Sunday, March 11, 2007
leadership resourcing
I met monthly with a group of leaders at Opawa, each tasked with providing leadership of an area of the church: from community ministry to facilities, from spiritual growth to children.
We gather for an hour to catchup, pray, evaluate and support each other. This year I wanted to further ground us in Scripture with a particular focus on wanting to let Scripture resource what are very unique and different roles. 1 Corinthians 3 and 4, are for me, wonderful leadership texts, offering 6 images of leader – as servant, gardener, builder, resource manager, cross carrier and parent.
So at the end of each meeting I have given our leaders a “takeaway” – a concrete symbol, with the Bible text attached and the questions – what challenges you, what encourages you. They are invited to sit with that symbol over the month, and return to share what it means for their leadership. (The attached photo is of a towel, representing leader as servanthood, and seeds, representing leader as gardener.)
The first round worked brilliantly, with great discussion and really honest sharing. It takes very little of our meeting time, and yet sits with people over the month, inviting them to apply the Scripture to their leadership living.
I blog this, wondering if the use of symbols as takeaways for ongoing group work, might be of some help to readers.
)
Thank you for that – your ideas are always inspiring challenging and encouraging to me for our community
Comment by Mak — March 12, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
I like the idea. I’ve been asked to put together a morning focusing on contemplative prayer (lectio divina mostly) at my church in a few weeks. You’ve inspired me to think about a takeaway that will help people remember and return to that place of silence and listening. Thanks!
Comment by Maria — March 12, 2007 @ 6:43 pm