Things I'm learning

I'd like to write about things I'm learning lately so that won't forget. I have been writing everything down in my journal and for once, I can remember why what someone said made me feel good.

For example, I went to The Refuge's The Walking Wounded seminar on Saturday morning. It involved having a conversation with 30-40 people and sharing good but mostly bad experiences in ministry together. They asked the questions, why am I here? is there someone to blame? how did I get here? when will I feel better? can I ever go back? where is God? and where do I go from here? There were several ideas which sparked my interest:

1. There is a confusion in many modern Evangelical churches of Community & Strategy. Churches get themselves into trouble because they often follow a corporate business model and end up valuing things like success, efficiency, productivity, growth, power, influence, control, money, titles, and on and on. They make goals which are to be achieved by people who they've either hired or who have volunteered. If these people work toward the goal, then they are valuable, but if they don't, they are a liability; dead-weight.

Karen (pseudonym) gave the example of her experience in senior leadership. The church didn't want community with Karen, they wanted a care pastor. They poured into her and cared about her as long as she fulfilled her role as a woman and as a care pastor. When she didn't fit into those roles they way they wanted, they ended what they called "community" with her. She was asked to leave, and quickly. This is clearly strategy, not community. Community is inefficient, unproductive, powerless (power is diffused), more communist than capitalist, a place where success can't easily be measured, where people are together because they want one thing, or similar things. This leads me to the next point I learned at The Walking Wounded, which includes two different models of community: Bounded Set and Center Set. I need to go to work, however, so I will have to write more about what I'm learning later. Thanks for reading!