Introduction
Greetings, and thank you for visiting this page! My name is Laura Stephens-Reed, and I have been an ordained minister for 22 years and a clergy and congregational coach for 11 years. I am in the final year of the Doctor of Ministry program at Lexington Theological Seminary. Because of my deep respect for and ties to the United Methodist Church (I graduated from a UMC seminary, married an elder in the UMC, coach UMC clergy, have served in a UMC congregation, and now attend a UMC church), I am focusing my D.Min. project on trauma and healing:
in United Methodist congregations
in the southeastern United States
that did or did not hold disaffiliation votes
and ultimately stayed UMC
but lost at least 1/3 of the membership because of disaffiliation-related conversations/reasons
My key questions for this project:
How have members of churches who stayed UMC experienced trauma through the process of disaffiliation conversations/votes?
What healing is required as a result?
Specifically, I want to consider whether/how the concepts of "moral injury" and "soul repair" can be helpful frames for understanding the pain that UMC clergy and congregations experienced and for designing healing processes. Moral injury is a specific kind of trauma that occurs when our core values and beliefs about the world (such as how we live together in community - community in this case being congregation and denomination) and how it should operate are violated by others. Soul repair is spiritual work to reconnect with self, others, and God in order to bring about healing. It provides a way of looking at the hard truths of what happened and helpfully weaving those experiences into the narratives of congregations' lives so that they can move ahead with purpose and hope and a renewed commitment to the work God has called them to do.
This focus is not just academic to me. Through my work with congregations, I hope to be a facilitator of soul repair for pastors and churches who are dealing with the spiritual, emotional, relational, and logistical effects of disaffiliation conversations.
I am looking, then, for 3-5 congregations, specifically the lead pastor and two lay leaders from each church, to join a cohort that would serve as both a focus group for studying the question and as co-designers of a resulting process to bring about soul repair in their contexts. There will be no financial cost to participate. If you answer the questions below, you are not making a commitment. I will contact interested parties to schedule a Zoom informational call. In the meantime, you can read more about what participation could look like here.
A bit about me:
I have been an ordained minister for 22 years, serving in pastoral roles in a variety of settings. For the past ten years my primary ministry has been coaching clergy and congregations to navigate transitions of all kinds with faithfulness and curiosity with the aim of living into a hope-filled new normal. I received my Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology and am in the final phase of the Doctor of Ministry program at Lexington Theological Seminary. You can read more about clergy and congregational coaching here and about me here.
While this research topic is timely in the UMC, I believe it will also be pertinent in other contexts in the future as other denominations face potential rifts. As a result, your participation will have impact beyond your own congregation and denomination.
Thank you for reading this information. You are welcome to contact me with any questions you might have.