CONSULTING
Peter Soli consults with pastors, lay leaders, and synod staff on some of the most challenging work congregations face. Consulting and coaching are available by phone or video. For congregations within 150 miles of Albert Lea, Minnesota, onsite work is also available.
Cooperative Ministry Formation
When two or more congregations begin asking whether they might have a future together, the most important thing is to start carefully. The process begins with a buy-in meeting — a chance for interested congregations to understand what the exploration entails and decide whether to proceed. From there, a small group of leaders from each congregation meets to get to know one another, share what matters most to each community, and discover what gifts and needs each brings to the conversation.
Throughout the process, focused conversation and consensus-building tools keep the exploration honest and grounded. Communication back to the full congregation is built in at every stage. Nothing commits a congregation to anything until a final plan is ready for a full congregational vote.
Peter consults with pastors, congregational leaders, and synod leaders who are navigating this process and is available to facilitate directly when the situation calls for it.
Consensus Building
Congregations face moments when the path forward requires everyone to get somewhere together, a decision about the building, a question about the future, or a conflict that needs to be resolved before ministry can move forward. A well-facilitated consensus process opens up those conversations and leads to decisions people are willing to commit to.
Rather than providing direct facilitation, Peter coaches congregational and synod leaders through designing and leading their own consensus process. For situations that call for an outside facilitator, Peter can recommend trained facilitators from his professional network.
Conflict Transformation
Conflict in a congregation rarely announces itself clearly. It tends to show up as an argument about the carpet or the worship style, while something deeper about identity, loss, or what the congregation believes it is for goes unspoken. Getting underneath the presenting issue to what actually matters is where this work begins.
Using a narrative approach, Peter helps leaders and congregations share their stories, listen for the values underneath, and find the shared ground that makes a way forward possible. Consulting and coaching are available for leaders navigating conflict in their congregational setting.
Peter has trained in conflict transformation and mediation through Lombard Mennonite Peace Center, Eastern Mennonite University, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Rebuilding
Relationships
When relationships in a congregation have been damaged by a pastoral transition, a difficult decision, or a conflict that left people hurt, the path forward usually requires more than a resolution. It requires a chance to speak and be heard, to tell the story of what happened, and to find a way to let go of what cannot be carried forward.
Peter uses a circle process and a structured Neutralizing History conversation to create the conditions for that kind of honest exchange. Consulting and coaching are available for leaders preparing to facilitate this kind of restoration work in their own setting.