Who is Cocoa? Week 2 of Congregational Meetings – Part A
We are working together creating fodder for a document helpful in the search for a new pastor. It is resume of sorts saying who we are and what we want to do or think we need to do. Given this, what skills do we need in the next pastor? Make all that explicit – who we are, what we think we want or need to do, what skills are key – and then advertize and search.
Last week we looked back at funny moments, ouch moments, and proud moments. That’s who we were and are. We could look back all day and in umpteen ways but that bit of looking back is good enough. We are still going to be left with, “Now what?”
We might say from the past successes and failures we have learned how to do or not do this or that. We have learned. That’s good. We can carry that forward. On the other hand remember the silver back gorilla. For thousands of year he was successful by, when threatened, having all the other gorillas get together behind him while he beat his chest. Now with poachers who have machine guns, that strategy is the exact wrong thing to do. What we learned in the past, then, might be helpful or might not be. So let’s go forward flexibly.
Who we are has to do also with conscious and unconscious organizational choices we make. Mom and pop stores cannot keep doing everything like a mom and pop store and be the size of IBM. Nor vice versa. Mom and pop operations had all three employees eating lunch together every day and that was super. There’s a tear shed when that can’t happen because there are many employees and everything is busy. It’s a loss. But it is also a trade – for more friends, more activity, more income? Seldom can we have our cake and eat it too. There are choices to be made.
If we expect the pastor to be at the hospital whenever a congregant is in the hospital and no one else will do, then because the pastor is only one person with finite time, the church will grow to the size that he or she can handle. And what members’ mindsets or expectations can handle. If a pastor needs to be in control of everything and is not good at training or delegating, again the church will size itself accordingly. A lot of pompons waving feverishly won’t change that. If the parishioners needs to know everyone and everyone going on, then the size of that person’s awareness will affect the size of the church. One size is not necessarily better than another (although all sizes must figure out how to stay viable). But we are often self-cancelling without realizing it. We say, “Grow!” while maintaining attitudes and choices and skill sets that say no to the growth.
Our choice exercise (done in our meeting time) overall pitted a pastor being caring by attending personally against a pastor being caring by training. It’d be overly simplistic to say that it pitted a person being a pastor against being a leader. It’s interesting how we define pastoral. We import into the thoughts of tending, caretaking, soothing. Thoughts of leading, goading, confronting are not there. We’ll give a pastor high marks if he or she is caretaking but if he or she is demanding, watch out. Yet won’t it take both for a church to be healthy? to grow? Yes.
So who are we? We’re our past. But we are also our organizational choices and expectations.
Who is Cocoa? Week 2 of Congregational Meetings – Part B
Being a Christian is some combination of certain beliefs, experiences, and practices. You are a Christian if you believe in Jesus Christ as being God and having died for your sins, for example. You are a Christian if you have experienced conviction of sin and the peace that passes understanding, for example. You are a Christian if you practice the Ten Commandments, for example.
In table groups we listed our key beliefs, experiences, and practices. Key beliefs are that Jesus is Lord and Savior, that he died for our sins, that he offers us eternal life, that the Bible is true, that the church is a community, and that there is one God. Key experiences are, as said above, conviction of sin and peace from God related to our confession and trust in Jesus. Key practices are prayer, the Ten Commandments, forgiving others, giving, teaching and sharing our faith, loving and respecting others, and helping the poor.
Who are we? We are also these beliefs. We are our past, our organizational choices, and our beliefs. Again, we could give more time to teasing out our beliefs and having more of them listed. But this is a good start. And maybe gets us 75 or 85% of the way. Another four hours might get us another 5-10% more of the way. You’ll have to decide if that time is worth the additional percentage. Be assured, however, that we’ll never, even with months of work, get 100% of the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment