who will miss you when you're gone?

A friend has found his blogging groove which is good news for all of us that follow Keith Jennings in his various blogging manifestations. It looks like the sweet spot will be helping non-profits discover "what business they are really in."

Keith has been kind enough to help me try to figure that out for a while now. I accused him of trying to make me do hard work that I didn't really have to do when he asked me the question recently:

"If your organization ceased to exist, who would it affect and how?"

This was difficult because step one was to figure out: what is it that we do?

Is there one common goal that our entire organization ascribes to?

It's discipleship, right?

What does that mean, though?

Is the group that meets once a week to do needlepoint really trying to accomplish the same thing that the group that meets once a week to talk over the Bible and what it means to them?

The people who find the church a convenient place to take their kids for dance and soccer: do they even care what we are trying to accomplish? What's the next most convenient place that they would have to go to if they couldn't come to our place?

Peter Drucker claims that not only are the needlepointers and the bible studyers and the soccer moms trying to accomplish the same thing, but that every non-profit (faith based and otherwise) is trying to do the same thing.

He says, in Managing the Non-Profit Organization that the one mission we all have in common is "to satisfy the needs of the American people for self-realization, for living out our ideals, our beliefs, our best opinion of ourselves." p. xvii. And that is just in the preface of the book! He continues to say that the non-profit organization exists "to bring about a change in individuals and in society." (p3)

Now, here's the thing. I have pondered the question "If your organization ceased to exist, who would it affect and how?" and have thought about it from a few angles.

And here is what I'm wondering with a somewhat troubled sense:

Do you suppose that the people who would miss it the most are the folks who want to change the least?

And, for me, here's the most important thing about this thought:

If that is true, who's fault is it?

Mine.

And since your reading:

Yours.

So. What are we going to do about it?

I got you!

I was unable to make it to a ministry opportunity recently. I was suffering from a physical ailment that had immobilized me. The event wasn't overly important, but I really wanted to "make an appearance". I knew also that we needed some sort of staff representation and to have a problem solver on hand should one be needed.

I contacted an intern who works with me in what we call the community development office of our organization. Our self assigned task is to make sure events and discipleship opportunities go as well as possible and that the stories and ideas of the ministry are spread to highest degree we can attain.

I sent him a text that morning: I can't make it to the event today. I need you to be there and help out.

His response via text:

Ok and i will show up and represent for our department because we're a team and since you can't make it, i will pick the ball up and take it all the way. I got you!

I realized for me, the discipleship opportunity was in the texting that morning.

Discipleship because I relied on someone else and someone else came to realize the importance and the integrity involved with the interdependence that we live in together as members of "our department".

I realized how much a 20 year old intern with no formal professional training or real stake other than a slightly-better-than-minimum-wage-part-time-job understood about team, community, love, and our cause.

I kind of also realized how rare it is to see from those of us who are highly trained and educated and have a full time career at stake in the cause.

I hope I can be better about making my colleagues feel that I will represent them in difficult times, and that ultimately: "I got you!"

receivers and givers

"What about helping suffering people--starving [homeless] and such? Sure. Do it. It's [the way]. But do it without attachment. To be attached means that you identify with your role as the GIVER of help. This in turn casts the other person in the role of RECEIVER of help. Such identifications with roles may fill bellies, but it increases human distance. A conscious being knows that there is neither giver nor receiver... there are only empty bellies, storehouses of wheat... and effort required to move wheat from storehouses to the belly. It is OUR wheat, our belly, our effort. And when all this energy has been transferred, a conscious being realizes that nothing has happened. Thanks are absurd... does your left hand thank your right hand?"

-Ram Dass, Be Here Now

A recent day of outreach was made remarkable in that its organizers sought to provide opportunities for traditional receivers to take on the role of givers. There were complications, but it was mildly successful.

The NA group took up collections over months. Enough was donated to cover the costs for materials to put wood preservative on an aging deck at a local rehab center.

One of the organizers of the outreach project ran into one of the women enrolled in a treatment center who would participate. "I can't wait 'til Saturday," she said. "What's Saturday?" said the organizer, unsure if he remembered who she was. "It's the day of outreach, of course," she said.

And all of the church members who typically occupy the role of givers?

They came together for communion.

And, at least for a few minutes, all the givers were receivers.

A problem solver

Bobby Bowden, in an interview on ESPN, spoke about his role as head (embattled) football coach of the Florida State Seminoles. "I'm just... a problem solver," he said. He doesn't call the plays, draw out the diagram, or wear the headset. Or at least he doesn't say much into the headset during the game.

I think I know what he is talking about. I was thinking through an event coming up that involved a few different volunteers who don't really know each other that well. They have all sorts of gifts. And strong "leaders".

I was thinking: "We better send a problem solver with them."

The problem solver won't know how to run the bobcat, she won't know how to apply the paint, or how to really spread the mulch properly. She'll just make sure the people who do know how to do all that have a chance to share their gifts.

She will make people feel welcome, and valuable, and people will say, at the end of the day: "That was fun."

Do you qualify?

test or toy catalog?

My older daughter works at a toy store and from time to time has to take a test over new product lines and learn about and verify her knowledge of the new items so she can be a better salesman.

She was going over the latest "packet" of toy information recently and complaining about how she wishes she didn't have to take these product tests.

Shortly afterward my younger daughter came into the room and saw the product packet and exclaimed, "Yay, a toy catalog!"

Which begs the question: your Bible study curriculum, ministry team agenda, leadership book, or event calendar-- annoying work obligation or toy catalog?

Would you flip from page to page and pick the one item on each page you would most like to have (that's what we used to do with the Sears Christmas catalog every year at Christmas time.)

Or would you just as soon cheat off someone else's product test so you didn't have to actually learn about the new stuff.

k

I overheard a colleague share that she would text the information to another colleague.

It struck me as odd because the textee, as far as I knew, barely communicated via e-mail, and I would have never imagined that she was a texter.

"Oh yeah, I have to," she said. "It's the best way to keep up with my grandson."

She exemplified, I think, an important aspect of leadership.

Do you know how to best communicate with each of those in the care of your leadership?

Or do you just say things like: "I don't text."

I have a friend who, if at all possible, refuses to use microphones. When speaking to a moderate size group, if a microphone is provided, he'll most likely not use it.

"I hate those things," he says.

The microphone isn't for his edification. It's there to make his audience more able to hear him.

So do you ever hear yourself say:

"I don't facebook."

"I don't twitter."

Is what you're saying:

"How I communicate with my ministry team, my accountability group, or my colleagues is more about me than them."

Who do you call on the cell phone and not leave a voicemail because you know they'll call you back?

Who do you facebook rather than e-mail because they check that more regularly?

Who would rather you call them on the home phone rather than the cell phone?

Who always responds to a text faster than a cell phone call?

Who returns your voice mails with an e-mail?

Who do you have to text that you are sending an e-mail: e-mail coming--please read it?

Who do you have to include, in caps on the subject line of an email: ACTION REQUIRED?

Who's on outlook and who's on i-cal when it comes to calendar invitations?

If you don't know, you might not be leading as well as you could.

What's the best way for me to get in touch with you?

What's the best way for you to get in touch with the people most important to your leadership?

What's the best way for you to keep up with the people you love?

dumb luck, tragedies, coincidences and you

Commentator Ira Glass, in a recent podcast about stories of people who believe a book changed their life, cited sources of real change in peoples' lives: dumb luck, tragedies, and coincidences.

True?

Could someone's life be changed by an idea?

Or by a community of changers?

Maybe we should just wait for the next tragedy and leverage the change that comes from that.

Has your ministry, disciple class, event, 3 year term on your ministry team, kindness, voice, apology, encouragement, appreciation, note, sleepless night, idea, failure, invitation, poster, bulletin announcement, graphic, talk, powerpoint presentation, webpage, insert, volunteer opportunity, mission trip, blog post, pulpit support, willingness to listen, or e-mail ever changed someone's life?

Or: are they all just our contributions to some jumble of sacred coincidences?

Where do you most often see life change? (And I know: A lot of what we do--we never see the outcome.)

Do you suppose we need to spend more time, energy, and conversation in those places? We do, after all, see some of them.

Or do we just keep hoping for dumb luck?

Or, maybe: Ira Glass never met you or sat in on a ministry event you helped plan.