Newsletter 11 - July 2025
This month: How to use questions in enabling; what's happening around faith in young people?; how to receive better feedback; and what on earth is a 'redemptive quest'?!
This year’s participants on our enabling skills course have recently completed the second intensive of their year long course in enabling run in partnership with Wesley House. It was great to catch up with them all, and to hear they ways in which the enabling skills they are developing are helping them in their ministry and mission. We have begun conversations with people who are interested in next year’s iteration of the course. If you, or someone you know, is seeking to enable others in ministry and mission, then do think about joining and get in touch via Wesley House (office@wesley.cam.ac.uk). We have had a great mix of people from a range of denominations and church traditions, and it has been great to learn from each other. We’d love to hear from and have a conversation with anyone who might be interested in participating in the enabling skills course next year.
This month’s newsletter takes the normal patterns of signposting things which can help you in your enabling of others. David dives into the archives this month and comes up with questions - questions which can help you as you seek to enable others. We highlight a book causing a buzz, helping to understand what is going on around faith and young people. We point to a helpful video on receiving feedback, and how to filter the gold from the dross. And finally Ian is flagging up ‘Redemptive Quests’ as an enabling tool you won’t want to miss.
Please note we are taking a month off in August, so watch out for the next newsletter hitting your inbox in September.
As always, please do share this Substack email with anyone you think might find it helpful. If you haven’t done so do sign up to receive the email from us monthly, with more wisdom gathered to help you enable others.
Dive into the AVEC archives - Using questions in enabling
The Enabling Skills network is founded in the work of the AVEC Resources Trust. The AVEC website offers significant free, online resources about non-directive consultancy. It is the legacy website for the developmental work that George Lovell, Catherine Widdicombe and many others contributed to in this remarkably effective approach for enabling work. Every month David Dadswell will dive into the archives, identifying helpful insights for enabling ministry and mission.
Using Questions in Enabling
Questions are one of our basic tools in enabling. George Lovell calls them a ‘core process in analysis and design’. In enabling processes questions can become an unbalanced weapon where the worker is anxious about providing a correct response to what they perceive is an expert question from someone who knows what the right answer is. Lovell is much more in the camp of one of his main sources, Edgar Schein. Schein defines his notion of Humble Inquiry as ‘the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person’. Rather than providing direct advice or solutions Lovell advises using questions that will support the worker’s own exploration of the ins and outs of their situation and possible plans and ways forward. For Lovell, two aspects of questioning are essential in developing the ability to use questions effectively: understanding both the different types of questions and the sequence of basic questions.
In Analysis and Design, he offers two sets of categories of questions, one with four types from the work of Karl Tomm:
lineal questions with an investigative intent, (such as Who did what? Where? When? Why?)
circular questions with an exploratory intent, (to gain a comprehensive understanding of the ways different people, actions, groups, communities, systems, perceptions, beliefs, perspectives and feelings interact in connecting patterns)
strategic questions with a corrective intent (Why do you think you did not try harder to get people to talk in that committee?)
reflexive questions with a facilitative intent (What do you think the committee would feel if you told them exactly what you think? How would you feel about that?);
And one set from Ian McKay whose main types are
open questions (Please tell me about…, What do you think about…?)
probe questions (How do you mean..? What would you do if …?)
closed questions to establish facts (How long did you work there?)
link questions to move from one form of questioning to another (You said you were interested in ….What particularly interests you? Why?)
counterproductive questions (leading, trick, manipulative, multiple, marathon, ambiguous, rhetorical and discriminatory).
Lovell sees the sequence in which these types of questions are used as the ‘facilitating structures’. They foster a dynamic, collaborative, self-aware process encouraging the worker to lead their own growth in understanding and decision making. In sources on enabling there are many suggestions about good sequence and process, starting, for example, with open ended questions and then using other types to focus down on specific details, challenges, purposes and plans. An assumption behind this is both the need to plan and prepare for an enabling encounter and an ability to be flexible in marshalling the different types in response to the developing dynamic of a session.
Something we’ve been reading: Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever - Lamorna Ash
Looking at the religious landscape of the UK, it can sometimes feel hard to find hope - we are told of church decline, church closure, and a lack of significance for the Christian narrative and a move away from a Christian moral framework. But is it really so hopeless? And what are the glimpses that might show us a slightly different perspective. One place to turn is Lamorna Ash’s book, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, about her own quest to explore the reason that two people she knew from University have, to her inexplicably, become Christians. Going on a journey to experience different expressions of Christianity and to talk to as many Christians as she can find, Lamorna Ash suggests that within many of her peers, those in their twenties, there is a search for meaning and a suspicion that the Christian faith, might at least offer some clues.
This is a well written book which is both encouraging and sobering. It is a view into the ways in which Christians are experienced and perceived, as well as offering an insight into questions that young people are asking. It is certainly an important read for all who are asking what does it look like to be a Christian and to share faith in 21st Century Britain.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/dont-forget-were-here-forever-9781526663146/
Something to watch: Thanks for the Feedback
The book Thanks for the Feedback offers and insight into the process of feedback explored through the lens of receiving feedback. Its great insight is that feedback is often not delivered well, so rather than trying to teach people to give good feedback, it tries to help people to notice that they are always receiving feedback and to teach them to filtre out what is helpful from what is unhelpful, or worse. The book is well worth a read, but this little video gives an excellent summary of some key insights from the book in an engaging and helpful way.
Enabling Skills Tool of the month with Ian Jones: Praxis - Redemptive Questions
Ian, an alumni of the Enabling Skills course, identifies a helpful tool for enabling others in ministry and mission. This month Ian looks at Theory of Change.
Ian Jones is director of St Peter's Saltley Trust, working with schools, colleges, churches and faith organisations to develop projects with a focus on religious education, Christian discipleship and learning for mission. It was this work which prompted him to do the Enabling Skills in Mission and Ministry course in 2022-23 and led him to gather and share enabling tools and resources.
Praxis - Redemptive Quests
What is it?
This month’s enabling resource is a set of set of tools and diagrams to help you identify the kind of change which really makes a difference - i.e., identifying a quest which is truly redemptive. Webpages on the Praxis website set out eight key qualities of a ‘redemptive’ quest, with several accompanying typological diagrams. Amongst other things, the ‘redemptive quest’ concept encourages focusing on areas of change which emerge out of an individual or community’s most deeply-seated areas of lament, are ‘worth failing at’, and proximate to one’s actual sphere of influence. The website also contains a range of articles, videos and free resources to help think about ‘redemptive quests’ in different spheres of society.
Praxis describes itself as a ‘venture-building ecosystem advancing redemptive quests, supporting founders, funders, and innovators, motivated by their faith, to address the major issues of our time’ (https://www.praxis.co/about). It is a US-based Christian organisation seeking to catalyse and support social innovations which transform culture and society according to the values of the Kingdom of God.
How/Why is it Useful?
I keep coming back to the concept of ‘redemptive quests’ when thinking about future projects to identify and develop. It challenges me to question the boundaries of what I think is possible and provides a useful point of reference for prioritising work which stands a genuine chance of making a difference (whether we succeed is up to others to judge!). Although some of the Redemptive Quests material is purchase-only, there is plenty of free material in the ‘resources’ section - including a small group course introducing the ideas, videos, and ‘playbooks’ (short ‘how-to’ introductions) for identifying and pursuing ‘redemptive quests’ in different sectors of society. Although Praxis is aimed primarily at social entrepreneurs working beyond the congregational sphere, there is food for thought here for church leaders and church-community groups too.
Where can I find it?
https://www.praxis.co/redemptive-quests is a good place on the website to start. Find more resources at: https://www.praxis.co/resources#course.
Enabling Skills Network
We are committed to helping people grow in their skills in enabling others in mission and ministry. One of the key ways we do that is through our enabling skills course. If you’d like to know more about that do have a look at our webpage. The next course will begin in 2026. Please do have a think whether this might be the time for you to have some space to develop your skills around enabling. Or perhaps someone in your team or wider circle of friends and colleagues might benefit from the chance to hone and deepen their skills. Please do pass the details on to anyone who might be interested.
Another way we are looking to enable the enablers is through this email. We hope it can be a basis on which we can develop an informal network of people who can learn and grow together in enabling others. If you would like to write a short review of a book, or suggest an enabling tool we can feature in a future newsletter, or have other ideas of what to include please do get in touch (enablingministryandmission@gmail.com). We also encourage you to use the comment box on the Substack website to respond to this newsletter and continue the conversation.
We are using Substack as a platform but we have no plans to charge for this material, so do invite colleagues to sign up for this monthly newsletter.