Expert

“Please come and help us, you’re the expert.”

I hear this a lot. I like to be invited to “come help” and I don’t mind needing (on some topics) to be the “expert.” I have lived a long time and I do have quite a lot of experience and I’ve built up some expertise in some areas. Believe me, there are plenty of areas where I’m no expert and I know what it means to need to call on someone else for the expertise I clearly lack.

But here’s my dilemma. Many of the things I’m “expert” at don’t need to be my exclusive domain. I’d much, much rather be AN expert, rather than THE expert, if you know what I mean. CEM is a broad area with many communities, many people and many more people we could reach or touch if we just had a few more experts.

In fact, you don’t even need to be an expert. If you’d be willing to build your own knowledge about some of the things I know, I’d just be ever so pleased to help you along. I’d surely love to hear of people who would like to learn from me. I’m always on the lookout for folks who don’t yet feel entirely competent or experienced, but would like to learn how to teach a class or facilitate a workshop or recommend a trusted resource or review a promising book. Those are some of the areas I get called on. How I would love someone to co-teach, to take notes, to debrief, to compare opinions. In other words, to build up their own expertise.

We need lots of experts if we’re going to succeed with the goals set before us (2020 Vision). But none of us began as an expert. We all started out just being interested in something, or suspecting we might find a passion if given half a chance. If you’d really like to develop some experience, here’s what I suggest:

Look around for someone you consider an expert. Get to know them better. Tell them, straight out, that you’d like to build some knowledge or skill in the thing you see them doing. Ask if you can spend some time with them. Ask them to recommend something you could read. Suggest you chat about it later. Invite yourself to tag along the next time they’re …fill in the right word…teaching, preaching, listening to a speaker, going to a movie, preparing a budget, searching out a new text book, visiting in the hospital, cooking for a crowd, setting up a sound system, designing a web page. There are just myriads of things where we have experts and where we’ll be needing lots more skill/wisdom/expertise as we say good bye to our retirees and move with confidence into the decade before us.

What do you think? Is there an expert near you that you’d like to nominate as your teacher/mentor?

Posted by Marion

Thinking

Do you remember that sign people used to have in their office? It just had one word: THINK.

Today, I'm thinking about thinking. On this Blog we've talked quite alot about goals and vision and setting priorities. You may have created some of those for yourself, or for your congregations. We here at this office urge you to do those things. They're good things to have. They set direction, give you focus, ensure you're working on "what matters most," also words you've often read here.

I've written, quite recently, about the importance of acting. But today, I'm thinking about how important it is to give yourself time to think.

I once had a boss who advised me to hold my phone to my ear if I were spending time in thought. She had learned that it was best to give the appearance of doing something! Fortunately, my current boss understands and values the time I spend in thought. (At least, if he doesn't, this post will give him the opportunity to raise his concerns to me.)

I feel blessed not to need to justify how much of my job entails spending time in serious thinking, not meditation, not stragegizing, not planning--although all those elements are also important--just thinking.

It's one of the lessons I've learned. Being overly driven to be engaged in some kind of activity without the prerequisite thought can be really, really counterproductive. There is a certain balance required. For the past few weeks I've been part of a group thinking about the future of our fledgling Fired Up! congregation. One of the insights we've gathered is that we believe we'll gain much by spending this early time waiting to act, finding our footing, discerning good directions for this group.

It's always a challenge to know when to stop thinking and start doing. But I believe there's more damage to be done by not spending enough time in thought. What do you think?

Posted by Marion

Perfect

Those of you following the Olympics have been hearing this word quite a lot over the past several days. Whether it's applied to the winning routine of Canada's young ice dancers, or the impossible twisting aerial flip of the snow boarder. I've even applied it to the perfect placement of that granite rock into the curling rings!

Perfect! exclaims the expert commentator and the totally unknowledgable spectators cheer their agreement. It's right there for all to see, perfection.

And then we spend long minutes, hours, days talking about what made "it" perfect. Because it isn't a single thing It's the coming together of many things: natural ability, determination, practice, excellent coaching, dedicated support, incredible coincidences, stubborn determination, self-control, capacity for focus, mental, emotional as well as physical strength. So many things.

Then I ask myself, where in my life do I strive for perfection? What is it that I'm working towards with anything like the intensity and dedication that might yield a perfect score?

Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matt 5:48

I think it has much to do with setting goals. In what element of my life or work or relationships do I want to focus my energies? Because I really don't think I'll get there without that kind of start, the first step. Whether it's a perfect inside back death spiral, or an engaging scripture-based sermon or maybe even a genuine atmosphere of hospitality in my congregation, it all starts with deciding to do what it takes to get it right, not to give up just because I've crashed into the boards for the fortieth time.

One thing I learn from Olympic games is that perfect can look so, so different--a bull's eye, a slap shot or seven one hundredths of a second. Just depends what you set out to do. Where is your call to perfection?

Clutter

I am in a de-cluttering mood just now. Tomorrow is pick-up day on my street and I've got a couple of big bags to go to charity and the nicest, neatest dresser drawers you could imagine.

My house was built in 1904, so closet space is very limited. When something comes in, something must go out. I've already confessed my stacks of books; truly I have other stacks as well. Today I begin to clear some of this paper clutter from my surroundings.

We speak quite alot about setting goals, establishing priorities, determining what matters most. Maybe one of the reasons this sometimes is so hard is that we try to hang onto too many things. Maybe we need to be honest about some of the things we're holding onto and confess that some of that stuff is just clutter!

Continuing conversations about Goals, Enduring Principles and now Words of Counsel might also include making some decisions about things I've always thought. I just might need to clear some of my personal clutter as I seek out the universal spiritual principles.

I am trying to hear that call to covenant that "requires whole-life stewardship dedicated to expanding the church’s restoring ministries" and I don't want any of my clutter getting in the way.

Reasonable

Goal 5: Effective Peace Ministries

Is it reasonable to think that our little church with our 50 +/- small congregations and members scattered here and there across Eastern Canada can make a difference in the lives of people and communities? Is Effective Peace Ministries really a reasonable goal for us?

A few years ago when “the troubles” in Northern Ireland were at their peak, and bombings or shootings were in the news every single day, I could not see how that conflict would ever end. The hatred and mistrust was so strong that I could not see any end in sight. I often wondered, how will the country ever get past this? To believe peace was possible did not seem reasonable. And yet, the day came when a ceasefire was arranged and actually held! The country may still not yet have a totally reliable peace, but they are much closer than they were. The children can now go to school in peace, and there is hope.

The same could be said of numerous conflicts, either physical or ideological, around the world. Believing in peace between warring factions was not reasonable, but peace was possible. In my lifetime, many conflicts have ended, the Berlin wall has fallen, the Iron Curtain has come down, and numerous other victories for peace have occurred. In each case, to make this happen, someone had to believe in it and work towards that end.

In Canada East Mission, we have many people who believe in peace and work toward it on a variety of fronts. There are many examples, but here are a very few. I have watched our YPC (Young Peacemakers Club) leaders as they taught peace and conflict resolution to class after class of primary school children. Congregations give scholarships and peace awards to High School students to reward and encourage their peacemaking efforts. I have shared with a High Priest as he talked to a Jewish Business man, seeking to convince him that, "Not all Arabs are terrorists". I have heard the stories of everyday miracles that occur in the presence of our courageous volunteers for Encounter World Religions as they teach inter-religious peace to students and adults day after day. And I have seen lives transformed and redeemed from addiction and pain to hope and new life through the ministrations of members and ministers who care.

We are blessed to have such people. They believe peace is possible, even when the visible evidence does not appear to support that faith. These are people who have been touched by the generous grace of God, and who seek to share it with others. They go beyond what is reasonable, trusting that the impossible will probably just take a little longer. Thank God for peacemakers who, knowing their own blessedness, pray for and bless others with the touch of God’s generous grace!

Is our 5th goal reasonable? The answer is in the lives of our people. Their actions say that, reasonable or not, this is the work we are called to; the tasks we must do. As CEM Mission President, I believe it is nothing short of a privilege to support them.

Posted by Carman Thompson

Generations

Not many years ago the church’s youngest appointee came from Canada East. I well recall feeling a sense of pride as one of our young people spoke with passion and eloquence in support of the World Conference resolution endorsing the UN statement on Rights of the Child. We’ve been proud of young adults who’ve directed our reunions and we rely on the hundreds (Yes, that’s the right word!) of young adults who make our camping program possible. Young adults are bringing us their traveling ministry; they’re integral parts of important boards and committees across the Mission and in their congregations.

Why then do we also collectively hold the certain awareness that senior high students will go away to school and never return to home congregations? Leadership positions come open, wise elders look around at empty pews and, yet again, step into those roles for the sake of the survival of the community. Everywhere we go we hear the question “where are our young people?” and we bemoan the future of the church.

Yet, young campers long for that single week in the distant next summer when they’ll reconnect with friends once again. Carman has shared his experience with Gracelanders who do long to serve the church they care deeply about. Have they really become invisible to us? Or have they truly gone missing?

Here is our paradox. We have many congregations with aging leaders and young adults who stay away, and young adults who want to serve but feel they will never have the chance. This paradox is what we in CEM want to address with our 2020 Vision Goal #1: Young Adult Leader Empowerment (YALE). We are determined to tackle the challenge to bring our passionate and capable young people into positions of genuine authority and opportunity.

We must get intentional about handing off and supporting the direction younger leaders want to go. We need to give them the training, the experience, the opportunity they need to truly lead our congregations of the future, the congregations of the present.
Maybe it’s time for you to examine your own ideas and attitudes toward the next generation around you. Can you see who the next leaders should be? What if those leaders do something or suggest a direction that isn’t what we’re used to? Are you ready to respond with a heartfelt “let’s give it a try”?

It’s time to take this goal seriously. We don’t even think it’s too late. But we need you to make this your goal too, whatever your age or generation. We need you to do some things, maybe even many things, differently. And we intend to help you.

We’d love to hear from you; how are you committing to Goal #1: Young Adult Leader Empowerment?

Posted by Marion

Resolutions

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? If so, do you take them seriously and try to keep them? Do you set out a process to help you accomplish what you set out to do? Does this produce results you find satisfying throughout the year as well as at year end?

How did that practice get started anyway? Why is the practice so trendy? However it got started, it seems to be popular with many people looking back at the past year, either with or without regrets and resolving to be a better woman or man in the year ahead. Such resolutions often take the form of losing weight, or eating healthier meals, or developing more discipline in one’s Spiritual practice. All these are worthy objectives, however long they last.

At CEM, we don’t really make New Year’s resolutions, but we have set out what might be considered “New Decade resolutions.” These were announced at the October CEM conference under the heading 2020 Vision. In many ways, they are and will continue to be works in progress.

During the first days or weeks of 2010, we will be reviewing those goals in this blog, inviting you to comment and be involved in helping our Mission achieve them. I am not sure if you will find that prospect exciting, but succeeding in accomplishing our goals will lay the groundwork for a much brighter and healthier future for Canada East Mission in the decades following this one. We plan to make the 2020 Vision a reality. We can do this. It is important for those who follow after us.

As 2009 draws to a close, on behalf of all the staff at Canada East Mission, have a very happy, healthy, and safe New Year. In 2010, may each of us recognize how remarkably blessed we truly are, and may you experience Joy, Hope, Love and Peace in the year ahead.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Posted by Carman Thompson

Laughter

I just want to remind us all that a big part of being a community is the fun we have together.

Don't forget to plan in some play time.

It was great being with the Hamilton congregation Saturday afternoon and evening for a goal-setting workshop. One of the things they appreciate most about each other is the ability to enjoy each other's company.

They'd started up earlier in the day with a community car wash and barbeque. Despite periods of torrential rain (it's been that kind of weekend here in Southern Ontario!) they spent lots of time laughing and connecting with the neighbours. No signs of discouragement here. They'll do it again.

There was a great sense of optimism and anticipation of the future that lies ahead of them -- as well as appreciation for those who went before. There's lots of laughter there to sweeten the mix.