eye hand coordination

The town hall meeting on Monday was the best-attended yet (I think). The topic at hand probably stimulated a lot of interest: the budget. Dialog was robust (to say the least), and got me thinking about the relationship between the leadership team and the rest of the church community.

I think Paul nailed it in 1 Cor. 12 when he described the relationship between the head and the rest of the body (it helps to be divinely inspired). There've been a lot of thoughts going on inside the head (the leadership team) but they haven't been communicated well to the rest of the body. So the rest of the body has been unable to act in a coordinated way with the head's intentions. When the leadership team communicates clearly, the rest of the body has responded admirably (as in the case of the overwhelming response to the appeal to complete the internship fund).

The head also needs communication from the rest of the body. Although the head sets the direction, there are lots of adjustments that have to made along the way. The head may say, "Walk down this path so we can get home." Then the left foot has to let the head know, "I'm on the ground now, it's time for the other foot to move forward." Or the foot may say, "I'm in the mud! Flail the arms to get us balanced!" You get the picture.

One caveat: it helps for the communication to be gracious and appropriate. I appreciated the apologies that were voiced on Monday. It's not helpful when the communication to the head or the hand arrives in the form of stabbing pain. The natural response is to attend to the pain rather than a coordinated effort to move forward. I trust we will learn to communicate more graciously in these public meetings so that apologies aren't needed as much in the future.

The town hall meetings and community meetings are opportunities for communication between the leadership team and the rest of the body, but not the only ones. Let's utilize well all of the venues we have and also create new ones, keeping up what Bossidy & Charan ("Execution: the discipline of getting things done") call "robust dialog".