How's Your Health???

Just back from the clergy meeting in Chi-town. Wow! The stories were heartbreaking and painful. No insurance and chronic health problems; sharing drugs with other people or just skipping meds altogether. Foregoing doctor visits, tests, self-medicating and on and on and on. I got angry listening. Angry that hard working people are going without basic care. Angry that some people see quality health care as a privilege for a few and not a basic for all. Even worse is the reaction of the community of faith. Where are the People of God?? Most of them seem to be organizing trivia nights and spaghetti suppers to help for some poor child's chemo treatments. What would happen if we all went to Wahington D.C. on June 24th?? Put it on your calendars....more to follow!

Go Team Go...

In the church we usually think about committees. Dozens of committees and countless hours of meetings. Committees are teams if they're effective. The reason they're not always effective is because of the people on the committee in the first place. Just ask yourself about some of the committees you've served. Why? To help a friend on the nominating committee get all the slots filled? Guilt? Maybe a martyr's sense of obligation? Of course we sometimes become parts of committees because we are excited about what is happening, we want to further the cause...or whatever. We might even have some fun along the way. That's when committee's become teams and things get done; powerful things.
The most effective way to reach any goal is to build a team around it. It must be people who can help you acheive that goal but can also acheive something for themselves in the process. People should see their own goals in the goals of others. We serve each other best when we serve each other's self-interest. Or we all do better when we all do better.
Start with a few one on ones to see who shares the passion and goal you have and what do they bring to the table: information, relationships, experience....money? How can you help each other? Do your goals intersect? Who else can you add? Build your team, plan your actions, and go team go!

Blog love???

I am learning so much. Like in the "link" space, you do not put the words intended for the "tags" space. If you do that, Blogger won't let you post and people following your blog think you have already become bored and moved on to a new activity. Still here; still posting; still learning.

The Intentional Conversation

One on one. One to one. Interchangeable terms for the same thing, an intentional conversation meant to accomplish very specific goals. First and foremost, a one on one is meant to build a relationship. It might serve to create a new relationship or to deepen an existing relationship. Relationships are the foundation of community, any community. In our faith communities it is the relationships that keep people coming.
Second, a one on one is meant to undercover those things that a person is most passionate about. Passionate as in what they love most, fear most, are angry about most. It's the first step in identifying a person's self-interest. Self-interest is what really motivates people to act, and act with conviction, commitment and in strength.
Third, a one on one is meant to bring clarity to a person. People don't often get to talk about themselves, not in a meaningful way at least. When a person is being asked about those significant events that have shaped them, it's at that point a person can actually recognize that....those events made them the person they are and motivate them to act on certain issues! It also helps the person asking the questions to become more clear on why a person behaves they way they do.
Last, but certainly not least, a one on one is a way to simply gather information about a person: where were they born? Siblings? Edcation? Hobbies? Faith journey? The basics we all want to know about each other and share all the time.
Taking the time to learn about another person is one way to build our community. It's how we break the cycle of isolationism caused by our modern life and it's lack of interpersonal connections.