She took a deep breath and said a prayer: “God, either this is going to work or I am getting into a new line of work.” Then, she clicked, Send.
It was an email that Rev. Sydney Kim had been working on for about a month – you know, since the last meeting about the website.
- Yes, it was an eye-opening experience – she got quite close to despair.
But, Rev. Kim did not let go of her original vision of what kind of local church could and should exist here.
- What she did let go of was her original plan to bring this about.
She came to the conclusion that trying to change things committee-by-committee or piece-by-piece would ultimately end in failure.
- They would never come to agree with her because they did not share the same idea of what church could or should be.
Therefore, she turned to the core leadership task at hand:
- Making explicit everyone’s implicit definition of “church”
To do that, she was starting a twice-monthly leadership development seminar series that would be:
- About different ideas of “church”
- Required for any church committee member
- Open to all church members and guests
So, 90 days in, Rev. Kim wrote the following to entire congregation:
“Friend,
With great aspirations for our church’s future and building upon our steadfast history, I humbly invite you to our Spring Leadership Seminar Series.
Here’s the big (but, simple) idea:
I want to convene some space and time to learn, reflect, and imagine our ideas about what church is and should be, in the world of today and tomorrow.
So, we will do some learning, sharing, as well as some confessing as to the things we have held close to our heart about church that we have not always said out loud.
To be honest, this will not be the one and only time that we do this. But, it will serve as a great foundation for how we should communicate with each other whenever there is a plurality of perspectives.
I will have more details to share in the coming weeks. For now, please keep these dates open, if you sense the Spirit leading you to participate.”