College of Congregational Development

This week I'm attending the College for Congregational Development at Dumas Bay Centre in Federal Way. This is my second year in a two-year program. Each year there is an eight-day session.

The program is an intensive training in Congregational Development. Each day is an exhausting string of lectures, small group sessions, practical exercises, and intense discussions. CD is the result of a great deal of research and writing by experts in organizational development as applied to churches. We've discussed systems theory, culture change in organizations, leadership theory, self-differentiation, Episcopal Church culture, congregational cycles, and so on. Immensely interesting....but it seems like an overload of information that needs time to sink in.

I brought back a number of practical applications from CCD last year, and I'm sure I'll have useful results this year also. Well worth the time.