The Odd Pratchett

I suppose most people have heard of author Terry Pratchett, if not read him. I'm not big on sci-fi but he is the exception, mainly due to the odd humor. One of my favorite quotes: from Wee Free Men

"I would like a question answered today," said Tiffany. "Its about zoology."

"Zoology, eh? That's a big word, isn't it."

"No, actually it isn't," said Tiffany. "'Patronizing'is a big word. 'Zoology' is really quite short."

Strengths

Several years ago Christian Schwarz did research on what were the eight essential qualities of a healthy church. I think it was well done research and he developed Natural Church Development (NCD) out of it. The theory was that you should identify your weaknesses out of the eight qualities and work to improve them. It was the old "weakest link" argument. Our church took one of the assessments that they provided and I think our weakest quality was Ministry but I don't remember for sure.

The thing I liked about NCD was its emphasis on a biotic approach. It recognized that a church is a living, breathing organism and not a machine. That fit well with the weakest link idea because nature is filled with examples of the weakest link being the limiting factor. (A mineral deficiency will stunt plant growth.)

But working on your weaknesses can be depressing. Who wants to put tons of effort into what your bad at doing? Gallup has now come out with a new report that basically says that strength based development nets you the biggest return. One of the big reasons for this is employees are motivated because they love their work. Interesting. I think Schwarz might have identified the problem but missed how you fix it.

Intimacy

We had Joe and Natalie share with us in church about their mission work. They did an excellent job but I was struck by something Natalie said. She was talking about developing a strong community where they minister and she said that what they would do to develop community is have each person write out their life story and share it with everyone. The intimacy of this created very strong bonds resulting in "one of the tightest" community experiences she had ever been involved with.

Kim and I were recently talking about how difficult it is to get people to share their stories. A lot of people are embarrassed or ashamed of their past and wouldn't dare share their true life story. They would rather hide that away and keep it a secret.

No wonder we are often frustrated that we don't develop authentic community. It is just easier being superficial.