goals

Belonging and Informing Compete with Transforming

April 21, 2010

The church as we have it today in the West is largely built around a model of belonging not a model of transforming lives. If you join a club, organization or church and they ask you to believe in this set of values, these doctrines and these rules, at that stage you belong and are now part of the group. You are now part of the “in” group because you have done the things that put you “in.” But is that the point of the church? Affiliation and belonging based on subscribing to a doctrinal or ethical code? Obviously the answer is no! Few churches I know anywhere state their model for changing lives or when questioned can articulate one.
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Assessing the Last and Anticipating the Next -The Janus Precedence Effect

December 28, 2009

This week we are going to prepare for the new year and will then resume our dialogue on practice….though this is in some ways a year end practice post

Each year end, I would guess, we all have some routines of review and anticipation. We look at goals from the last 12 months, assess our progress, reflect on strengths, learn from our missed marks and recalibrate for a new year ahead. For some of us these are very intentional, measured, specific and helpful. For others of us these are thought about in our head, sit in the background of self conversation and are even dreaded because this year end, like so many past, is another example or procrastination, and unmet hopes and dreams.

Ben Franklin said, “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond and to know one’s self.”
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