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From your Leadership Team
We are a few months in with our INTERIM PRIORITIES, and Pastor Polly recently asked the team about where they are being personally challenged or stretched. Here is what Bonnie Overcott shared.
One that stretches me personally is Congregational Development. I don't feel like I have the relationship with younger people as I do those who are older than me or my age. Why? Part of it may be that I haven't participated in the same activities as they have. When I think about how I've developed relationships, it's been through common activities like working on a project together or engaging in a study/grow group together. There are many people at church who I see every Sunday, but have never sat in a small group and socialized or discussed a problem or a topic or a book.
I just finished reading The Extended Mind The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie M. Paul. In it she discusses "groupiness." She states that people who need to think or work together should learn together, train together, and engage in rituals together (like sharing a meal). She talks about how one teacher discovered his students didn't know how to carry on a discussion. Questions like "How are you feeling?" vs. "How are you?" open up conversations.
Unless I've had conversations with people I don't know what their interests or skills are. I don't know what challenges they face that keep them from being more active in church activities. I can't begin to approach them and ask them to take something on that they may not have the slightest interest in doing or that is totally outside their skill set. That insight, it seems to me, is critical when fostering future church leaders.
So my challenge is how can we foster relationships between generations? What are your thoughts?
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