To All of our Community Partners:
This past weekend, I had the good fortune to observe and
participate in a “Strategic Planning Session” for the State-Wide C.A.L.L. Board
of Directors facilitated by my colleague, Mike Ferguson. While I was grateful
to have been invited to be a participant and offer input for their board . . .
I must tell you an even greater benefit was the opportunity to see my colleague
at work in his element! Mike’s life and professional experiences have brought
him to this kingdom work and even this week, it’s been rewarding to hear him
speak of the joy and fulfillment he is experiencing these days in this work
with City Connections!
As I sat in the room this past Saturday, it was a joy to
look around and see the C.A.L.L. group so engaged and energized by the
discussion and we’re confident action steps will be developed in short-order as
a result of the valuable “group-think” from the day! But all of that had
been carefully orchestrated . . . beginning with the prayers that had been
offered for the day, the individual participants, the agenda, and the desired
outcomes . . . a design team which had labored over the details; the
sequence and flow of information; the grouping of participants on very specific
and critical organizational priorities; creating the right atmosphere for all
of this to happen; etc.
But beyond the day’s experience for our friends with the
C.A.L.L., I couldn’t help but think about how valuable this would be for many
of our other non-profit community partners . . . and for many of our church
partners. Having spent most of my career on a ministerial staff, I couldn’t
help but think about the value of a church leadership team dedicating the time
to go through a similar process and allow for an outside, neutral, and trusted
partner to come alongside of them in this way and facilitate a forward-looking,
open and honest, strategic, prayerful, and action-oriented discussion.
I’ve said all of that to say that if you are a leader in a
non-profit organization or a church community and you’ve already been thinking
about your leadership team needing to have such an experience, Mike or I would
welcome having a conversation with you about how we could come alongside of you
and help in this way!
Jeff Spry
