The Circle Way for Communities of Faith

I love this resource, a booklet written by a colleague and friend, Ivy Thomas, on using The Circle Way in faith communities. Ivy is a good soul. She has laughter that is infectious and practicality in her that lightens loads. She is among other things, a Conference Minister and now Interim Minister in The United Church of Canada.

Using The Circle Way in faith communities is a natural step. To create good listening, thoughtful speaking, and wondering out loud together. In all of the faith community work I do, circle is never far away. And it is in The Circle Way Practicum that I offer with Amanda Fenton (at which there is usually a group of clergy) that I feel the deepest dive that reminds me of home.

Give Ivy’s booklet a peek.

Absolutely Clear

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Today I am flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver, Colorado. The skies are clear from one high altitude (4,300 ish feet in SLC) to even higher (5,500 ish feet in Denver, the “Mile High City”). I will be working with a group of eight United Church of Christ ministers and lay people to imagine the possibility of a kind of academy to support ministers at more deeper layers as they support congregations, “in times like these.” I love the call to ministry and to deepening ministry.

I don’t recall who wrote this poem below, but I loved finding it in a file folder I keep called, “A Few of My Favorite Things.” Here’s to clarity.

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Absolutely Clear

Don’t surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.

Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.

Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice,
So tender,

My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.

Poetics

This is a poem that appears in the book, A Simpler Way, by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner Rogers. The poem is by American poet, A. R. Ammons. Both the book and the poem continue to mean much to me when I think of the need to both let go and welcome emergence.

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Poetics

I look for the way
things will turn
out spiraling from a center,
the shape
things will take to come forth in

so that the birch tree white
touched black at branches
will stand out
wind glittering
totally its apparent self:

I look for the forms
things want to come as

from the black wells of possibility,
how a thing will
unfold:

not the shape on paper — though
that too — but the 
uninterfering means on paper:

Not so much looking for the shape
as being available
to any shape that may be
summoning itself 
through me
from the self not mine but ours.

Yes to emergence, letting go, and simplicity.

 

 

Radical Inner Journey

When I position my work, most often, it is something to do with leadership. “Transforming the Way We Lead.” “Participative Leadership.” “The Inner and Outer of Evolutionary Leadership.” When not spoken explicitly, leadership is still implicitly embedded in the title. “The Art of Hosting.” “The Art of Humans Being.” “The Art of Meaningful Conversations.” “The Art of Capacity Building.” I love the variety.

The definition of leadership I most use goes back to my Berkana lineage. “A leader is anyone who wants to help.” That’s broader than a “C” level title. It’s more than the person that sits at the front of the room or the head of the table. It’s more than the person who controls the budget. And there are lots of people that want to help, right. Lots of us that want to do good. Lots of us that want to create better teams, meetings, products, processes, organizations, and communities.

Within all of that, the part of leadership that most interests me is the radical inner journey. There is a lot of “out there” stuff that we give attention to. Important, yes. Of course. And often, giving full attention and resources at the expense of the inner work. The radical inner journey is the one that requires presencing. The one that requires honesty with self. The one that requires (sometimes demands) humility and vulnerability. It is that part of leadership that acknowledges how common and prevalent it is to project from the inner state (consciously or not) an outer reality. In this way, leadership is very personal, sounding like therapy. It is. But I don’t think of myself as a therapist. It also sounds like spirituality, doesn’t it. It is, though I don’t think of myself as a spiritual director either.

I’m just keenly aware that this radical inner journey is directly connected to capacity to lead. And it feels silly to deny that. And I’m aware that because it sounds so much like therapy and spiritual direction, how often radical inner journey has been dismissed as a distraction from the “real” leadership that needs to happen. It isn’t. Nor is it with the group, the group daring to take a radical inner journey also. Being able to ask questions together, and sit in the silence that some questions require is massively important. To have the ability to let go of deeply entrained obsessions for speed and efficiency — that’s some important leadership, and the kind that I’m most interested in. Probably, because I continue to learn about it myself. Because it comes from an inner exploration.

Leaders get stuff done. True. And awesome, isn’t it. Leaders help teams get stuff done. That’s true to, and awesome. Leaders create message and narrative. Great. All true. I love being part of this. Without a clarity that comes from inner radical journey, that leadership might even still be very successful. I suppose that is good. It’s just clear to me, however, that my contribution to good leadership, and my commitment feels much more fulfilling in this realm of inner radical journey.

Wow, that felt good to say.