Role Clarity A clear understanding of your role

Role Clarity A clear understanding of your role in the congregation is one of the most important tools you can acquire as a church leader – ordained or lay. Copyright © 2011 CREDO Institute Inc. , et al. All rights reserved. Role Clarity - 1

There are two kinds of roles: The roles we are specifically asked to play in a congregation Role Clarity - 2 and The roles we may be unconsciously expected to play in a congregation

Furthermore, Role: • Is who we are in a congregation • And may be a position of specific authority Role Clarity - 3

Role is Different than Task Role Being How we do it Art Task/Job Doing What we do Science Maturity/Wisdom Skill Love Law Role Clarity - 4

Role = Response to: God’s call to us The call within The call of our neighbors Role Clarity - 5

What Are Some Of The Roles You Are Asked To Play in the Congregation? r o t s Pa Janitor s r o l e n u o C Role Clarity - 6 Me Fund r aiser

Roles in Ministry Administrator Visitor to Sick Ecumenical Leader Director of Christian Formation Spiritual Director Youth Worker Teacher Role Clarity - 7 Pastor Fund Raiser Musician Church Developer Theologian Community Leader Crisis Responder Preacher Social Worker Evangelist Change Agent Liturgist Counselor

Informal Roles Che erle Prophet ade r Ambassador for e f i w Mid s e g a s s life pa CEO One of Us e c n e res Ritual Maker Curator of Tradition Keeper o f the Sto ry P d e s les B Role Model Ac tivi ties Dir ect or Corporate Therapist List adapted from “Expectations of Pastoral Ministry” by James Kasperson, in Pastor and People: Making Mutual Ministry Work, Minneapolis, MN, Augsburg Fortress, © 2003 (pp. 30 -40), and used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Role Clarity - 8

Congregational Culture • Which informal roles did the previous clergyperson play? Lay leaders? • Which were most important? • What are the current expectations? • Are there subgroups with different cultural expectations? • What surprises have you encountered in this time of transition? Role Clarity - 9

Conflicts Around Role Can Occur Because … • Our roles are unclear (what is expected? ). • Boundaries of responsibility are fuzzy (who does what? ). • Expectations differ (how do things get done? ). • The role is not a comfortable one for us. Role Clarity - 10

An Ounce of Prevention. . . • Regular communications • Routine check-ins • Periodic, planned discussions of roles and expectations Role Clarity - 11