On-Line Team Ministry Workshop Description

Why? This on-line team ministry workshop was developed as a group project for the “Ministry Teams in the Parish” course offered as part of the 18 month Master of Arts in Parish Education and Administration distant learning program offered by Concordia University of St. Paul, Minnesota. This course explored a team approach to ministry with particular emphasis on a collaborative leadership model that utilized an individual’s gifts and had a strong link to the mission of the organization. Small group dynamics, life cycles of a group, roles, covenanting and personality styles were also explored in looking at how ministry teams are used in the Parish.

Who? This course taught team concepts through an experiential learning style in which the students worked together as a task team or self directed work team. The course also incorporated a model in which the students became the experts and taught each other the specific areas of team ministry. This website is the accumulation of material created by the class or “cohort.” The cohort was made up of seven students who came from several different states including: Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and New York and one student from Taiwan. They all graduated from Concordia University in May, 2004. A “Q & A” description of the cohort members is available here.

How? The course required the cohort to become its own “team ministry” with the responsibility of creating a hypothetical retreat for new team leaders in a ministry setting. The retreat was to be held on a Friday evening and Saturday until 3:00 pm. Team members were to provide the training and spiritual experiences for those in attendance. Each cohort member, in addition to participating in the retreat planning, was to be responsible for preparing an element of the retreat and presenting it to the team for review as a part of the planning process. These presentation topics served as the focus for weekly bulletin board questions and on-line chat. The instructor, Sandy Wendelin, a parish professional in Lakewood, Colorado, served as the sponsor who chartered and coached the team as needed. The team had 6 weeks to complete the retreat planning. A brochure for the hypothetical retreat is available for download in MS Word format here.

This website is the result of the combined efforts of our cohort’s “team ministry.”