Politics, the Other Kind

It seems everywhere I go lately I've ended up in conversations with people about "politics."  Not the elected, government kind but the office and organizational kind.  Numerous people have commented that they hate politics -- a common lament.  Sadly, however, they have been following that with another comment: that they are withdrawing from full, active participation in the organization and some of its crucial conversations.

I don't remember who it was (apologies, especially if you're reading this) but a friend recently had an insight on this topic.  She (he?) said it's absurd to rail against "politics" because politics is really just about people.  She was right: what we refer to as politics is really just individuals and groups of people working hard for what they believe is best.

Now, I'm certainly not naive enough to think that everyone is always working for what really is best. And I'm not foolish enough to think that everyone is working for what is best for the organization, or for all involved.  Sometimes people work hard for what will be best for them, even though that might not be best for the organization, other employees, customers, etc. (Exhibit A: Congress).

Regardless, it is hard for me to be a part of something and not be willing to work to make it better.  It's part of what makes me: improvement, development, is my heartbeat.  Almost every group I join I end up either leading or trying to coach others.  This, as you can imagine, sometimes makes me unwelcome.  Some groups don't want to rethink the way they do things, don't want to look for ways to make it better.  Maybe they just went through a change, maybe the rest of their lives are full of hard work and they don't want to add another place of hard work.  I get that.  No need for me to be offended by it.  I am a change agent, and in a system that isn't ready for change, get ejected.  No problem.

But I don't think "politics" is a sufficient reason to stop trying.  Politics, in its real sense, is how groups of people make decisions.  I want to understand where people are coming from, why they think the way they do and want what they want.  Then I want to work with them to craft a solution that meets what they -- and others! -- want without all the hard feelings.

By God's good grace, he has gifted me in the very area of my passion.  I both thrill and excel at getting diverse groups of people to see each other's needs and collaborate to satisfy all.  You can see this in the work I did at Kaiser Permanente, my former employer; in my work with AllOne Community Services, striving against history to bring a group of churches and pastors into dialogue about collaboratively meeting community needs; and in my work with SEED Livelihood Network, encouraging pastors, lay people, resourced and un- or underresourced, first- and developing-world, to dream together about ways to promote economic justice and sustainable livelihoods for all people.

So to politics I say, "Bring it on!"  Let's enter into healthy, effective ways of making group decisions about our workgroups, our churches, our organizations, and let's keep the dialogue going.

Our next adventure

When I handed in my resignation from my paying job last spring, I expected to be working full time on AllOne Community Services (allonecommunity.org), as reflected in yesterday's post (http://leadingandfollowing.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-is-this-all-about.html).  God apparently had other ideas.

Our whole family went to Kenya last year so that Rose (and to a lesser extent me) could teach at the Kenya Free Methodist Bible School.  We stayed a few days in Nairobi at the beginning and the end -- including spending Zephaniah's 8th birthday on a safari at Nairobi National Park -- with Vickie Reynen, the International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) Africa regional coordinator.  Rose and I had numerous conversations with Vickie about adapting to Kenyan culture, trying to learn from what is positive in the US church and what is positive in the Kenyan church.  We spent many enjoyable hours talking and being toured around.

Our middle two weeks in Kenya were spent in Kericho teaching at the modular school.  For most of the days this meant Rose was teaching while I was hanging out with my sons.  And I was afforded a lot of time to process my current experiences and think about other things.  (If you care to read more about that experience, you can check out my notes on Facebook.)

One of the things Rose and I consistently heard during and after our time there was how well we fit in.  We spent most of our time listening; even though we were the teachers, we recognized that any subject expertise we brought to the table was less than the gap we had in cultural awareness.  So our classroom sessions were facilitated discussions, where we would present some basic material and then ask the students to share with us what that looked like in their cultures.  And we also enjoyed being with the students.

Imagine our surprise when a couple months after returning from Kenya, Vickie mentioned that she had suggested us to the missions agency for a possible microenterprise ministry leadership position.  What Vickie didn't know was that Rose and I have been talking for several years about opening a fair trade store and coffeehouse here in our neighborhood.  Once we even filled out an application to lease space, but the building owner leased it to another tenant instead.  So we were intrigued.

The intrigue continued through a couple months' worth of conversations with various folks at Free Methodist headquarters.  It appeared that God was opening the door for us to step into this ministry at just the time Rose would be stepping down from pastoring and I would be leaving my former employment.  We continued, prayerfully with each step, until it became clear that this is what God has for us as a couple.

What does this mean?  Well, first we have a lot of work to do, understanding what SEED (which stands for Serving, Empowering, Encouraging, Developing) currently does, where it is strong and where it could use improvement.  And meeting all the folks at FM headquarters along with the existing SEED project sites, which are scattered across the continents: projects in Peru, Kenya, Uganda, India, China, Cambodia, and the Philippines.  And there are a hundred potential sites in 30 or 40 countries.

We also have a lot of work to do to understand the options.  We are familiar with microcredit/microfinance, with Fair Trade, and with market and SWOT analyses, for instance, but every place, every culture, every person or group of people, is going to be unique.  We know that God has prepared us for this work, not to the extent that we can be confident in our own abilities but so that we have some raw material that he will put together in the best way to meet people's needs.

This new adventure will be a dance of leadership and followership at multiple levels:

1. Clearly, we need to be responsive to God's leading all the way through
2. Rose and I will be learning how to lead and follow, and partner, with each other in working together on a daily basis.  We have very different strengths and very different approaches, so molding those will be a great challenge -- and a lot of fun. We could not have even thought about this 14.5 years ago
3. We'll all be learning about how to lead and to follow as we work with conferences, churches, headquarters, non-US sites, and possible donors

Yep, in case that wasn't clear, we'll be starting fundraising in the near future as the SEED position is not currently funded.  ICCM has agreed to pay our travel and operations expenses while we raise money to cover salary, medical, and daily living costs.

So again, God has taken us from a position of having a very safe, solid income to not knowing how we'll pay the bills.  And because he's leading, all we have to do is follow and trust.  More to come on that.