizational consulting.

Rob is an internationally recognized leader in the use of appreciative inquiry in church settings. He is the Director of the Clergy Leadership Institute and the Founder of The Appreciative Way, a positive way to grow what is life-giving in people and organizations.

While he no longer works as an engineer, Rob sees much of his work as “engineering” solutions for people as they confront the challenges of their lives and work. Rob’s personal mission is to be “helpful, humorous, and healing,” which is manifested in his passion for conducting training. He is a gifted storyteller and has a penchant for mischievously confronting listeners with new insights that are both affirming and liberating.

Rob is the author of several Appreciative Way approaches to life and work including:

• Core Elements of the Appreciative Way
• Creating Cultures of Excellence: An Appreciative Inquiry Based Guide to Mutual Ministry Reviews
• Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment

      and the congregation based teaching programs

• Teach Your congregation How To Forgive
• Yes!³  Creating a Life In Which You Can Say:
  Yes! to God, Yes! to your Neighbor: Yes! to Yourself.

In addition to teaching ministry intensives, Rob also leads one-day workshops for vestries, church boards, and congregation development teams. Please Email Rob if you would like to host a training program in your congregation or organizational setting.