This past weekend I attended a two-day, mediation-training workshop with Peacemaker’s Ministries.  Overall the experience was positive, hearing from mediation experts and having a plethora of case-study simulations to role-play.  As I appreciate Peacemakers adherence to scriptural applications in conflict coaching, meditation, and arbitrations, I have a hard time using their mnemonic tools that show an addiction towards alliteration, acrostics, and acronyms.

I am uncertain if this is a generational thing or just my bent towards critical thinking, but I tend resist such techniques, finding them cheesy and forced, therefore cheapening the lesson and experience.

One of the acrostics that I preferred reformatted was G.O.S.P.E.L., which unveils the order in which a mediation process should have.  You are asked to present this acrostic at the beginning of your mediation time to help show the process, but I can’t do it without “rolling my eyes.”  Peacemakers outlines it this way:

Greeting and ground rules

Opening statements

Story telling

Problem identification and clarification

Explore solutions

Lead to agreement.

My issue with such a device is that it locks you in to an order that really isn’t best for group ownership, nor provides a logical flow in conflict resolution (in my opinion).  It makes me wonder if the process was forced into these steps so they would spell “gospel” instead of it actually being the best approach.

As I agree you need a basic strategy and flow for mediation, I prefer to use more of a story or image-based device.  The word picture I have created provides the parties with a picture of being on a journey towards an agreed upon destination.  To get to this destination, the obstacles in their way must be dealt with, leading to an agreed-upon bridge.

You can see my reformation of G.O.S.P.E.L. HERE.

On Tuesday I experienced an informational meeting and tour at one of our local, Roman Catholic schools, called “Our Lady of the Elms.”  This all-girls school provides a top-rated education for young women wanting to grow holistically, experiencing active learning, scholastic-faith integration, and various extras like ballet, Latin, and drama.

As I was impressed by the quality of the staff, learning environments, and teaching strategies, one thing that captured me the most was the school’s precision to continually align their strategies with their core values:  Prayer, Community, Study, and Preaching.  Unlike parochial Catholic Schools being tied to a particular church, Our Lady of the Elms is connected to a convent known as “The Akron Dominican Sisters.”  Based on the sister’s traditions, and influence from several Saints, the Elms was started 1923 on 33 acres of land in Akron, Ohio.

In describing these pillars “The Sisters” remark:

Dominican spirituality can be described as a pattern of life that seeks to integrate prayer, study, community life, and preaching–preaching from the pulpits of the churches, whenever possible, and from the pulpits of our lives. From the beginning Dominic wanted his followers to engage the cultures in which they lived, to be creative, knowledgeable, aware, and responsive to human need. The pattern of life that Dominicans embrace includes: prayer in community, contemplative prayer, reflection, dialogue, passionate thinking, and simplicity of life. Dominicans are to search for truth; convinced that the fullness of truth lies only in God, but that life in community, devotion to the Word, reverence for creation–all lead to the possibility of living an ideal once described by Thomas Aquinas as “contemplare et aliis tradere contemplata“–to give to others the fruits of contemplation.

As I noticed structures, activities, and curriculum that supported these pillars, it was another example of seeing values act as true guides or “pillars” of aligning and supporting one’s thoughts and actions.

*On another note I was saddened to hear about the dwindling number of nuns at the covenant.  As “marrying God” is no longer a hot option for young women, once I found out that they still can no longer marry, I quickly offered up my 6-year-old daughter, Lucy, to the convent!

My wife and I are dropping her off this week and plan to visit her on the weekends.

Today I shadowed a principle at one of the city schools in my area, viewing the various learning platforms within each classroom.  One of the classrooms that was most interesting to me was their “Gateway to Technology” classroom seen here:

One of the surprising alterations that the teacher made in his curriculum this year was to remove the use of PowerPoint from all middle school presentations.  He went on to say that for now on, all presentations by the students have to be narrated movies, using the provided video software on their computers.

When I asked him why he made this change he simply said, “It’s the future of ‘normal communication,’ so we have to prepare them for the real world.”

Another reminder that tomorrow’s preachers are not those that combine hermeneutics and homiletics, but hermeneutics and filmmaking.

Will the church be ready to communicate in tomorrow’s “real world?”

Another successful night of Trick-or-Treating.

Proverbs 27:19-20

As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man.

Matthew 7:15-16

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.

Today I had the opportunity to learn and then experience an interesting technique developed by Ed Morrison, of the Purdue Center for Regional Development.  The technique in which Ed has developed is a collaborative discipline called, “Strategic Doing” where mutual partners “think big and move fast” with initiatives.  According to Ed, we have moved past the bureaucratic “strategic planning” of hierarchical systems, and now must embrace the fast-moving, organic systems of our day.

The collaborative process that organizational partners must proceed through follows:

1. What could we do together? (Where the people or organizations determine what assets or strengths they bring to the table.)
2. What should we do together? (Where are the links in assets and how can they link them together?)
3. What will we do? (What shared understanding will we collectively execute?)
4. How do we learn together? (What can must we learn from one another along the way?)

A fast moving strategic process that moves you immediately from idea and hoped outcome to immediate tasks and defined roles.  It can be a real exciting process with immediate results if facilitated well.  Give these four questions a try sometime!

This past Wednesday I had the opportunity with about 20 others to have a round table discussion with three local entrepreneurs in the field of alternative energy.  These modern-day risk-takers were reXorce’s Philip D. Brennan, Hydrogen Energy Systems’ Jeffrey Wilhite, and GreenEnergy’s Mark Cironi.

As there was a lot of wisdom being shared on the urgency for alternative energy and the strategies towards a business start-up, one key thread continued to surface:  perseverance in the midst of dreams not-yet-fulfilled.

As these men have obvious leadership excellence and past success, in the midst of living between their dreams they continue to remain steadfast and centered on their vision.

In Peter Scazzero’s book, “The Emotionally Healthy Church” he quotes that “the most important time is between the dreams, not the dreams themselves.”

As we approach those in-between moments of either ministry amnesia or identity confusion, may we seek to patiently and purely persevere, waiting upon God’s perfect formation of His next dream for our lives.

As I was talking with a co-worker a few days ago, he mentioned he can usually tell the spiritual condition of a person depending on if they decorate their house for Halloween or Christmas.  According to his loose formula (which he admitted was loose), those that decorate their home for Halloween are typically “farther from God” in their spiritual formation and those that decorate their house for Christmas are typically “closer to God” in their spiritual formation.

During our conversation he was surprised to find out that my family decorates our home on Halloween night, to create a fun & festive environment for Trick-Or-Treaters.  We usually have an array of decor ranging from glowing skeletons, scary masks, carved pumpkins, and a video screen playing The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Upon hearing this surprising news he quickly asked if we decorate the outside of our home for Christmas too.  As we do decorate our home with the typical lights and evergreen trim, this put his mind at ease.  We sarcastically concluded the negative of Halloween and positive of Christmas balanced each other out, putting me at “nominal Christian status.”

So what do you think?  Do you typically find that a home’s outward appearance during Halloween and Christmas reveals one’s inward spiritual condition?

Yesterday I had the honor of hearing Dr. Frank Douglas, the director of Austen BioInnovation Institute, an unprecedented collaboration joining four competing hospitals, a local university, and government officials to create a new medical-innovation research center focused on polymers, wound care, and orthopedics.  Douglas is a natural leader and genius in organizational development, formerly the founder and executive director of MIT’s Center of Biomedical Innovation.

As Douglas talked about the progress in forming the first foundations to the research center, some keys to his past and present success surfaced:

Shared Vision: The key in getting five different organizations to collaborate towards a common goal is in their owned and shared vision at all levels.  As Douglas unsuccessfully sought to create such a collaboration previously in Boston, Akron’s unique partnership was so special, he had to join the party and deepen their mutuality in mission.

Strategic Decision Making: Douglas is fanatical about ensuring every idea and action within this project is sifted through the strategy, which in turns flows directly from the shared vision.  To help ensure that all five organizations stay strategically sound and collaboratively serve the agreed upon vision, he has a specific criteria:  1) Will it contribute to making ABIA distinct? 2) Will it enable ABIA to generate intellectual property and move towards commercialization? As ABIA desires to be the primere location for orthopedics and wound care, these two questions are relentlessly used to create an elegant and strategic filter.  If an idea or plan doesn’t answer “yes” to one of these questions, then they don’t do it.

Legacy: Another factor that drew Douglas to lead this project was legacy.  He wants to live his life that will make an impact, leaving a distinguished and noticeable mark in bettering the quality of life for the next generation.

To see Douglas’ slides and strategic plan, click HERE

As we haven’t even hit Halloween or Thanksgiving yet, the Christmas lists are already taking composition.  My middle son, Cameron, submitted his first draft to the review board, colored coded and well-outlined.

As you can click to enlarge, you’ll notice his list broken down into three categories:

1. Anything written in black, “What I don’t like that much.”
2. Anything written in black but underlined in red, “In the middle.”
3. Anything written in red, “What I need.”

Three of my favorites are:  1) a cool new, hot belt, 2) a peace necklace, and 3) a football like Andrew (neighbor)

At the bottom, there is then this qualifying statement that the above list is only assumed, “If we don’t get a dog.”

It was a reminder that of the many lessons Christmas has for us, one of those is that life is full of disappointment and unfulfilled “needs.”