My response to a few of the following written by Richard Heyduck:
>I have been working my entire two years here to lead the church to
>develop a shared vision, so that component is not new. My studies in
>Philosophy make the mental modeling easy to follow. The newest aspect to
>me is the systems approach.
My closest response is to repeat a story narrated by one of our Vicars:
The Vicar had problems of poor church attendance. He shared his concern
with his Bishop. The Bishop gave the Vicar a pair of troucers and a pair
of sandals and said they will meet the next year to review the progress.
The Bishop had a similar parish which he was burdened to help revive. He
gave himself a pair of trouzers and sandals.
The next year at the appointed time the two met to review their progress
and experience. They heard each other. The Bishops parish had changed
while the Vicar reported no change. The Bishop then asked the Vicar to
place the trouzers and sandals he had given him the previous year on the
alter. He placed his own along side and asked the Vicar to examine the
two and see if there was any difference. The Vicar did not notice any.
The Bishop Showed the Vicar that his trouzers where worn out at the knees
while there were dust and stains at the ankles in case of the Vicars
trouzers. The Bishops sandals were hardly worn out. The Vicars were
fully worn out.
The Bishop says, your strategy was to visit every home and try persuade
them. Mine was to spend that time kneeling at this alter in prayer.
I do not know if this story has any significance to Richards situation.
The Vicar while stating this story was trying to make a point when some
raised concern about attendance dropping. When attempts by his preceding
Vicar to make house visits appeared to have failed.
I think shared vision in churches have to neccessarily be Christ centered.
The composition of members would naturally influence the activities. A
vision I believe can be lofty and yet tend towards feeding the flesh. The
members of a church have to attempt to feed the spirit. If one or more of
the members have not made such choices it would be difficult to have
renewal. (See Revival by De Haan, Discovery Series, RBI, Michigan)
Another proposition I have is that responding to the vision derived from
the call of the spirit is systemic in its outcome. I have no proof for
this proposition.
Thomas P Benjamin
benjamin@fac.irm.ernet.in
--"Thomas Benjamin" <BENJAMIN@fac.irm.ernet.in>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>