Toolbox

What do you keep in your toolbox? Or do you know someone else who has all the tools you need to borrow whenever you need them? Are you the kid who went off to set up an apartment on your own and so you needed to start your own toolbox? Maybe your mom or your dad gave you a nice "starter set" with a hammer, a multi-head set of screw drivers, maybe a pair of needle-nosed pliers or a little level or a square, or perhaps your own picture-hanging kit? Could be you needed a toilet plunger and a needle and thread. Even a decent pair of scissors was something you always had "at home" but realized the new kitchen drawers did not come equipped with even the most basic tools?

I'm thinking about toolboxes today after sitting quietly (for the most part) at the Mission Advocate weekend Carman reported to you yesterday. One of the tasks that has been mine for the better part of the past ten years or so has been as keeper of the toolbox.

The "tools" I've looked after have been the books, or the newsletters, or the workshops, or the websites, or the easy checklists to make this or that task smoother. You need to know how to run a retreat, or a meeting, or identify the right guest speaker or what your mentors need to know to be as effective as possible? "Give Marion a call" has become the advice that gets offered.

Not that you can't do it yourself. Most of you really do have access to that whole toolbox yourself. In fact, as I was looking around that room this weekend past, I was feeling pretty comfortable that this group are very, very well-equipped. They have experience; they have skills. There is a whole dynamic at work here with just so much know-how and wisdom that I feel just fine moving on to the next phase in my life--whatever that may look like. This job will be in good hands.

While I'm still around please feel free to avail yourself of any of the tools I'm still holding. I have begun to give away my books. I would love to have conversations with anyone interested in some of my most reliable sources. If a day should come when you really aren't sure exactly how to use some weird and wonderful tool you've seen me use, then give me a call and we'll chat about it.

But I'm pretty confident that you all have a whole box full of tools of your own that will serve you just fine in whatever adventure you undertake next. I especially liked the phrases shared this weekend, reminding us all that "your continuing faith adventure with God has been divinely led, eventful, challenging, and sometimes surprising to you. By the grace of God you are poised to fulfill God's ultimate vision for the church." (D&C 164:9a)

You have tools for the job. And as you go you'll add more to the box. Maybe the next Good Word needs to be "adventure."

Posted by Marion

Meetings

It may be fashionable to declare a hatred of meetings. Mention “meetings” and someone is bound to say it: I hate meetings! Our little work group has often found ourselves in this round of questions and predictable responses:

Do we need to meet?
Is there anything for the agenda this week?
Can you think of something we need to meet about?
Well, maybe just a short one.

And then we do meet. We have a regularly scheduled meeting every Wednesday morning because we’ve learned that we always do need to meet. For a small team it is amazing just how much needs to happen around that meeting table. After all, we see each other all the time. We share the hallways, the lunch table, the photocopier and fax space. We meet each other on the stairs, at the refrigerator and in the parking lot. Why do we need to have a formal meeting?

Again, the fashionable comment that always gets made sooner or later: isn’t it better to be “doing” than to be “meeting”?

And of course, “doing” is the priority. We must be about meeting all those goals we’ve set and agreed upon. But nothing just happens of its own accord. You need to be strategic. You need to set time-lines and assign folks to tasks. You need to hear about what’s going on in the other parts of the field that just might make a huge difference. You need to hear about the problems people are having and maybe put additional brain-power to work on the challenges. You need to just go round the table and listen to whatever progress is being made. You need to cheer a little for the minor successes and encourage in the face of the hard questions. You need to tap into the synergy that a group brings to an issue. You need to let ideas happen.

At least those are the kinds of things we need to do at our meeting table.

Then you need to watch the clock, wrap up the conversation and move on. So a stop time is also a critical piece, and an agenda—that essential list of things to include. Ours always has the item “Where have you been and where are you going and what do we need to hear about?” This is the main reason we will always need to meet. Because we’ve all been somewhere and will be somewhere else soon.

So if you should happen to call us on a Wednesday morning, be sure to have your message prepared to leave on the answering machine. Everyone is in a meeting!

Posted by Marion

Team

I often hear folks express a wish for a good leader, or, better yet, good leaders. Of course, these desires are being expressed in a conversation lamenting lack of a single person willing or able to lead. To lead the congregation or to lead a particular ministry they've identified as something important to be done.

If they still deem the project or the ministry or even the survival of the congregation to be worthwhile they may resort to what they clearly see as "second best" and cobble together a group of people willing to share the job.

Let me say a few things in favour of the team! We're most likely to point to the obvious stars, the high-flyers, the charismatic loners who charge in and win the games. People who take charge, set direction and make decisions may indeed get respect and others line up eagerly to follow them, or not.

But consider the other skills it takes to go the distance, ensure long-term success, create a sense of belonging, ownership, motivation, trust, loyalty. I'd even suggest one of the most essential team skills is the ability to challenge effectively. Maybe I don't have a good idea myself, but if I can ask questions, offer refinements, push someone else to clarify their vision, are those not equally valuable to the life of the group?

Carman and I are currently working with the leadership team of our fledgling Fired Up! group. The really important, really challenging work of creating that team is going on just now. And it's very exciting to see this group coming together, clarifying its vision, making ready to develop strategies, asking the critical questions and building the trust that will be needed to achieve that vision and move into an uncertain but exciting future.

As a church we're being asked to join a team, to be part of a prophetic people, to get engaged with the discernment process, not just to wait to follow blindly the directives of our leader. This is the model Fired Up! is trying to learn--to put together a team of people with different skills, different passions, but with a vision of what such a group can do using the model of prophetic people, not just a people with a prophet.

It is a process. It takes time to practise, to recognize abilities in each other and to point those out as we are together, to notice when it's working and when it's not, to say "let's go" or "let's wait" and then to support a decision once made. Many of the congregations in CEM have leadership teams. Let's practise noticing our team processes and successes and see how far we can go.

Posted by Marion