tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29131996600517543402024-02-20T09:19:47.825-08:00At the IntersectionsA blog for Field Education supervisors and other people who help divinity students and seminarians reflect theologically upon the practice of religious leadershipViki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-88853507444387327582014-09-05T06:19:00.001-07:002014-09-05T06:19:58.181-07:00Tilling the Soil for Planting: The First Few Weeks of Supervising<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Tilling the Soil for Planting: The First Few Weeks of Supervising</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The first few weeks of a supervisory relationship are crucial to setting the tone for the remainder of the experience. If you are like me, we tend to get impatient for <i>the good stuff</i> – those times when we can really dig deeply into questions of theology and practice – when we feel like we are making a difference in the life of someone who is venturing onto a path that for us is well worn with time and love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Even though it might feel like not much is happening in the early weeks, let me remind you of how central these weeks are, and perhaps remind you of some <i>best practices</i>that will get your supervisory relationship off to a good start.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">First and most obviously, it is important to show up. Signal to the student early on how important this time is, and keep your supervisory appointment. Use these early weeks as an occasion to get acquainted with the student. Using your best pastoral sensibilities, invite them to make themselves known to you. Listen, listen, listen. Ask artful questions. Gently probe and prompt. Begin to get a sense of your student’s personality, humor, stories, and keep track of the questions they are living with. Find out the ways Divinity School is both deeply satisfying and deeply challenging. Invite their trust, and demonstrate by your faithful presence and listening, that their trust in you is well placed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I also find it helpful in these early weeks to do what we can to reduce anxiety. Our pedagogical philosophy is that the best learning happens when students feel safe. Model for them a kind of supervision (there is an art to this) that communicates love more than judgment, conversation more than critique, and mutual growth more than an expert/novice relationship. Let your time together be marked by a kind of sighing your way into a comfortable way of being together in which the threads of trust are gradually strengthened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">It can be appropriate, in these early weeks, especially, to let yourself be known. Each supervisory relationship has its own character, and there are countless <i>right</i> ways to do it. I would invite you to consider to what extent it would be appropriate, even helpful, to share something of yourself in this relationship. Often these relationships have a quality of collegiality, an unexpected gift to be celebrated. Being mindful of the power differential that is undoubtedly present, be wise and intentional about letting yourself be known. Model self-awareness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">And finally, consider getting out of the office. Take a walk. Get a latte. Meet for lunch. These small efforts signal to the student that you place a high premium on this time. They experience you acting in ways that tells them (as well as other folk) that this regular weekly time is important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think of these early weeks of supervision as rather like the early stages of planting a garden. We might walk around the yard a time or two, sleuthing out the place that is just right. We might pore over seed catalogs and even sketch out some rough draft plans. We might begin to make sure we have all the tools we need for this work. And of course we plant some seeds. The fruits (and vegetables!0 we are sure to experience in the coming months would not be possible without this early work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Enjoy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-40245440657968315852013-11-15T09:47:00.001-08:002013-11-15T09:47:15.383-08:00The Inner Life: Self-Examination<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Recently
a student wrote these compelling words in a Case Study:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> The fact is that I could not control this
thought that came into my mind, and that made me realize that this subconscious
negative stigma of<i> </i>addiction is
deeply ingrained in me, even when I can vocalize a standpoint that is
contrary….I cannot change how I initially felt in the situation, but I can use
those feelings to change how I act in the future. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Lang,
2013, p. 4)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This
student made a startling discovery. Our
biases, our prejudices, can go deep, so deep that they inhabit us beyond our
conscious will, even when we “can vocalize a standpoint to the contrary.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Lang, 2013, p. 4) While this particular Case Study addresses
bias against those with addictions, we can easily substitute negative stigmas
of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability, and the list
goes on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Such
encounters with the self can lead to the despair of “I’ll never be good
enough”, or they can be opportunities to be real, to be transparent with one’s
self and with the Holy. Howard Thurman,
in <i>Meditations of the Heart,</i> writes
of the second possibility:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> There is a great virtue in the cultivation of
silence, and strength to be found in using it as a door to God. Such a door opens within. When I have quieted down, I must spend some
time in self-examination in the Presence of God. This is not facile admission of guilt for
wrongs done or a too quick labeling of attitudes in negative terms. But it does mean lifting up a part of one’s
self and turning it over and over, viewing it from many angles and then holding
it still as one waits for the movement of God’s spirit in judgment, in honesty
and in understanding. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Thurmond,
1981, p. 19)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Silence – where do you find
silence in your life? In a Facebooked,
Twittered, texted, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> e-mailed, Internetted,
Instagrammed, flickred, cell phoned 24/7 culture, where do our<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> students find silence? Where do we find the silence to sit in
self-examination with the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Holy, so that we may feel “the
movement of God’s spirit in judgment, in honesty and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> in understanding”?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Thurmond,
1981, p. 19)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> This student found that silence in
engaging the case study methodology, in taking the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> experience out and looking at it “from
many angles and holding it still as one waits…”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Thurmond, 1981, p.19)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> I would love to hear from
you. How do you cultivate silence? How do you encourage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> your students in the ways of
silence? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Trudy Hawkins Stringer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span>Lang, L. (2013) <i>Subconscious
Stigma. </i>Unpublished Case Study. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Thurman,
H. (1981) <i>Meditations
of the Heart. </i>Boston, MA: Beacon Press<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-59087183298104113552013-09-13T09:37:00.003-07:002013-09-13T09:37:44.751-07:00The Importance of "I don't know" in Theological Supervision<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
Four small groups
of new supervisors for Theological Field Education filled the room. Training day had arrived. They wrestled with a sample Case Study and
discussed how to best engage a student in theological conversation. From the group in the right hand front
corner, a voice spoke out, “How do we <i>know</i> when to share our own experience
with the student?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Perhaps my response
was more truthful than immediately helpful in answering a really good
question. We can’t <i>know </i>for sure. Navigating a
Case Study conversation requires, as Rilke wrote, “living the question.”1 This advise applies equally to students and
supervisors. Embrace your
questions. Enter each conversation in
the spirit of mutual exploration. Decide
to risk saying, “I don’t know.” In doing so you give your student powerful
permission to “not know”, too. Creativity
often has more space to move when we open spaces of “I don’t know.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Listen deeply. Lead with the interrogative rather than the
declarative <o:p></o:p></div>
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Risk
vulnerability. Students learn more from
experiences where we messed up than ones where we got everything right. We give them permission to mess up and learn
from “mis – takes.” Isn’t it brilliant
that movie production has a process for this with language of “Take 1” Take 2”
Take 3”….and that big hinged sign that snaps shut to indicate “try again.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Interrogate the urge
to correct or chastise the student.
There is a good chance that some button of ours is being pushed. This is usually a “stop sign” indicating that
we are needful of engaging in another round of our own inner assessment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Explore your
theological framing for supervision – why are we doing what we are doing? For me, teaching, supervising, preaching,
mentoring – all are about relationship, a theological claim about who we are. It
is a theological anthropology of the interconnectedness of being itself. In Christianity, Trinitarian theology suggests
this elemental connectedness. In southern Africa the Xhosa and Zulu languages
have a word, “ubuntu”, variously translated as, “I am because you are” and “I
am human because I belong.” Below is a
link to a video that speaks more eloquently than I ever can:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.walkoutwalkon.net/south-africa/ubuntu-i-am-because-you-are/">http://www.walkoutwalkon.net/south-africa/ubuntu-i-am-because-you-are/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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With gratitude to
all who choose to offer themselves in supervisory relationship,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Trudy Hawkins
Stringer<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-26597064874728433352013-09-05T09:13:00.000-07:002013-09-05T09:13:12.447-07:00Conversations Around Case Studies: Making Space for Theological Reflection<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
At a recent training session for new supervisors, someone
asked a very provocative question about reflecting on case studies with our
students. She asked, “I’ve read the case
study, the student is meeting me in a few minutes to talk about the case study,
how do I open up conversation?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Writing a thoughtful case requires a certain amount of
transparency and vulnerability on the part of the writer. Honesty about one’s emotional landscape,
one’s (dis)comfort with various aspects of the pastoral role, as well as one’s
most cherished beliefs and values is key to gaining insight. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Therefore, an important dimension in reflecting on a case
together is to comment (at some point in the conversation) about the degree to
which the student was successful in doing this.
If the case study reflected a high degree of self-awareness and
transparency, affirm this. If the case
study felt thin, or guarded, or trivial, it is important to find ways to say
that, as well. It is sometimes necessary
to remind the student that this kind of learning does not always feel safe, and
maybe even ask them if there are things we need to put in place during this
Field Ed experience that can increase their sense of safety. (The importance of this spans far beyond the
Field Ed experience. Religious
leadership of any sort requires the capacity to be honest about one’s inner
life.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the primary agendas of these supervisory sessions
around case studies is to begin to tease out the theological questions that the
student is encountering and to help them begin to clarify their own values and
beliefs around the question. Some
supervisors open up these kinds of conversations by having the pair (student
and supervisor) brainstorm together about all of the theological issues that
are present in this case. This
list-making, in itself, can be a teaching moment as students come to see how
the ordinary dilemmas that are the stuff of ministry can be richly layered and
nuanced with theological questions and intersections. Once a good list is established, the
supervisor might ask the student to name one or two of the items on the list
that are most pressing for them. Then
jump in. “How has your mind changed?” “Where are you stuck?” “What claims can you make?” “What do you have difficulty claiming?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another supervisor suggested that in order to make these
conversations more mutual, they have started a practice of each person (student
and supervisor) choosing one theological issue raised by the case to explore in
deeper discussion. This way the student
can see that the work of reflecting theologically is a lifelong process, one
that continues long after Divinity School.
In this model we become theologians together, trying to make faith sense
of the dilemma the student has presented.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I also think it’s helpful to let the conversation extend
beyond the supervisory hour. As we come
across things (articles, blogs, poetry, books) that address the questions we
talked about when we were together, we would do well to share them
generously. Invite students to do the
same. Put lots of stuff in the pot and
let it simmer. Return to it every now
and then to see how it’s shaping up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The more we can enter into the theological streams in
which our students live and move, the more this process itself will remind us
that theology is never really a finished product, but more an organic and
vibrant process, requiring the best of our intellect and imagination.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What wisdom would you add?<o:p></o:p></div>
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--Viki Matson</div>
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Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-38738202135552256792012-09-17T14:21:00.001-07:002012-09-17T14:21:45.333-07:00Creativity and Theological Field Education Supervision<div style="text-align:center">Creativity and Theological Field Education Supervision</div><div style="text-align:center"><br></div><div style="text-align:left">We gathered two, three, five then seven women on a perfectly beautiful Saturday morning, seven sane women giving over a perfectly beautiful Saturday morning to Name Game, Dr, Know-It-All, Peeves and Rants - all manner of jumping, shouting, laughing, ridiculous [from and "adult" perspective] <i>games. </i>On a perfectly beautiful Saturday morning seven sane women played <i>games </i>for<i> three hours.</i> Why did we play games for three hours on a perfectly beautiful Saturday morning, you might ask - [beware - here comes the paradox] - because we had <i>work</i> to do. We had important work to do, official work to do, pressing work to do. We had to design a program and devise an implementation strategy, including time line - <i>now</i>. So for three hours we <i>played </i>together. Then we broke bread together. <i>Then, </i>and only then, did we begin to <i>work </i>on our project.</div> <div style="text-align:left"><br></div><div style="text-align:left">Creativity shakes up our linear thinking, creativity encourages us to connect, creativity call us to knowing in ways that engage multiple senses and intelligences. Creativity is integrative.</div> <div style="text-align:left"><br></div><div style="text-align:left">"But I am not creative!" Yes, I hear the wail from here. Have you wondered why children don't regularly proclaim, "I am not creative!"? Because children have not been thoroughly starched, pressed and folded into the uniform box shape of adulthood. The good new is that starch and folds can be washed right out - go play in the rain for five minutes, seriously. You will be amazed. I do not paint, sculpt, dance, act, or sing (I was the only student invited <i>not </i>to join the high school chorus), and yet I am discovering creativity.</div> <div style="text-align:left"><br></div><div style="text-align:left">What in the world does this have to do with theological field education - the <i>serious </i>business of preparing the next generation of religious leaders? First of all, at its best, this work in not business but art and craft, knowledge and openness, planning and improvisation. The Free Online Dictionary declares that "inspire" and "breathe" have common Indo-European roots. Found in the Hebrew Bible "ruach" means variously breath, wind, spirit. Is it possible that creativity and Spirit are kindred? Is it possible that clearing space and time for Spirit is necessary to to enter the holy stream of the ongoing work of creating?</div> <div style="text-align:left"><br></div><div style="text-align:left">But what about those seven sane women and our irresponsible <i>playing</i> when we had Important Work To Be Done? By 3:00pm on that perfectly beautiful Saturday, we had collaboratively created an innovative program, implementation plan, and time line - with an hour to spare. In the midst we discovered joy in community. Joy in community, innovative common work, inspiration, permission to breathe, Spirit space - and a most important piece - permission to mess up, look silly and learn from what "adults" usually hide in shame. Might this be what life-giving religious leadership is all about?</div> <div style="text-align:left"><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:italic;line-height:19px">"Creativity is contagious, pass it on" – Albert Einstein</span></div> Trudy Hawkins Stringer<br><div><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div><br> Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-16631551255274567942012-08-31T07:28:00.005-07:002012-08-31T07:35:50.597-07:00<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: x-large;">Tilling the Soil for Planting: The First Few Weeks of Supervising</span></u></div>by Viki Matson<br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The first few weeks of a supervisory relationship are crucial to setting the tone for the remainder of the experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are like me, we tend to get impatient for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the good stuff</i> – those times when we can really dig deeply into questions of theology and practice – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when we feel like we are making a difference in the life of someone who is venturing onto a path that for us is well worn with time and love.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Even though it might feel like not much is happening in the early weeks, let me remind you of how central these weeks are, and perhaps remind you of some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">best practices</i> that will get your supervisory relationship off to a good start.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">First and most obviously, it is important to show up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Signal to the student early on how important this time is, and keep your supervisory appointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use these early weeks as an occasion to get acquainted with the student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using your best pastoral sensibilities, invite them to make themselves known to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen, listen, listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask artful questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gently probe and prompt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Begin to get a sense of your student’s personality, humor, stories, and keep track of the questions they are living with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find out the ways Divinity School is both deeply satisfying and deeply challenging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Invite their trust, and demonstrate by your faithful presence and listening, that their trust in you is well placed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I also find it helpful in these early weeks to do what we can to reduce anxiety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our pedagogical philosophy is that the best learning happens when students feel safe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Model for them a kind of supervision (there is an art to this) that communicates love more than judgment, conversation more than critique, and mutual growth more than an expert/novice relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let your time together be marked by a kind of sighing your way into a comfortable way of being together in which the threads of trust are gradually strengthened.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It can be appropriate, in these early weeks, especially, to let yourself be known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each supervisory relationship has its own character, and there are countless <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> ways to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would invite you to consider to what extent it would be appropriate, even helpful, to share something of yourself in this relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often these relationships have a quality of collegiality, an unexpected gift to be celebrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being mindful of the power differential that is undoubtedly present, be wise and intentional about letting yourself be known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Model self-awareness.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And finally, consider getting out of the office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take a walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get a latte.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meet for lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These small efforts signal to the student that you place a high premium on this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They experience you acting in ways that tells them (as well as other folk) that this regular weekly time is important.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I think of these early weeks of supervision as rather like the early stages of planting a garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might walk around the yard a time or two, sleuthing out the place that is just right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might pore over seed catalogs and even sketch out some rough draft plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might begin to make sure we have all the tools we need for this work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course we plant some seeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fruits (and vegetables!0 we are sure to experience in the coming months would not be possible without this early work.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Enjoy!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-87867164569003592122012-02-29T15:16:00.001-08:002012-02-29T15:16:13.136-08:00THE "F" WORD IN THEOLOGICAL FIELD EDUCATION SUPERVISION<div> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial">The "F" Word in Theological Field Education Supervision</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">"I don't <i style>have</i> <i style>time*!"<span style> </span></i>"I can't <i style>find the time!"</i><span style> </span>"They** won't <i style>give me time!"</i><span style> </span>How many times have we heard – and said - the same thing?<span style> </span>As mid-term approaches, I hear this Greek chorus in the halls of the academy.<span style> </span><span style> </span>In my recent conversations, this mysteriously missing time is time for <i style>attention to</i> life of/with/in Spirit – time for the "F" word, <i style>formation</i>, spiritual <i style>formation</i> - life <i style>forming</i> of/with/in Spirit.<span style> </span>I call this missing time the tyranny of "when" – "when I finish the semester" – "when I turn in my senior project" -<span style> </span>"when I graduate" – "when I develop this new course" – "when I finish this book" – "when I get through Advent" – "when Easter is over" – you get the idea.<span style> </span>We all do it.<span style> </span>Futurity will provide the elusive missing <i style>time</i>.<span style> </span>Except that it won't, can't.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><a href="http://Dictionary.reference.com">Dictionary.reference.com</a> defines the "F" word as "</span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">the act or process of forming or the state of being formed." (<a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/formation">http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/formation</a>)<span style> </span>This tidy definition points to tensions inherent in "practicing spiritual formation."<span style> </span>Is formation the "<i style>act or process</i> of forming?<span style> </span>Or is formation the <i style>"state </i>of being formed"?<span style> </span>Well, yes – and no – and it depends. <span style> </span>Look closely at the definitions.<span style> </span>Remember <i style>active </i>and <i style>passive </i>voices from old school English grammar?<span style> </span>"The act or process <i style>of forming"</i> situates agency within.<span style> </span>"The state of <i style>being formed" </i>locates agency externally. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">Theories of the social construction of self suggest that we are continually participating in the forming of our larger culture, as we are simultaneously being formed by that culture.<span style> </span>Formation is dynamic.<span style> </span>It is neither exclusively active nor passive but an integration that refuses binary definitions.<span style> </span>It is process; it happens in self in community. Spiritual formation happens whether we attend to it or not.<span style> </span>Without attention this formation can become <i style>mal</i>formation that leaves us still searching for that mysterious missing time.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">What does this mean for supervision in theological field education?<span style> </span>Well, as the movie title goes, "It's complicated."<span style> Intentional s</span>piritual formation is not a set of practices or disciplines that we can give to a student to enact.<span style> </span>It is not direction that we can give another to follow. Neither is intentional spiritual formation something best unmentioned and left to the student's own devises (It seems that culturally we have tried that with human sexuality to less than salutary results.)<span style> </span>I suggest that spiritual formation is relational, intentional, mutual engagement of/with/in Spirit.<span style> Intentional s</span>piritual formation requires the courage to risk engaging that which "blows where it will."<span style> Intentional s</span>piritual formation requires self-aware vulnerability.<span style> </span>It requires transparency and honesty – with ourselves and with one another.<span style> Intentional s</span>piritual formation has no hierarchy of "experts" but is a democracy of journeyers.<span style> </span>It is not just students who are challenged by Rilke's advice to:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'arial narrow', sans-serif">Be patient with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(38,38,38)"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'arial narrow', sans-serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">Intentional spiritual formation invites us to "STOP in the name of love" (a nod to Diana Ross and the Supremes), to listen for Spirit in and among us.<span style> </span>To stop "buying, finding, saving, spending, giving, losing" time, to refuse time – and life – as a commodity and to engage it as gift, a gift of love from a God who is Love.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(38,38,38);font-family:Arial">This understanding of "spiritual formation" may well open itself to charges of not being <i style>rigorous </i>enough, <i style>demanding</i> enough, even <i style>sacrificial </i>enough.<span style> M</span>y experience is (yes, I am appealing to a particular epistemology) that life provides plenty of rigor, opportunities for sacrifice, and demands.<span style> </span>Only in learning the practices of loving are we equipped to live into the fullness of our creatureliness within creation, to be life-giving.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">So, what are we to <i style>do </i>about spiritual formation as supervisors of students of practicing theology?<span style> </span>STOP, breathe, listen, risk transparency, live our questions, love every day with intention.<span style> </span>Practice these actions in relationship with our students.<span style> </span>Sleep.<span style> </span>Begin again.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">Trudy Hawkins Stringer</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"><span style> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">*Time - </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">noun) Middle English; Old English </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">tīma; </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> cognate with Old Norse </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">tīmi; </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> (v.) Middle English </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">timen </span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> to arrange a time, derivative of the noun; akin to <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tide"><span style="color:#262626">tide</span></a></span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">1 <span style> </span><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com">http://dictionary.reference.com</a><span style> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#262626">**My high school English teacher, Corrine St. Clair King Guild, referred to this usage as "the old, indefinite 'they'."</span><span style="font-family:Arial"></span></p> </div><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"> <font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><br> Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-61964548231201118242012-02-21T13:29:00.002-08:002012-02-21T13:29:55.703-08:00How is your On-Line Pastoral Presence?<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9477847236361985" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Part of the “new normal” about the context in which we minister is the reality of social media. Whether we have fully embraced the likes Facebook and Twitter, or whether we reluctantly are coming to embrace these new ways of communicating, social media has become something which we ignore at some cost to our effectiveness in ministry.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For most of our students, one of their places of “residence” is the virtual neighborhood of Facebook and other social ministry outlets. For us to be unable to converse with them about ministry and social media is to not take seriously their lived context. Many of our students work with youth and young adults. Tweets and status updates are the currency of this generation.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So the question is not, “are we in favor of social media or not?” The question has quickly become, “how might we establish an on-line pastoral presence?” or “How might social media become one of the pathways along which we minister?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These are the sorts of conversations we’ve been having with our students and supervisors lately, and I invite you to join the conversation here. Our pastors are telling us that daily or twice-daily check-ins on Facebook help them know their parishioners in ways never before imagined. Our students are teaching us that often, on-line communication is the portal that leads to important face to face conversations. Both generations are teaching us that one without the other (face time as well as an online presence) are important.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are you learning about social media? About yourself? About how to authentically cultivate a pastoral conversation on-line?\</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Please join our conversation in this space so that one day we might talk about it face to face!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Viki Matson</span>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-86517829467801801012012-01-17T13:26:00.001-08:002012-01-17T13:26:36.838-08:00LEADERSHIP AND POWER<div> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial">Leadership and Power</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">In the midst of holiday garlands and end of the semester grading, carols and case studies, I received a very "Official Appointment Advisory Form."<span style> </span>Hurriedly I clicked on the e-mail, opened the document – mainly to see how long I could put off attending to it – but the first question peaked my interest.<span style> </span>It read:<span style> </span>"What missional factors have you considered in making your appointment request and how does <i style>your pastoral leadership</i> contribute to these factors?" (<i style>Italic mine</i>)<span style> </span>Leadership – I was intrigued.<span style> </span>We talk about leadership, we even teach about leadership.<span style> </span>We enact leadership every day, but do we have/take time to think deeply about the leadership we practice. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">This ecclesial form offered me the opportunity to think more deeply about leadership.<span style> </span>Below are some strands of my evolving understanding and practice:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Leadership is no longer a set of practices to be mastered and implemented.<span style> </span>Leadership is not about exerting power over the other(s).<span style> </span>Leadership is a way of being – in honest, intentional relationships.<span style> </span>Leadership requires listening often- both to others and to the quiet whisper of Spirit - they frequently merge into the same voice.<span style> </span>Leadership is not all about me. <span style> </span>What a relief. <span style> </span>Leadership is about relationships. I experience this as a liberation to love that fuels a more authentic leadership.<span style> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Power understood as relational, contingent, and open-ended is risky and rich with possibilities rather than certainties.<span style> </span>Like manna this power spoils when we try to hoard it, to amass a stockpile against possible threat.<span style> </span>This power is expectant.<span style> </span>Perhaps that is why this ecclesial form came during Advent…</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Trudy Hawkins Stringer</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> </div><br><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><br> Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-42727821463543446172011-11-17T08:55:00.000-08:002011-11-17T08:55:22.408-08:00Having Double-Vision as a Supervisor<div class="MsoNormal">Being a skilled and artful supervisor of a Divinity student requires the capacity to see more than one thing at a time. It requires a kind of double vision: near-sighted as well as far-sighted. That is, sometimes the work before us requires us to look very closely (together) at one task that is before us. It might be word-smithing, word by theological word, a sermon, a prayer, a news release, a statement to board members. This kind of work reminds me of the kind of sight Annie Dillard must have had when she wrote, <i>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</i> based on her very close observations of one square foot of land over time. It requires seeing detail, nuance, slight movement.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And then there are the times when we need to see as far down the path as we can. A student might be encountering a difficulty in the internship that could have long-term ramifications. What if I do not have this gift? Should I change course? At times like this it is helpful to have the vision (and navigational tools) of a sea captain. Having a sense of where the currents change, where there might be something lurking beneath the surface, and what might be the best timing for a course correction.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Where have you recently encountered the need for one or other of these kinds of vision?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">What wisdom might you share?<o:p></o:p></div>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-34869792816194785112011-11-09T06:44:00.001-08:002011-11-09T06:44:00.781-08:00Finding Voice in the Second Year<a href="http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9812">http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9812</a>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-20678970425831477242011-10-18T05:32:00.001-07:002011-10-18T05:32:39.093-07:00"Community of Truth" <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">"A Community of Truth"</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In <u>Proverbs of Ashes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us</u>, Rebecca Parker, addressing her own journey of healing, writes:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I also had to find a community of truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When friends sent me to a</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>support group for people struggling with their response to the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>effects of alcohol on those they loved, I found a place of unmasked </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>human presence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because that group was one in which people didn't hide, I <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>began to learn not to hide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It took a long time, but I gradually </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>began to tell the truth about my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was like learning</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to speak all over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The habits of hiding and denying</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>were so old, I didn't know how to speak except in a way that</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>was a kind of a lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I didn't know how to say, "I hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am afraid."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I only knew how to say,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"I'm fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Nothing is wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Everything is great."</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Brock and Parker, p. 214)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">What <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">is</i> a "community of truth"?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to Merriam-Webster a "community" is "a unified body of individuals", and "interacting population" with "a common characteristic or interest." (Merriam-Webster)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What would a community whose stated common characteristic is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">truth</i> telling look like?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is not, I think, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">truth </i>with a capital "T", connoting an absolute certainty beyond the capacities of human finiteness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to Parker it is a community that does not require hiding and denying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It demands a new language – or perhaps the reclaiming of an old, old language forgotten in the pull and tumble of human existence, a language that can express what is real inside and among us, our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">truths</i> with a more modest lower case "t."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A "community of truth" needs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">listeners,</i> those able to hear the hard, tragic , sharp, brutish edges of life and hold fast in community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A "community of truth" requires a kind of mutuality born of an awareness of sharing in the human condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A "community of truth", I think, is based in the ancient art of story telling, in this case, our own tattered volume, including chapters of hurt, fear, anger, and grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A "community of truth" holds one another accountable <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">in love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i>A cheap love can embrace the "fine and great" and even a measure of woundedness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A "community of truth" needs an expensive, extravagant love to encompass the hard, tragic, sharp, brutish edges of life as well as its joys <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">and </i>to remain vulnerable to hope and possibility.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">What does this have to do with theological supervision?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That hinges on the goal of theological supervision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am not sure what exactly is meant by "training the next generation of leaders", a phrase we hear often enough, but it strikes me as timid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What if, rather than settling for "training", we decided to risk mutual forming –perhaps trans-forming - by gathering and "practicing" being "communities of truth"?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In some ways this is easier than being the expert with "answers."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, vulnerability does seem to be requisite - not unfettered disclosure - but a willingness to at times forthrightly "not know", to listen, to be as authentic as we can be at any given moment, to do our own hard, necessary, continual practice of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>inner assessment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There just may be more authority in this practice of authenticity than in having answers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Come to think of it, in the Christian faith tradition, a "community of truth" sounds a lot like some descriptions of the "the Body of Christ."</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Trudy Hawkins Stringer</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Brock, Rita Nakashima., and Rebecca Ann. Parker. <i>Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us</i>. Boston: Beacon, 2001. Print.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Community - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." <i>Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online</i>. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community</a>>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <div><br></div>-- <br>Trudy Hawkins Stringer<br>Assistant Professor of the Practice<br>Associate Director of Field Education<br>Vanderbilt University Divinity School<br><a href="tel:615%20343%203962" value="+16153433962" target="_blank">615 343 3962</a><div> <br></div><div style="text-align:center"> <font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><br> Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-80054402640903967172011-10-02T17:06:00.000-07:002011-10-02T17:06:25.991-07:00"Coaching" in Supervision<span id="internal-source-marker_0.4081429955380503" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A recent article in The New Yorker (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Personal Best” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">by Atul Gawande) raised the very provocative question of whether or not all kinds of professionals might benefit from a personal coach. The author, a very accomplished surgeon, described himself as being “at the top of his game” when he decided to experiment with this question. Interestingly, it was a random encounter with a much younger tennis player who offered the author some tips on improving his serve, which prompted this vocational reflection. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The entire article can be found here:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I will go ahead and spoil the ending by telling you that even a seasoned surgeon found it useful to invite a trusted colleague to observe his work and offer feedback about becoming even better at what he does!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While the work of personal coaches is often geared toward a particular challenge such as weight loss, improved athletic skills, better public speaking, etc., there is some wisdom in the practice of coaching that might be of use to those of us who supervise Divinity students in the mysterious process of coming to confidence and competence in daily practice. Religious leadership is difficult to teach partly because “jobs that involved the complexities of people or nature seem to take the longest to master.” (p. 44)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Often I think that I do too much of the talking when I am supervising a student. This article offered some concrete techniques that help me quickly shift into listening mode, while still being attentive to important feedback that needs to be given. After the student has engaged in some work of their own, instead of the supervisor immediately offering praise and possibly critique, experts from the world of coaching suggest a few simple and straightforward questions:</span> <br />
<ul><li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">what worked?</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">what did not work as well as you would have liked?</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What might you do differently next time?</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What else did you notice?</span></li>
</ul><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What I like about these questions is that they ask the student to quickly get to the heart of the matter. It gets them in the practice of reflecting on their own work, in the moment. Part of the work of supervision is to be attentive to unhelpful dynamics, such as exaggerated self-criticism or self-praise, a tendency toward perfectionism, etc. But the starting point for this work is what the student herself says about her work.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes a student’s reflection offers a natural segue for the supervisor to share practical wisdom. “Others in this situation have done </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or: sometimes I have had success with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Saving this part of the conversation for later assures us hat we are offering advice that is needed and welcome, and speaks directly to the student’ situation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I invite you to read the article for yourself and share your own comments and reflections about times you have coached or been coached.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">--Viki Matson</span>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-21106763733997932822011-09-27T12:52:00.001-07:002011-09-27T12:52:30.192-07:00EXPERIENTIAL PEDAGOGY <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial">Experiential Pedagogy</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">In <u>The Rule of Benedict</u> Joan Chittister relates the story of a visitor to a contemporary monastery asking a monk,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"'What do you do in the monastery?' <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the monastic replies, 'Well, we fall and we get up and we fall and we get up and we fall and get up."<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[1]</span></span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Arial">Experiential pedagogy (or experiential education), the stuff of Field Education, is variously defined as "learning by doing"<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[2]</span></span></a>; or "</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"">the process that occurs between a student and an educator that combines direct experience with the learning environment and subject matter"<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[3]</span></span></a>; or </span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana">"a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values."<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[4]</span></span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Arial">Recently I attended a workshop on "Habits of Creative Problem Solving."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The presenter pointed out that the words "experience" and "experiment" share the same root, the Latin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">experiri </i>which means "to try."<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[5]</span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>An experience is defined by Merriam Webster as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"a direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge" or "the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation."<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[6]</span></span></a></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Experiential pedagogy at its root invites – requires – experimentation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Did you have a Young Scientist Club Science Kit Set or perhaps the Test Tube Adventures Lab?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If so, you may remember that not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">all</i> experiments turn out as expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some things work; some don't work; and some don't work as expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All three outcomes are expected in the learning process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Similarly, experiential pedagogy requires that we risk finding out what works and what does not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and what does not work as we expected– that we risk being wrong – risk failure.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">How can we best help our students to move beyond "getting it right" (whatever the current "it" may be), to move beyond a kind of ingrained academic perfectionism, and move toward <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">experiri</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In "An Experiment in Feedback" Barbara Blogett challenges us to challenge ourselves as supervisors by differentiating between praise and feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Blogett suggests that we help the student identify a specific learning event, specify learning goals for that event and request specific feedback on these learning goals.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[7]</span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I suggest that praise can be understood as a generalized affirmation, while feedback ( Perhaps "constructive" would be a useful qualifier for feedback.) is particular to a discreet experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One obstacle to giving and receiving feedback, Blogett points out, may well be our own "intern inside" us, the one who likes " receiving praise for hard things as a substitute for analyzing what is hard about them."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the one who uses "praise to cover our own anxiety about the hard things we are asking others to do."<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[8]</span></span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Do you remember in the 1970's and 1980's when<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>"continuous" or "continual" quality improvement programs were all the rage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some of us became worn out with the notion that nothing was ever "good enough."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I do not think this was the intention of these programs; however, the context, the organizational culture, can make all the difference in implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And so, I suggest, it is with the use of feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If we begin with a theological anthropology that acknowledges that "we fall and get up and we fall and get up", then perhaps we can risk admitting that we have fallen in the past and are likely to fall again in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If we covenant to do this in community, to give and receive constructive feedback as a way of helping one another get up again, perhaps our "inner intern" can be stilled and the courage to risk trying can replace the fear of failure.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p><div style="mso-element:footnote-list"> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[1]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A Spirituality for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century (New York:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Crossroad, 2010) p.</span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[2]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">"Worldview Literacy Project, Experiential Pedagogy, Middle School, High School, Web Based, Self-aware, Qualitative, Classroom Observation."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Johns Hopkins School of Education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i>Winter 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Web. 26 Sept. 2011. </span><a href="http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Schlitz"><span style="font-family:Arial">http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Schlitz</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[3]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">Jesse Jewell, "Experiential Pedagogy",<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Web. 26 Sept. 2011 </span><a href="http://yukonee.wikispaces.com/D.+Experiential+Pedagogy"><span style="font-family:Arial">http://yukonee.wikispaces.com/D.+Experiential+Pedagogy</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"> .</span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[4]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Arial">"What is Experiential Education?" <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Association for Experiential Education:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a Community of Progressive Educators and Practioners</i>, Web. 21 Sept. 2011.</span></p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.aee.org/about/whatIsEE"><span style="font-family:Arial">http://www.aee.org/about/whatIsEE</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[5]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">Eric Booth, "Creative Problem Solving", Creative Practice Boot Camp, Vanderbilt University Curb Center, Nashville, Tn. 2 Sept. 2011.</span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[6]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">"Experience – Definition</span> <span style="font-family:Arial">and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary", <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Dictionary and Thesaurus – Merriam-Webster Online</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Web. 26 Sept. 2011.</span></p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experience"><span style="font-family:Arial">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experience</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[7]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">Barbara Blogett, "Experiment in Feedback", <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Alban</i> – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Building Up Congregations and Their Leaders.</i> 19 Sept. 2011:</span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn" href="#_ftnref" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote">[8]</span></span></a> <span style="font-family:Arial">Blodgett, </span><a href="http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754"><span style="font-family: Arial">http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> </div> </div> Trudy Hawkins Stringer<br><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><br> Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-40165179944234682932011-09-19T08:04:00.001-07:002011-09-19T08:04:21.254-07:00Link to thoughtful article about giving feedback<a href="http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754">http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754</a>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-6195606618590513762011-09-16T09:53:00.001-07:002011-09-16T10:50:23.386-07:00Walking Wounded or Wounded Healer?<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">"A good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>examining himself (sic)….it is his (sic) own hurt that gives a measure of his (sic) </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>power to heal."</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 8;"> </span>Carl Jung</span><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></b></span></span></span></a></span></i></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Occasionally theological students are drawn to do ministry in a setting that is deeply personal to them, or because they have an intimate connection with the issues addressed in a particular context. For example, a mid-life woman who lived in an abusive marriage for years feels compelled to work in a shelter for victims of domestic violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or a young man whose mother killed herself 4 years ago senses a call to invest his time in a Suicide Prevention Coalition.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When making decisions about placements, a wise Field Educator will take her time with such students, learning more about their personal story and their journey toward healing and restoration in order to discern where the student lands on the continuum of Wounded Healer </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">↔</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Walking Wounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's not that every student (or minister) must have every conflict resolved and be perfectly healed in order to be of use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have vulnerable places and issues which need continued attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is entirely appropriate to expect that religious leaders have a high degree of self-awareness about their own emotional landscape, including triggers, unfinished business and lingering grief.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When a person lands more toward the "Walking Wounded" end of the continuum, their conversations and their reflections will largely be focused on themselves and their own healing process, almost as if they were a client.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They lead with their own needs, and their own unfinished business enters too heavily into the daily work.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In contrast, a person who is a "Wounded Healer"</span><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> is aware of their own wounds and griefs, and has travelled along the road of healing far enough that the wounds are not open and gaping for all to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wounded healer is actively tending to their own emotional and spiritual work, so that they come to the placement or the client out of a sense of wholeness, rather than brokenness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes these wounds can even be something of a gift, offering the minister a rich resource out of which to care for another in a similar circumstance.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Part of the art of supervising a divinity student is being attentive to where they might fall on the continuum, and bringing to self-consciousness the motives, memories and unresolved Powerfor another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The poet, Adrienne Rich, says it this way:</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Today I was reading about Marie Curie:</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>her body bombarded for years by the element</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>she had purified</span></span></i></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It seems she denied to the end</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>the source of the cataracts on her eyes</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil</span></span></i></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She died a famous woman denying</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>her wounds</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>denying</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>her wounds came from the same source as her power.</span><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></b></span></span></span></a></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">--Viki Matson</span></i></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">1</span> Jung quoted in Anthony Stevens, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jung (oxford 1994), p. 110.</i></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">2</span> Thanks to Carl Jung for identifying this archetype and to Henri Nouwen for reflecting on its place in ministry.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">3</span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Power, </i>a poem by Adrienne Rich</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-85023501763733387342011-09-09T09:37:00.001-07:002011-09-16T10:52:42.786-07:00WHY QUESTIONS MATTER<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">WHY QUESTIONS MATTER</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Each Field Education syllabus opens with this reminder from the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke</span> (<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/295">http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/295</a>) :</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Be patient with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the point is, to live everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live the questions now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Rainer Maria Rilke,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letters to a Young Poet</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Field Education at Vanderbilt Divinity School engages the pedagogical model of experiential education, learning through combining theology and practice in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ongoing conversation. We find that well crafted questions are some of the most profound teaching tools in this work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below is a "working list" of provocative, engaging questions compiled from conversations with our colleagues, supervisors in "the field" without whom we could not do this work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are questions that we can utilize with students – and with ourselves – as we continue to "practice" ministry.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We invite you to add to the list, to help us think about what it means to "live" our questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><ol style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What assumptions could others make about your beliefs from experiencing your practice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are those assumptions safe?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Where do you experience the presence of God in this situation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you experience it as cmfort, challenge, mystery, etc?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What would you pray for…what do you yearn for…in this situation?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">In what ways was this situation an occasion for your own spiritual growth?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">In what ways might this situation be a barrier to your own spiritual growth?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Does this situation call to mind any Biblical images, motifs or characters?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What kind of world view is operative in this event?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What in this event describes the human dilemma that cannot be avoided? </li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Where do we find alienation and discord?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What would forgiveness look like in this situation?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What is there to give thanks for in this event?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Are there signs of healing/wholeness in this situation</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What might it "cost" to be faithful?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">In what areas have your beliefs and commitments changed?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What do you want to know more about?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">What were you surprised by?</li>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Trudy Hawkins Stringer</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</span></div>Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913199660051754340.post-29805396769329499782011-08-22T11:53:00.000-07:002011-08-22T12:00:39.351-07:00Welcome!If you have found your way to this blog, it is because you are interested in the
<br />INTERSECTIONS OF:
<br /><ul><li>theology and practice</li><li>communities of faith and academy</li><li>private self and public self of religious leaders</li><li>action and reflection</li><li>tradition and imagination</li></ul>The work of theological Field Education inhabits these vibrant places of intersection. Field Education is an enterprise in integration, and this work is done in the places where various dimensions of our lives meet, or intersect. This blog is addressed primarily for folks who are engaged in the work of supervising, mentoring, teaching or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">companioning</span> divinity students or seminarians.
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<br />Together we (Viki <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Matson</span> and Trudy Stringer) have been doing this work for over 25 years, and along the way we have learned some things about best practices related to Field Ed supervision, which we will share in this space. We also hope to prompt some conversations which will mine our common wisdom about the less quantifiable dimensions of this work, the <span style="font-style: italic;">art</span> of being a good supervisor or mentor. We hope that this space can be a forum where, in between our face to face visits with each other, we can muse, raise questions, ask for help, share insights with another about the common work of raising up the next generation of religious leaders. We will post something new in this blog each week, and we invite you to add comments, to suggest topics for reflection, to write a guest blog around a topic of interest to you.
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<br />We're glad you found us. Thanks for joining us at the intersections!
<br />Viki Matsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02266652351914636697noreply@blogger.com2