Charlotte's Journal:
Vision and Calling

In her journal, Charlotte records her thoughts about people and events in the Almond Springs Church.

I am not at all satisfied with the way that I handled this visioning process. I did not direct the process enough. We went out and got information from the congregation -- but then we did not use it. We "listened" but then what we heard did not really have much of an impact on the final decision. But the thing that really gets me is the meager understanding of vision I let them get away with. Laura's treaty comment is so damning. They worked hard to find a way to avoid making tough decisions. Louis and Ansel have all sorts of disagreements about the future. Laura's ideas are different still. And no one paid attention to poor Margo. Here she was going out on a limb by even speaking up and in the end no one listened. And the real kicker is that she was absolutely right. Perhaps I can find a way to talk about "God's hope for the future." I'm going to have to do something to make the statement spiritual.

So what happened? How did all these good people come up with such a meager statement? It's my fault. I was too interested in letting them "discover" their own statement. I was too afraid of appearing pompous and dictatorial. Like, Louis would let that happen. If I had it to do over again, I'd design a process that encouraged the church board to incorporate their listening sessions into the statement that they eventually crafted. I'd keep asking them questions until I knew that they had dealt with the internal disagreements rather than buried them.

Oh, well. I think the less I do with this statement the better.