Appreciative inquiry: the journey so far
“Why didn’t we do any of that fun stuff back when I could go to church?”
That was the response that I received from Maxine Daniel, one of our shut-in members, on a recent visit when I described all that was going on in our congregation during the past few months. She was excited to hear about the visit of the Southern Traditions gospel group, the “Secondhand Lions” movie night, as well as the resurrection of the men’s group, the new adult Bible study, our new preschool class, and the youth activities on Sunday night.
She said that she wished she would be able to get out from Central Gardens to participate in some of the upcoming events like the Veterans Day and Thanksgiving services, as well as Cookie Walk, Hanging of the Greens and Cantata. More than anything she was grateful see the energy level of the church so high. Needless to say, I agreed with her and asked her for permission to share her thoughts with the entire congregation.
We are ten months into what the board designated as a year of discernment. During that time we have met to talk about who we are. The leadership has studied and prayed together. We started praying together every Tuesday morning. Slowly, we have begun to ask different sets of questions. The plethora of activities that so excited Maxine Daniel are the direct result of this process.
The basic method for this discernment process has been “appreciative inquiry.” Appreciative inquiry is the exact opposite of the problem-solving model that most of us are used to. Instead of focusing on what is broken, appreciative inquiry asks “what works?” and seeks to do more of it. During this time we discovered that we had men who wanted to spend time together. We found that we do Christian fellowship very well. We have a wide variety of musical tastes and talents. God gives each church certain gifts and talents. Rather than beat ourselves up about the things that we do not have, we focused on those areas of strength and put our many resources to work.
The beauty of this whole process is that every new idea has been driven by the members of the church. Through prayer, study, and conversation members of this church have felt the Holy Spirit leading them in new directions. For any initiative to truly be sustainable, it has to have people who feel called to be a part of it. That is exactly what has happened here.
Even though we are now coming to the end of Year of Discernment, there is no reason for that process to stop. This year was designed to be a model of what change can look like. Going forward, if you feel called to bring about a new (or born again) ministry, please speak up. There is probably someone else in the church who feels the same way. We will put you together with the best resources we have. By building on the people, talents, and resources that God has given us we will continue to demonstrate the energy and excitement that impressed Maxine so much.
