​#13 - Lay Discernment: using back-casting to develop three models

Presenter:  Spencer Pugh, St Anne, West Chester, OH
Spencer Pugh is the chair of the Commission on Ministry for the Diocese of Southern Ohio. He is a life-long Episcopalian and currently a member of St. Anne, West Chester, OH.  His other activities include Licensed Lay Preacher and Stephen Minister.  His day job is leading research and development for a specialty chemical company in Cincinnati OH.

Workshop Description
Over the past four years, the Commission on Ministry (CoM) of the Diocese of Southern Ohio (DSO) has developed an approach to fulfill our canonical obligation to support discernment for lay people.   Our journey started with reading and reflection to develop our guiding principles.  We then used structured brainstorming to help clarify our objectives.  Finally, we employed a novel planning technique known as “back-casting” to resolve some internal barriers and to create an action plan.   The culmination has been the development of three separate approaches that support discernment for laity – and to-date the DSO CoM has tried out two of these three approaches.   In this presentation we will share details of our journey and our results – including a diocesan lay discernment workshop entitled “Listening to our Lives” conducted this past fall that had 24 participants.   We will also give participants some hands-on experience with the “back-casting” planning technique.