Transforming Engagement: The Podcast Center for Transforming Engagement

In this final episode of our Clergy Burnout series, co-hosts Dr. J. Derek McNeil and Kate Rae Davis, MDiv, revisit the many rich conversations they’ve had with our guests this season and highlight some of the key takeaways for pastors and leaders. We hope these conversations have supported you as you strive to understand the identity and purpose of your faith community in the midst of changing contexts.
 
Thank you for listening! As you engage with these podcast episodes, we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas for future topics you’d like to hear us engage. You can send your feedback to us at transforming@theseattleschool.edu.
 

This week we’re talking to Bishop Melissa Skelton, who currently serves as Bishop Provisional for the Diocese of Olympia. In our conversation, we look at understanding the identity of your church, not only at the level of your local congregation but within your denomination or your greater faith tradition. Bishop Skelton highlights the importance of understanding the heritage and origin story of your congregation and your denomination, and how to sift through stories from the past to discern which are useful to telling our stories now. 
 

When you set out to determine your organization’s identity, there are a few key questions to ask yourself that go beyond your mission or vision statements. This week, we’re joined by CEO and founder of Motis, Rick Beaton, PhD. 
 
Rick brings his expertise in people, culture, leadership and management, corporate identity, belief systems, and social psychology to provide a framework for taking an honest look at your organization to discover its internal and external identity.

Each week, we ask our guests to highlight an organization that is doing good in the world. Rick calls our attention to West Texas Counseling & Guidance, a group that provides mental health services to underprivileged people at scale in northwest Texas and into New Mexico. You can learn more about supporting their work here: https://www.sanangelocounseling.org/

Kate and Derek are joined by longtime friend, Linda Wagener, PhD, who is the Chief Culture Officer at Blink. With over 35 years of experience in organizational leadership, training, and research, her role with Blink is to build a resilient work culture that enhances employee engagement and productivity.
 
Linda’s expertise in cultivating and preserving a values-centered and unified workplace culture can be applied across organizational types. If you are in church leadership, we think you’ll discover some fundamentals to glean from a corporate setting and apply to your church organization.
 
Each week, we ask our guest to highlight an organization that is doing good in the world. Linda calls our attention to US Fish and Wildlife, the federal government agency whose primary responsibility is to manage fish and wildlife resources in the public trust for people today and future generations. You can learn more about supporting their work through the volunteer opportunities on their website.

Welcome back to Episode 2 of Season 3 of Transforming Engagement, The Podcast. This season, we’re talking about organizational identity and the role of the leader.
 
In this episode, we spoke with Pastor Gail Song Bantum about her identity as a second-generation Korean woman and as a pastor and leader, and Quest’s identity as a congregation in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. As a leader of a “multi church,” Gail Song Bantum describes how her identity impacts her congregation’s identity and, in turn, how it is understood both by congregation members and the community at large.
 
In each episode, we ask our guest to highlight an organization that is doing work. Gail Song Bantum brought our attention to Good Foot Arts Collective, an organization with a passionate focus on ending violence before it begins, providing domestic abuse awareness and youth violence prevention advocacy through Arts Education. 

We’re starting a new series on the podcast about organizational identity - a topic that, co-host Dr. J. Derek McNeil admits at the beginning of this episode - can sound somewhat dry. But here’s why it’s important:
 
Most of us have some sense of our personal identities. But when you’re leading a group of people, whether that’s a small town congregation or a multinational corporation, you as a leader need to consider your group’s collective identity. 
 
When a group discovers their organizational identity, its members can unite behind a common purpose and shared goals to confront problems, engage challenges, and make real impact – together. 
 
In this first episode of Season 3, Dr. J. Derek McNeil, President of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, and Kate Rae Davis, MDiv, Director of the Center for Transforming Engagement, discuss their work in supporting churches in their work to discover their organizational identity. In the midst of shifting contexts, this work is more important than ever. What is the mission of your church? What are you called to be? Who belongs to your church - and how are you creating a sense of belonging for them?
 
If you are the leader of a church or faith-based organization working to re-discover your church’s identity and serve your congregants and community better, we think this episode will be especially valuable to you. 
 
As you listen to this season, please let us know what you think. We value your thoughts and questions!