ARE:A Renewal Enterprise

Thank-you Early Adopters!

As we spent time evaluating the feedback we received from those of you who participated in our second webinar last night, we found ourselves giving thanks for all the early adopters who are helping us get this thing figured out! This really is becoming a community development project and we couldn't be doing it without you. We want to share with you some of the feedback we heard; I'll do that in another post. But, first off, here are some numbers you might find interesting:

Why Change?

Phew! That's how I was feeling as we wrapped up our second online seminar. There were over 50 people online with us tonight for the first in a 4-part series on change. The largest number of participants were congregational lay leaders (awesome!). There were also lots of church professionals, a few judicatory leaders, and some nonprofit/business leaders, as well. Things got off to a rocky start when Dave, who was hosting tonight, couldn't get his call-in phone number to work. At 7:00 p.m. we were still on the phone with our provider, trying to get signed on to the call! That created a little confusion on our end when it came to slide & survey placement. All 3 of us were a little jittery. Thanks to everyone who is wading into these new waters with us. We value your participation and we look forward to your feedback!

Online Seminar Tonight: The Cost of Change

Feedback from those who participated in our first online seminar was overwhelmingly positive and tonight's topic was chosen based on their input. I hope you'll join us online this evening for what will be the first in a three part series on change.

An A.R.E. Breakthrough

Hey, so this is kind of fun. We felt pretty good about the new purpose statement and missional practices we articulated as a team, here at A.R.E., at the beginning of this new year. But, after working with them for a couple of months, we discovered that something very important was missing. And so, we went back to the drawing board this week. The outcome is a FIFTH missional practice. The complete list (for now!) is:

• Asking purposeful questions
• Using participative processes
• Working playfully
• Taking place seriously (and, drum roll, please!)
• Being productive

Yes, that's right. We realized that we had failed to account for this basic reality: If no one DOES anything, nothing will happen.

Duh, right?!

Renewal is an ongoing journey...for our friends, partners, and clients...and for us! It's important to keep asking yourself purposeful questions...even about the things that are at the very core of who you are and what you value...and to be ready to make whatever changes are necessary as you hear & see things in a new way.

Click on An A.R.E. Breakthrough to listen to Dave Daubert working playfully, helping us poke fun at ourselves, and describing tongue-in-cheek this newest missional practice.

 

Dance With The Stars

A new season of Dancing with the Stars kicked off this week with one of my favorite actresses, Marlee Matlin, taking the dance floor. She received one of the highest scores of the night on her first spin around the floor which is remarkable actually, as Matlin is profoundly deaf. I turned on the tv last night just to cheer her on. I love that she continues to push the public in its understanding about what people with a variety of disabilities can not only handle, but accomplish with skill, grace, passion and dedication.

It seems to me, as A.R.E. works with a variety of people and organizations, that watching Ms. Matlin can teach us a few things.

First, you don't have to know everything yourself in order to be successful. Like Matlin, who can't even hear the music she's being asked to dance to, you may not be able to see, hear, or grab a hold of things that would make you feel confident. Matlin has to trust her dance partner to show her the way. You, too, may have to trust that someone else can lead you.

Second, the only way to do the really hard things is to "feel it in your heart." That's how Matlin described her ability to dance. Too many of us want all the "t's" crossed before we make a move. But if you can already see, prove, or guarantee success before you get started, the thing you're doing is probably too easy! It might make us more comfortable, but it won't necessarily be good or right. Doing the hard and important things usually means trusting your heart.

And finally, have fun. Smile. Take a risk. You just might surprise yourself and others, daring them to go where they have not ever dared to go before. As for me I just might lace up those dance shoes!

Working Playfully is Serious Business

At the end of last month's "4th Tuesday" webinar, we promised we'd answer, here in this space, the handful of questions we didn't get a chance to address online. Several of those questions had to do with what working playfully means and why it matters.

In a recent article in the NY Times Magazine entitled Taking Play Seriously, Tom Schierlitz writes about play. He points to the reality that a life without play is not only less fun, it is also less effective. Play opens up parts of our minds, stretches our imagination, and allows us to think and act in ways that we might not if everything was serious and everything mattered. The article makes the case to support restoring play to the day and to challenge parents and schools who think that somehow they are doing kids and the world a favor by cutting recess in favor of more book time (to pass some standardized test).

But it also appears that kids are not the only ones who benefit from play. Stuart Brown, president of the National Institute for Play, was speaking at the New York Public Library's main branch on 42nd Street. He says, "If you look at what produces learning and memory and well-being, play is as fundamental as any other aspect of life, including sleep and dreams."

Everyone should enjoy play - we actually benefit from it! A playful mind is alert, active, curious, expansive and fresh. Marc Bekoff, also quoted in the article says, "I think of play as training for the unexpected."

A non-playful one is eventually dulled (and dull!) Is it any wonder that so many of our churches and organizations are struggling today? They have taken themselves too seriously and in the process have courted death thinking that if they would just be a little more serious they would find life.

If the premise of this is correct, then working playfully is not optional. Granted, not everything can be fun all the time. But if everything is always not fun then we are probably going about it all wrong. Has your organization stopped having fun? Then it's time to rethink how you work and make it fun again. It may just be that you will not only find enjoyment but discover a new effectiveness at the same time

How To Reconnect With Your Context

The widely reported "CLOSED" signs that recently appeared on every Starbucks in the country help illustrate that people in every organization have to work hard to remember who they are and what matters to them.

There were a couple of questions at the end of our recent online seminar that we didn't have time to address and we promised we'd do that in this space. This was one of those questions: "If our churches are made up of people who live in the world, how does the church become so disconnected from the context?" In other words, how do we end up forgetting something that is so much at the core of who we are and what matters to us?

There are many ways to answer that question. But I believe it all begins here: The church becomes disconnected from the context when we forget that the church is not, first, an institution. The church is people. As a result, a double blind spot is created in which most Christians actually forget one identity when they pay attention to the other. In the world - forget you are the church. In the church - separate yourself from the world.

It is not the church (people) that is disconnected from the world as much as it is the institution that we have settled for. What this means is the institution that is disconnected from the world is also no longer fully connected to its own people (since they still generally understand the world and just seem to develop amnesia when they enter the institution!). This mistake has been internalized over a period of generations. Both the church and society entered into an unwritten deal that if the church would coexist with the world without challenging it too much, then society would help the church flourish as a civic organization. Much of the church settled for the safety of being a civic organization. Eventually it became engrained in us - the church is an organization and the people come to it and support it (or not!). This unwritten deal is now over but the damage is still being felt.

We need to work hard today to remember that the church does not dispense religious services to people - it is made up of people of faith. Reclaiming the priesthood of believers, understanding that God is "out there," and helping people see and be intentional about how they are useful to God all the time is a key to changing this; so is learning to use our gathering time as time for equipping and debriefing. When we get together, we ought to be talking about what is happening in our corner of the world and how God is at work there. Leaders in congregations that want to take their place seriously again will discover that by asking purposeful questions and using participative processes, they will be tapping into the wisdom and experience that many people already bring with them but have been checking at the door. And in wrestling with the answers, people who have disconnected their church and world identities will discover them reconnecting again. These congregations can then send people back to be the church in the world, ready to see God at work in and through them again (and again, and again...).

The key to reconnecting with our context is to remember that the church is people who live, work and play in the world everyday! Vibrant congregations will learn to tap into what people already know about how to connect with their context and encourage them to be the church wherever in the world they go.