Trust the Abundance

We spent some time at our last Admin. Team meeting talking about community. How do you know when it's strong? Why does it feel like a fragile thing at times? This in response to a hasty decision made, questioned by others and the followup discussions. And then this wonderful quote from Parker Palmer of course to remind me to trust the abundance. “When a leader is willing to trust the abundance that people have and can generate together, willing to take the risk of inviting people to share from that abundance, then and only then may true community emerge.” In fact when I don't trust it is when I make poor decisions, it is then that I fall into micromanaging situations and when I break down the community we try to build together.

Live the Questions

There are two books that are taking up considerable mind-space for me right now: Bob Goudswaard et. al.'s Hope in Troubled Times and Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change. McLaren has high praise for Hope In ... calling it a must read. Apparently someone in Calgary had the brilliant insight to get the two of them together in one room a few weeks ago for an inspiring evening, according to my sister-in-law. Both books are prophetic in what they call us to. They are showing us the cracks in the empire and as much as that may frighten us it should also encourage us who live with hope. It does raise lots of questions, like Francis Schaeffer's How then should we live? Trust a great poet to shed some light, Ranier Maria Rilke from his Letters to a Young Poet: "I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." Isn't that the way it is in life. We have these big questions and over time they lead to a new, and hopefully more faithful, way of living.

Faith Has Better Teeth

This little gift on doubt from a

sister to a sister to me.

Gerhard Frost, the brother that

Robert never had.

Faith Gnaws Too

"Yes, doubt does keep gnawing
at one's faith."
I said it to a friend,
my friend in deep distress.
I said it to encourage,
but quickly he replied,
without a moment's hesitation,
"But faith keeps gnawing at our doubts, too!"

It was a great response.
I am strengthened by it.
Intending to comfort,
I was comforted.
Today I walk more boldly
as I say:
Yes, Doubt does gnaw at my faith,
but faith gnaws, too,
and faith has better teeth!


Gerhard Frost

St. Philaret of Moscow

Thanks for those great comments Matt and Dave. I'm wondering if what this discussion really requires is a look at what it means to be an educational leader today in the kinds of schools we give leadership in. Can we stay focussed on the educational vision we are called to? Another challenge is to stay focussed on "the main thing" and not get sidetracked. I think it is possible that school boards are looking for something they feel we as educational leaders cannot deliver and so they look for those who can, not always realizing the consequences of the decisions.

Anyway in the middle of a busy week this gift to me from a friend passed on to you: a prayer from St. Philaret of Moscow

"O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace, help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering or embarrassing others. Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring. Direct my will, teach me to pray. And, You Yourself, pray in me. Amen."

Lifeworld vs Systemsworld

I've been doing some fascinating reading from Thomas Sergiovanni's The Lifeworld of Leadership. He really nails some things that I have been trying to find words for. I'm troubled by what I see as an encroachment of systemsworld into the lifeworlds of Christian schools. We are particularly vulnerable to this as leaders in Christian schools because much falls on our shoulders that is part of the systemsworld and so we look for solutions that end up making us feel more like businesses than like a community of learners. Here are a few lines from Sergiovanni: The lifeworld provides the foundation for the development of social, intellectual, and other forms of human capital that contribute, in turn, to the development of "cultural reproduction." The systemsworld by contrast, is a world of instrumentalities, of effecient means designed to achieve ends. The systemsworld provides the foundation for the developemnt of management and of organizational and financial capital that, in turn, contributes to the development of material capital, which further enriches the systemsworld....For this relationship to be mutually beneficial in enterprises like families and schools, however, the lifeworld must be generative. It must be the force that drives the systemsworld....schools have both a systemsworld and a lifeworld and noting that the two world must be successfully balanced to function effectively points to a major problem facing schools across the globe. Habermas refers to this problem as the "colonization of the lifeworld" by the systemsworld. Colonization occurs when the systemsworld begins to dominate the lifeworld....Unfortunately, like the proverbial frog sitting in the soon-to-be-boiling pot of water, colonization happens gradually and goes largely unnoticed.

So how do we keep the two in balance? How do we, with limited time and resources, feed the lifeworld side of the equation?

(Loaves and Fishes by Matt Cupido)

More Doubt

I thought I would post these thougths on doubt from the "comments."

Dennis, Thanks for all this already. I too don't know that I fully qualify, although if being in the principal's office counts, I think I have been sent to YOUR OFFICE as a student (along with vice-principal Neil Matthew Beimers, when he was also a hall-stalking student), but I digress.The subject of doubt is important: We join with other disciples in saying, "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief." (Mark 9:24) Perhaps the most helpful way of framing this is to consider that doubt is not the opposite of faith, but it is a component of faith. Of course, a wonderful, classic sermon by Harry Emerson Fosdick challenges us from wallowing in doubt. His sermon, “The Importance of Doubting our Doubts,” (from A Chorus of Witnesses, edited by Long & Plantinga) wonders if it isn't sometimes easier to allow our doubts to eat away at us than it is to examine - and question - the seeds of those doubts themselves.I learned from a pastor-friend that praying through doubts (a la "Lord, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief") helps us from trying to hide our doubts from God, from ourselves and from each other.PEace,Joel Ringma
November 26, 2007 10:08 AM
beim said...
I just remember that you were the one who pushed me out into the hallway...and then feigned innoncence while I was led by my ear to Oense's office.At times, I see in my students a lot of doubt, but a sense that no one is guiding/walking with them. Sometimes we (me) encourage students to ask the "big" and "tough" questions, but then we leave them to blow in the wind as they try to unpack what all these doubts mean. I think then they do "eat away at" our students. I like the idea of examining the seeds of the doubt. They really let you preach up there, eh?

I Doubt It

A great article about doubt forwarded by Kevin Visscher: http://www.cpyu.org/Page_p.aspx?id=261013 Reading it I was reminded of a song that James Ward recorded called "Maybe I'll Trust You Now." Christian radio stations refused to play it because it just wasn't positive enough. It displayed too much doubt and confusion. Frederick Buechner says doubts "are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving." — Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith. As educational leaders we feel compelled to come across to teachers and students as people who have it all figured out. We equate strength with having all the answers. It might be far more empowering to our students and those we lead, to speak from the heart about doubt.

Students for Justice

At the CTABC Convention in October I had a conversation with colleague Stephan Ulstein of Bellevue Christian about having a component of the convention be student oriented; a meeting of student leaders about the things that are important to them. We talked about having a meeting of students who were particularly interested in Justice Issues. At FVCHS yesterday we had the inaugural meeting of Students for Justice, a group of student leaders who wish to raise awareness in the student body about justice issues and where possible, take action. We talked about the difference between mercy and justice, about the myriad of things we could get involved with and the possibility of linking with groups at other high schools.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Students for Justice met with us at the convention, shared resources and ideas, led workshops for and with teachers, and met throughout the year doing justice,not just hearing others talk about it. Let me know if you would like to make something like this happen.

Donald Trump and I

I just received a Special Invitation from Donald Trump to be his personal guest and to hear his real stories on wealth creation and to be trained by four self-made multi-millionaire experts. They are promising to show me how to buy real estate well below market value and to cash in on the new billion dollar booming foreclosure market; in other words how to benefit from other people’s bad luck. The invitation says he is going to teach me how to “think big and kick *$#@.” When I showed my Special Invitation to a friend he told me he had gotten one also. How disappointing! The invitation said special.

I've never bought a lottery ticket before but when I drive by the signs outside of gas bars posting the amounts to be won, I say a little prayer. "Lord, if I'm supposed to win this $20 Million than give me a sign so that I can buy the lottery ticket. So far, no sign, no voice, no special cloud formation. No win.

We are set to spend $8 million dollars on our building project, take out a large loan and are slogging through a capital campaign and truth be told we haven't had the lottery-sized donations we were hoping for. I remind our development director and myself, "What is little carries God." I remind him that it was the "little people" of the Netherlands who went door to door with tin cans collecting pennies, that built the Free University. The way of the kingdom is not the Donald Trump way. It's think small and as Bruce Cockburn reminds me, "kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight."

Expanding the Network

From some input received and further reflection it seems wise to expand our horizons to include all interested in Christian School Leadership. Thus the name change. We are inviting anyone who would like to be involved in the school leadership discussions. If you know anyone who might be interested, send a link.

What is Little Carries God

I was speaking with colleague Matt B wondering about some way to have an exchange of ideas between Christian high school principals. Being a techno immigrant, my mind did not jump to the idea of having a blog. His did.

It seems to me that it would be helpful for all of us to have a forum for ideas, challenges, inspirations, questions, frustrations, brainstorms, and blinding-light insights, to encourage us all to be the kind of leaders that God calls us to in the world of Christian high schooling. Our schools by and large look and behave the way they did 100 years ago. We and our students are living in a very different world. Blogging here will be about finding more faithful ways of being Christian high schools.

This in not meant to be inclusive in anyway. Anyone is welcome to submit comments. If you would like to post something more than a comment, let me know. This is meant to be provocative in the best sense of that word. A small online beginning to dialogue. On the wall above my desk these important words that no one seems to be able to assign, "What is little carries God." Let's begin