by Larry Peers

Larry Peers serves as a Senior Consultant for the Alban Institute. Prior to his work at the Alban Institute, Larry served as a director of congregational development and growth with a national denominational office for ten years, as a minister in local congregations, and as a therapist. He has worked on several national congregational research projects and most recently on the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project, funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc.

This article, which originally appeared (as "The Problem Trap: A Narrative Therapy Approach to Escaping Our Limiting Stories") in the Winter, 2008 issue of Congregations Magazine, explores how moving a congregation beyond their "problem-saturated" story can open the door to new possibilities. Reproduced by permission from the Alban Institute.

Reflection questions and a set of related resources, as well as a print-ready version of this article, are available by clicking on the links at the bottom of the left-hand menu. (To access the print-ready version, you will need to have installed the free download, Adobe Acrobat.)

Introduction

In my work as a congregational consultant, I have discovered that narrative therapy offers a number of lessons that can help church leaders navigate the change process in some distinctive ways beyond the push-pull dynamic that characterizes many congregational change efforts. These frameworks can help congregational leaders to not only avoid some common pitfalls but also to shift the conversation in ways that reveal possibilities and directions that would otherwise be obscured by some of the typical congregational dynamics and patterns of interaction around change.

To effect deep change, leaders must be able to stand outside the dominant story of whatever it is we are trying to change—rather than being so immersed in it that we cannot truly observe how to lead this particular group in this particular situation. Ron Heifetz often talks about this as being able to take a balcony perspective. I have found the tools and perspectives of narrative therapy especially useful in helping clergy begin to get up on the balcony and become different observers of their situations, allowing for different actions and different results to become possible.