Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 July 2006 19:39:29
First of all an apollogiey, apologiey, appollogoiey - you know that word I can't say - to Ness. When making my comments about foreigners in a preveious post I did not, of course, mean you. I think of you as a resident of Wales and not one of those evil, crusading, pagan bombing, people that would normally be thought of as foreign. Hope that reverses the evil stare.
To all those other non-Welsh readers, you to can think of yourselves as members of the Wibworld and therefore exempted from such generalisation. However if you are rude or nasty then your status could be revoked at my whim at any time ;-)
Today has been spent on more routine matters. Chapel this morning, parents for lunch and a 3hr 40min deacon's meeting this afternoon. That was the most difficult bit. Not because it was overtly nasty, insulting or accrimonious but because we had to say things that were upseting.
We went through the results of the church survey carried out earlier this year. I had distilled the results into a overview of the comments that came back. We had to face up to the fact that we, as a leadership team, had been failing in our duties to the church.
The other deacons had no idea of what was coming. Personally I wasn't looking forward to conveying peoples' responses to some of the points. In placing they were critical of the style of leadership and the lack of organisation and preparation. This not only applied to Pastor Chugabug but to the rest of us as well.
How do you convey these thoughts in a detached way that won't cause offense? The answer is: I don't know! You never set out to upset people, well not most of the time, but it happens anyway. Criticism is never well received, no matter how much you recognise your faults.
We have begun to notice that we need to change our way of doing things. It has been realised that we cannot act as independent people but as a body. We need to draw in people to help and not try to run things on our own and then complain that there is no support.
We now have 6 weeks to think about the points raised and begin to address them and adapt for the future. Easier said than done, I know.
What has come out is that there are far more people ready to help than was thought. In fact, people are already doing things that they weren't 6 months ago. Even the person who wrote that they have no talent has found something that they can contribute.
Thankfully God works on us without outside pressure.