Collaboration: It’s Always Better When We’re Together
This post is the fifth in a series around the C’s of leadership, featuring a different Leadership C with each new post. Whether you lead a corporation, a church, a department, a classroom, or a family, HOW you lead has enormous impact on those you lead.
Years back in a conversation with an unchurched person, he said to me: “I’m not really into the ‘sage on the stage.'” We went on to have deeper conversation around traditional sermons (which is what he meant by ‘the sage on the stage’). My unchurched friend (BTW, every person who goes to church ought to have unchurched friends!) found enormous value in dialogue and there’s absolutely no dialogue with a traditional sermon. I consider myself a pretty decent preacher but I have to confess: sometimes I look out and feel as if I am holding the people in the pews emotionally and intellectually hostage. I mean, sure, they can always get up and walk out; but that’s not a healthy way to respond to words that confuse, challenge, or anger me, right?
When I was at my church in Lafayette, I worked with a great staff and lay leaders. Over the years in ministry, I think my best ministry results came through dialogue. Many times all I had was a tiny seed of an idea but, thrown into the soil of those great minds, it grew into something really fruitful. We miss out on so much when we try to go it on our own as leaders. Great ideas need to be shaped by perspectives and experiences and my individual perspectives and experiences are limited. My ideas can grow bigger when they are exposed to multiple perspectives and experiences… even perspectives I disagree with!
Now, don’t get me wrong… Education and training are important. I’m proud to be part of a denomination (United Methodist) that requires its clergy to be educated. Educated clergy and religious scholars have a critical role to play in interpreting the Word of God. But that Word never exists in a vacuum. It only bears fruit when it’s planted in our lives and I will never know as much about your life as you do… and paradoxically, I will never know as much about my own life without knowing about your life. I guess this is why, while at Trinity, we launched Trinity Fusion, a space where the Word of God and the word of our lives could be fused and integrated.
I guess this strong commitment to collaboration is why I feel so much passion and excitement around this new online community I am launching through my work with the Indiana Conference. It, too, is a place where the Word of God and our own words are fused. It is a space where we collaborate to go deeper in our relationship with God AND with others. I don’t think spiritual formation can ever be a spectator sport, nor can it be a solo performance. It is a team, an orchestra. If you are interested in doing Christian community in a way that is collaborative – that requires courage, deepens compassion, promotes curiosity, and grows communication – please consider joining us for A Place for You Online on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 Eastern time.
A Place for You Online Gathering for dialogue, discovery, prayer and celebration
6:30 PM Indiana (East) Every week on Wed, until Nov 15, 2023
https://inumc.zoom.us/j/84536355755
Meeting ID 845 3635 5755
traceyleslie 