Hello all. It has been almost two months since my last post. I am sorry to be so slow with updating my blog.
Today I am in Washington, D.C., with the Lewis Fellows program. We just had a session about Fruitful Leadership with Lovett Weems. He pointed out the need for clergy to fulfill all three of these areas (skill sets): Character, Competence, …. AND Contribution. He talked about the importance of asking about the fruits of our work and ministries. Lovett used the phrase, “so that” to get at the heart of our fruit and contribution.
To explain: we do the various aspects of our ministry (worship, preaching, visiting persons in the hospital, praying with people, visioning, facilitating meetings, etc.)….so that… (here we would fill in the fruit we plan to produce and harvest). The practice of asking the “so that” question is vital to get at the heart of why we do what we do, or to what end. It is really all about vision and the calling God places on us as clergy leaders and as congregations!
Lovett invited us to discern the fruit of the following practices to try this question out:
we worship…so that…_____________
we have a choir…so that…_____________
we have ushers…so that…_____________
we have a bulletin…so that…_____________
How we answer each of these questions ought to line up with one another and connect with the larger vision of our church! Try it for yourself!
There are other learnings from the Lewis Fellows program that I want to reflect upon, but asking the “so that” fruit question is one of the most helpful!
