Practise the Better Way
What kind of people do we aspire to be for God and our community?
Artwork by Sophie Killingley of Perish+Fade
This is a foundational question within the Pioneering Parishes community.
by Rev Greg Bakker
Over the past six months we’ve explored what aspiration might look like through the cultivation of strong relationships between pioneers and advocates. The Pioneering Parishes Beatitudes offer six significant insights into how collaboration between advocates and pioneers can be nurtured. (For a reminder of the Pioneering Parishes Beatitudes, click here.) This month, we reach the summit – ‘Practise the Better Way’.
The ‘better way’, as described in our beatitudes, is rooted in the primacy of modelling what we want to see over verbal critique. The ‘better way’ invites us to embody our aspirations rather than default into a steady routine of criticism about what our co-workers or ecclesial superiors are doing. Father Richard Rohr says, ‘The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.’
What leaders – both pioneers and advocates – fail to recognise is that many people often cannot conceive of anything different until they have seen a credible alternative. Instead of railing about someone at every opportunity, demonstrate a better way which helps cultivate strong relationships. You might like to identify an appropriate tip from the Pioneering Parishes Beatitudes and then put it into practice.
There is, of course, a time for speaking up and pointing out where thriving is being undermined. But, how much more powerful and inspiring is a critique that is rooted in the positive living out of a ‘better way’?
The Pioneering Parishes Culture Change in Practice course can help you develop a better way. Find out more.
