Comments on: Vision and leadership: keeping the long view

By: Christine Greenland

Christine Greenland — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:04:00 +0000

Yesterday, I clerked a small quarterly meeting working group — I’m co-clerk, since it isn’t my quarter… and the other co-clerk is, which works well. We keep asking the questions and seeing the potentials … but when it comes down to being faithful (a term I use instead of “accountable”) that needs consistent testing. It is important to center in worship, no matter what we are doing.

I had the experience of being chair of a group of biologists, and found that, even then, I conducted business in the same way… one of seeking guidance from other members of the group — even though the group of which we were a small part used Robert’s rules of order. I felt our group was too small to make that approach workable… Occasionally, I forgot I wasn’t among Friends until another member of the group (a United Church graduate of Swarthmore College) reminded me… Church of the Brethren folks just grinned and allowed as how they preferred the approach; we were, after all, both friends and biologists. For most of us, the work had both a scientific and a spiritual basis.

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:51:00 +0000

In reply to Robin Mohr. Hi Robin: of course I like your post :). I'm quite confident you'll be one to remember the reason you're doing this work. The sort of move into the more tautological bureaucratic thinking ("we serve ourselves so we can serve ourselves") seems to happen at a larger staff/budget threshold than FWCC's current status.

By: Alice Yaxley

Alice Yaxley — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:57:00 +0000

This really speaks to me. I like your media and social change model. I think that is how I understand church works - 90% of the time we are practicing, we make attempts to live God's way, we soak ourselves in God's grace and eventually build up some pathways in our brains. So then when we meet an opportunity, once in a while we recognize it and respond from our practiced understanding of opening into God's grace. We might intend to do that most of the time, but we can't do it without practicing. "Why are we doing this?" is a great core conversation for church social time, and for me it points straight to the well of good water, God's grace. I think it's hard to make good decisions in committee meetings if we haven't practiced asking "Why ... ?" together outside that context. If we have been drinking deeply together at the well of living water that Jesus shows us - I think that's what allows us to find the heavenly dimension of God's possibilities emerging amongst us. Knowing one another in the things which are eternal (from Britain YM's Advices & Queries #18). Perhaps we can only make decisions as deep as our collective immersion in God's presence.

By: Robin Mohr

Robin Mohr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Hi Martin! I like the new design.

I still can’t tell if you liked my post, were ambivalent or worse about it.

I think you’re right that we have to keep asking what are we here for. We, as individuals or organizations, can’t get caught up in all the 1,000 things that people think we ought to do. Heck, I can think of 20 things I’d like FWCC to be involved in right now all by myself, but I also know we can only do about three at a time. How do we choose? How do we balance honoring the commitments that the organization has made and responding to the call of the Holy Spirit in the moment, even if we may be mistaken in our discernment in either direction?

I’ve been writing about this quandary for years : In 2011 http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-choices.html

In 2006: http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2006/09/my-candle-burns-at-both-ends.html

Maybe it’s just me that is not given to singleness of eye, of focus. The good side of that is breadth of vision. The shadow/sin is frittering away time and other resources.

How can we help each other in the discernment process?