Curiosity Cohorts 101 catalyzed by EDGE
There are many in communities of faith who couldn’t do much of what they had planned due to the pandemic. Still, you have dreams, a vision of what church can be outside Sunday worship. You are a trailblazer but maybe you only have 3 to 5 leaders who “get it”. The real change is when your community of faith ‘gets it’. That is when you are going to see the abundance the Spirit is leading you towards.
EDGE has created a tool that helps get to that tipping point in your community of faith. We call them curiosity cohorts and we would love you to come to the cohorts to accompany those in your community of faith who really want to get it, but don’t. The cohorts are all about creating an open mindset and helping create change readiness in your community of faith. By participating in this, the future things you come up with won’t be as hard for you to try to move forward with, you will now have a group of people in your community of faith that are curious about what is possible and understand that things can be different.
The curiosity cohort is an experiential learning opportunity filled with “a-ha moments”, where people can see the Spirit is alive. The negative narrative we have told ourselves is reversed in the curiosity cohort.
This learning has made a world of difference in my church context. Folks are excited to dream dreams and consider new ways of being church and connecting to others. They are also relaxing the need to hold on to “the way things have always been.”
-Rev. Courtney Armento, M.Div
How did this come about? Why the Curiosity Cohort
How did this come about? Why the Curiosity CohortEDGE is the first R&D department in a denomination in North America – the first innovation arm! We have had 10 years of experimentation behind us and when we see the difference between a vibrant community of faith and one that is declining, we can see the difference is mindset.
What IS curiosity?
Mindset is the difference in how we look at things. Over the last 10 years people ask what is mindset? The answer is curiosity. There are two major barriers stopping churches from following the Spirit – stopping us from listening, discerning and changing. The first barrier is the inability to relinquish control. We all have those who tell us things are not like they were in the 60’s or 70’s. They just want to go back to the way things were. This is control. New leaders have no invitation in, as there are those who do not want to relinquish their control. They have a need to know (and have a hand) in everything from who is taking out the garbage to what the choir sings. A lot of boards have had the same leadership for 20 plus years or longer. This is a symptom of the inability to let go of control and how we limited leadership from the people coming in. { control is rooted in white supremacy and colonialism- these are the underpinnings – and we do not want to be this. } We want to be curious – maybe someone else’s opinion matters. Maybe there is a better way to do things. When we can’t let go of control we don’t pay attention to any of these things.
The other barrier is lack of confidence.
The curiosity cohort is a tool to help others you are walking with get it. Imagine you are part of a congregation in decline. For 40 years you have been telling yourself you are not good enough – no one comes, no one likes us – and we feel like failures when people do not want to come to church. People in communities of faith feel like failures.
Yes, we are scared to talk of our faith and journey even if it is good. Yes, we lack confidence. Yes, we don’t think things are possible and we are afraid to try new things. Imagine if we reversed this narrative?
We are scared, we lack confidence to try new things and our inability to let go of control are two pieces of the puzzle. All it takes is one or two people lacking in confidence and who are unable or unwilling to let go of control, the masses will follow. We use these as a cover to fail to try something new.
Lack of confidence and inability to give up control form are the barriers to curiosity. Curiosity is a mix of listening discerning and taking action. It is the ability to keep listening, discerning and continuing to take action. Having the courage to say we were wrong and acting on it to change things.
These pieces are lack of curiosity and barriers we put up to it so the curiosity cohort walks us through experiential learning. We break down the barriers, see them for what they are, then we are giving the tools to build resilience so we stay curious in our context to keep moving forward
Imagine 50 % of us becoming and staying curious. How do you respond to new ideas? How do you embrace new leadership? How do you act differently? This is a tool that EDGE has created to help you as a change leader to rally support and change in your church.
So curiosity is a mix of listening, discerning, and taking action. It is the ability to keep listening, keep discerning and keep on taking action.
Upcoming Curiosity Cohort dates
March 22nd- April 19 – 3-4 PM ET
May 3rd- May 31 – 12-1 PM ET
September 21- October 19 – 6-7 PM ET