Changing the Conversation, by Anthony Robinson
Chapter Six – “Write the Vision?”
Like Kathleen
Milligan, I find myself inspired by one of the saints of the church as I write this
on the Feast of St. Joseph, one of my favorite mentors in the Bible. Joseph had
a vision and what a vision Joseph had! Life-changing for sure. How wonderful
that he was able to let go of the safe choice and take a chance on such an
audacious plan, acting on what seems to me like crazy information, but grounded
in deep and abiding faith and purpose and trusting in this vision of God With
Us (see Matthew 1:18-2:23). Joseph actually had four visions. The first led him
to 1) marry Mary; and 2) name the Child Jesus because he was to be the savior.
The second vision led him to 1) flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus and 2) remain
in Egypt until it was safe to return. The third led him to go back to Israel
and the fourth to go to Galilee and make a home in Nazareth. Grounded in his
understanding of his purpose as the protector of the vulnerable young Son of
God and his mother, he discerned the most pressing challenges before him and
figured out what steps to take to respond to them.
Would that it were as easy for us to articulate our visions
as it appears to have been for Joseph, although I am glad not to face the life
threatening challenges he did and I suspect Matthew’s account leaves out a fair
amount of difficult conversation and decision making. But to be honest, “Write
the Vision” was not my favorite chapter in Anthony Robinson’s Changing the Conversation. Although I
have facilitated a lot of vision writing and strategic planning in my career, I
am in a place of transition in my life and working with people just at the
beginning of transition time in the lives of their faith communities, so it is
hard to focus on specifics.
Right now I am
finding the more existential conversations about understanding and responding
to change and discerning purpose to be more exciting than actual planning. And
yet it seems like an important invitation because sooner or later we will have
to get up from pondering postmodern quandaries and do something, to come down
from the balcony to the dance floor and dance, to use Ronald Heifetz’s analogy.
In a recent parish retreat we wrestled at length with the changes and
challenges that Robinson describes in the first part of the book and with what
all that means for discerning the church’s purpose. When we got to the topic of
vision we were pretty tired, but ultimately a consensus emerged that we need to
do something now: “remember that planning is planning and doing is doing” (Changing the Conversation, p. 127).
Joseph’s visions remind me that while we need to discern an
underlying sense of purpose we also need to be nimble and adaptive in our visioning
and planning. Robinson challenges us to have a variety of conversations that
balance reflection, discernment and practice. If our purpose is reflected in
our intentional spiritual practices, our vision needs to stretch us to look
beyond our current situation to see where God is leading us in mission and to
take steps toward realizing that vision and fulfilling our purpose. If we can
develop even a working or underlying sense of purpose, say being a prayerful, worshiping
community of followers of Jesus, sharing his Good News with the world, then we
can envision and plan strategically based on the particular challenges before
us, which will be different depending on where we are on our journeys. Perhaps
you already have a workable mission statement that adequately defines your
purpose and could be a starting point. Discerning a fresh sense of purpose can
even be part of your vision and plan.
If we keep in mind Robinson’s seven process principles – the
foundational importance of purpose; discernment of God’s will for the
community; valuing everyone’s input; clarity about the process; good communication;
gratitude and action – we can become communities of practice that tend to
vision and planning as a matter of responsible, ongoing adaptation in the face
of rapidly changing circumstances. We can be like Joseph, grounded in faithful
purpose and able to see where God is leading us and what steps we need to take
to get there, always ready and able to adjust course nimbly as needed.
Once you begin to have a sense of God’s purpose for your
life as a faith community, what are you going to do about it? Have fun
imagining and planning!
Steve Godfrey
Interim Priest, Grace Church, Boone, & St. Martin’s,
Perry
No comments:
Post a Comment