CERG Shared Growth Consultant

Mark Bernstein is the Director for Growth for the Joseph Priestley District and Regional Growth Consultant to the Ohio Meadville, St. Lawrence and Metro New York Districts.  He has been a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County near Philadelphia since 1993 and has served in several capacities, including President of the Board of Trustees.  Mark has worked professionally as a trainer and consultant to non-profit organizations where he conducted seminars in the areas of (among others) leadership, conflict management, communication, diversity, teambuilding, group facilitation and coaching.

You can contact Mark via email at mark at jpduua.org.

Here is an article by Mark.

Leader: Grow Thyself

There are many factors that are associated with a vibrant and growing congregation, not the least of which is lay and ministerial leadership that is strong, consistent, and confident.  Growth means change and any change needs strong leaders to support the congregation going through that change.

Leaders in congregations are both change sponsors and change agents.  They not only generate the ideas that spur growth.  They also have the responsibility to aid others in embracing the changes that growth brings.  But in order to be an effective change agent, leaders need to be in touch with their own feelings about growth and change.  Howard Hendricks wrote “The more you change, the more you become an instrument of change in the lives of others.  If you want to become a change agent, you also must change.”

As a leader, how do you feel about growing the congregation?  Why do you personally want the congregation to grow?  Are you willing to take risks in order to realize that growth?

Once we, as leaders, make a personal commitment to embrace change through growth, we need to work effectively to help others through the process.  Here are a few important strategies for being an effective change agent:

• Understand and preach the history and mission of the congregation – knowing where your congregation has been and what it is committed to in the present will help people better embrace the future.
• Maintain a sense of trust with those you lead – Growth is scary and the more members of the congregation trust what leaders say and do, the more readily they will agree to moving toward that “great unknown.”
• Make change compelling – By focusing on a positive and compelling future, leaders keep morale high and people motivated.
• Show members of the congregation how the change will benefit them – It is natural for people to look at change and think “what’s in it for me?”  Leaders must be ready to answer that question while also encouraging the congregation to think in terms of global benefits as well.
• Give people ownership of the change – The more the congregation is involved in the plans for growth, the more committed they will be to see those plans succeed.

Above all, the leader as change sponsor and change agent must be spurred on by the excitement that change through growth has to offer.  He/she must be ready to take the congregation into uncharted waters, knowing that it is only by moving out of sight of the shore line that we are able to discover new lands that offer promise for greater things.  Alan Cohen wrote, “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

Mark Bernstein
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