Text study: bring new and seasoned staff together

Cindy Reich went for the Heschel.

Can we access our stories, and questions to show that w are a text.

TEXT STUDY FOR CONSULTANTS.

New and seasoned staff.

We’re going to try an experiment. Heschel, as you know, is often quoted as saying, “We need fewer textbooks and more text people.” For our text study today, all of you will be text people, and you will have a chance to “learn” each other, specifically in connection to LOMED principles, concepts, and practices, through a process of inquiry.

We’ll do two rounds. In the first round, yesterday’s participants (people newish to the work of LOMED) will be the text. The others of you will inquire of them to learn from them. Here are some examples of questions you might ask:

Round One:

·        What is a key piece (or something especially powerful) about what you’ve learned about LOMED so far?

·        What did you find challenging to learn?

·        What are you most excited to share with your congregation(s)?

·        How is the learning influencing, if at all, your sense of belonging to the Coalition of Innovating Congregations?

·        What did you experience yesterday that helped you learn?

(Give each person two different colored pieces of paper—one for each round. Once you use your piece, you have to wait until everyone else in your group has used theirs before speaking again.)

Round Two:

Switch roles. Some examples of questions:

·        What have your congregations, PLT’s most easily understood? Adopted into practice?

·        What have you personally found challenging about the LOMED concepts and practices? What about your congregations?

Debreif the exercise. What was interersting about it? Frustrating? How might you adapt this for use with a PLT? As we move through the day today, we want to engage in exercises to support our own learning AND reflect on them as possible 

Record the question and the responses to preserve our shared text.