Discussion on Consultancy Support
October 27th 2009
Working Notes and Possible Implications of the Discussion
Eight Forms of Interpersonal Developmental Support
Eight forms of interpersonal developmental support were described briefly in the following way in order to differentiate them and to provide a shared understanding for the purpose of the discussion.
1. Peer support through critical and soul friends and accompanists provides mutual personal rather than professional support. The relationship is egalitarian. Help is readily accessible. Critical and soul friends know you, so explaining yourself and background is generally not necessary. Soul friends do not depend on each other alone; they root their relationship in God.
2. Consultancy and co-consultancy are to preachers and their ministry what counselling is to people and their lives. Consultancy takes many different forms. The one I Have found to be appropriate to preachers derives from the non-directive approach to ministry in church and community development work. This mode helps preachers to do their own thinking more rigorously and comprehensively. It is strongly purposeful and forthright without being directive. Co-consultancy is a well-tested way of, say three people offering each other in turn consultancy help. It is a highly effective way of acquiring consultancy skills.
3. Facilitation promotes creative thoughtful action through introducing preachers to structured thinking processes but not other technical help. Facilitators specialize in how to help preachers to think through issues or problems or to work at a series of tasks involved in analysis or decision-making.
4. Coaching helps preachers to develop confidence and preaching skills. One definition is: “coaching is a pragmatic approach to helping people manage their acquisition or improvement of skills.”
5. Mentoring is a way of enabling preachers to draw upon and learn from the accumulated experience of their mentors. It fast tracks experiential support.
6. Spiritual direction is to preachers and their soul searching about, for instance, vocational or faith crises, and spiritual wellbeing what consultancy is to preachers and their ministry. That is, it focuses on the spirituality of preaching rather than its praxis and in that it differs from the other seven. It was included here because it is an invaluable means of support. Further help would probably be needed if preachers wished to pursue this form of support.
7. Reviewing and appraising systems are designed to help preachers to overview and evaluate (audit) their ministry. The many statutory and voluntary systems variously help preachers to evaluate their ministry as rigorously as possible and set realistic objectives.
8. Supervision helps preachers to be more disciplined, effective and professional reflective practitioners. It can be “managerial” or “non- managerial” or voluntary “professional” supervision. It operates by working with those being supervised through successive circles of the preaching life-preparation, preaching, feedback, reflection, preparation etc. So, it is longitudinal rather than cross sectional support.
Notes The overall distinguishing feature of each and all of these of interpersonal developmental support arrangements is that they engage directly with individual preachers personally and exclusively on the day to day issues of their ministry in relation to their needs, concerns circumstances and uniqueness. Thus, they differ from and complement systems of education and training, which teach students their craft in the context of generalizations about the nature and praxis of preaching ministry on the understanding that they themselves apply what they have learnt.- These forms are not exclusive: preachers, for instance, could concurrently draw upon 1, 2, 4, and 5 forms.
- One form can lead to another, 2 to 4 for instance.
- They are ways of fine tuning praxis and deepening vocational professional and spiritual life.
- Preachers are most likely to make good use of these means of support if they: remember that they are the experts on themselves and their personal situation; know themselves as preachers, their preferred learning style and have a sense, however vague, of unease or need; are in touch with their subjectivity.
The Discussion and Subsequent Reflections
By way of preparation for a plenary discussion small discussion groups examined the eight categories and their relevance by considering three questions:
1. What do you think and feel about these eight interpersonal forms of developmental support?
2. Are any of them relevant to you and your ministry?
3. Is there any further action you think we should consider taking?
Somewhat discursively, the subsequent plenary discussion of the eight forms of interpersonal developmental support revolved around important issues the preachers felt to be related to one or other of the eight forms of interpersonal developmental support. But it did not lead to any suggestion for action, apart, that is from the preachers asking Jane Craske and George Lovell to explore ways of addressing the issues raised and report to one of the quarterly LP Meetings. What follows is an attempt to do this by writing up these first responses to the presentation of the forms of support along with subsequent informal reflections of some members and to identify underlying needs/implications and to sketch out a possible developmental agenda for consideration by the Preachers’ Meeting based on what has emerged from the discussion.
The general discussion was on the following topics:
The Nature of Preaching Ministry and Needs of Preachers.
Various points were made but not examined: we need to be clear about the nature of our ministry and our unmet needs before we can determine the support we require; how do we find out if we have any unmet needs when we do not feel we have any? the nature of the ministry of local and occasional preachers differs from that of presbyters or lay people in pastoral charge.
The Evaluation of Preaching.
The evaluation of preaching (which must not be confused with the evaluation of preachers) was a major topic, which seemed to arouse some concern and anxiety. For on thing, the preachers felt reliable data for the evaluation of preaching is not readily available. For another, they had theological reserves about whether they could or should attempt to evaluate their preaching. Evaluating preaching some felt was treating it as “performing”, which, they said, it is certainly not. Yet, some preachers wondered whether they were in danger of being closed to critical comments, which could help them to be more effective if they could be open to them. Others said that all preachers tried to do their best every time they led worship but questioned whether this was this good enough. We are, of course, “hard-wired” to evaluate; it is in our nature to do so; we do it whether we want to or not; even as we preach, for instance, we cannot avoid “telling” ourselves or “feeling” or “knowing” that we are doing well or badly!
[In retrospect it is difficult to see how this topic arose from the presentation. Unless it derives from bad press that CLPD had in the past when it was associated with unhelpful experiences of appraisal. Unavoidably, sound support involves trying to understand things, to examine them, to evaluate, to analyse etc. They are some of the means of providing support, not the end. Developmental support, not evaluation, is the express purpose of each of the ten interpersonal arrangements.]
Feedback
“Feedback” was discussed separately although it is a form and a tool of evaluation. Reliable congregational feedback, it was said, is not readily available, especially to local preachers, supernumeraries and “visiting” lay and ordained preachers whose only contact with a congregation is through the infrequent appointments they take. (It was inferred that presbyters and lay people in pastoral charge are likely to receive multi forms of feedback.) And such feedback that is received is generally affirmative and not always easy to interpret. How, therefore, can preaching be assessed when the only feedback available comes from comments from some members of the congregation as they left the building afterwards. Again, these points were made but not examined.
There is, of course, positive and negative self-feedback, which is not always reliable. Discovering the nature and the ways in which it is expressed in action is to some extent a conceptual exercise.
Responses to the Eight Forms
One or more members made the following responses to the eight forms, but no consensus was reached.
- Self-support is a prerequisite to other forms of support. Amongst other things, it involves knowing yourself as a preacher; knowing your learning styles; knowing your subjective world; knowing your needs. Interest was shown in aspects of this
- Peer supportwas generally seen to be helpful and encouraging and it was noted that a “pairing system” in the past had worked well when there were good personal relationships between the partners. Valuable as it is, however, it was felt that generally speaking, it is not sufficiently challenging.
- Consultancy: accessibility to consultancy help, within or outside the church, as and when required, is a desirable supportive resource. Preachers should feel free to ask for such help from individuals, groups or from the LP meeting. They are more likely to do so if those who have consultancy skills and willing to offer them are known.
- Co-consultancy groups could be useful in providing opportunities for open sharing in a safe confidential setting.
- Coaching: some preachers were not keen on this feeling that they were beyond this, but George Lovell had recently received most helpful help from a coach.
- AppraisalIn their professional lives members had variously found appraisal of one form or another useful, perfunctory and threatening!
Criteria for effective interpersonal support were mentioned. It must be flexible, not standardised. It is most likely to be fruitful when preachers themselves seek it of their own volition. Imposed support systems are unlikely to work. Paradoxically, those preachers who are secure in their ministry and in their self-support are best able to benefit from any form of interpersonal support.
One preacher wrote to G.L. after the meeting saying:
…I was left at the end of the evening feeling that we must each evaluate what we are doing for how else can we grow. My own view is that we get some help in this from our educational sessions both in the Local Preacher's Meeting and in our annual study days, but I think we also need to meet in a way where we can build up enough confidence and trust in each other to give and accept honest comment. I think this is tricky. It involves laying ourselves open, which is a risk, and it involves us in honest, loving, critical comment on the performance of others, which can be difficult. Of the various tools you described I guess it is the counsellor/co-counsellor (presumably Form 2, Consultancy and co-consultancy)that comes closest. I certainly think it needs more than just a single friend or confidant and we will need to get the skills in some way. I suspect that done badly it will be worse that not done at all. Also we were not very keen on the idea of coaching as if we are beyond all that, but I am not sure that is so. I think your own example of the conversation with your daughter-in-law illustrated the point nicely.
Possible Next Steps
In the event the discussion was usefully exploratory. It was the realisation of the inconclusive nature of the open exchanges that led the members of the meeting to ask Jane Craske and George Lovell to consider ways of exploring the unresolved issues and questions. In fact, there are several possible courses of action implicit in the discussion, which have become clear through writing up these notes. We extrapolate them and offer them for further discussion and decision by the Local Preachers Meeting. They are of three kinds:
- One off Seminars on the following critical topics:
Means of and aids to self-support.
Different forms of feedback and processing their personal impact.
The praxis and theology of evaluation in preaching ministry.
Identifying our own developmental needs.
On being open and closed to challenge.
- Short training and/or induction sessions on:
Consultancy praxis.
Co-consultancy.
- Support Services:
Recruit and possibly induct consultants and make their services known.
Sound out and pursue any interest in co-consultancy groups and coaching services.