Think Win/Win
If I win, does it mean you have to lose?
Image by Sophie Killingley of Perish + Fade
Are we in love with winning? Are you?!
by Rev Tina Hodgett
Hello! Straight off the bat, can Greg and I ask for your help with something? We’re looking for stories showing how doing the Pioneering Parishes course led to something new (however small it may seem!) happening in your parish. If this is the case for you, could you please email us at pioneeringparishes@churchmissionsociety.org with a short sentence along these lines: ‘We came to a PP course and heard about [insert details]. As a result [something new – please describe it] happened and now we have [good outcomes in terms of new activities, relationships, communities, believers, enquirers – please say briefly what that is].’ There’s no need for more detail. We’ll get in touch with you to find out more. This will help us secure funding for future work and in that way we can continue to serve you. Win-win!
A world with winners and losers is generated by a spirit of competition. That may be stating the obvious in sporting terms. The FA Cup final generated a winner and a loser, so do most other sports. On holiday though I played a board game in which the aim was for the players to work as a team to win together. It was very refreshing!
Sometimes pioneers and parish priests talk as though pioneering activity and parish work are in competition with each other. Pioneering is a threat to the parish, the parish is a threat to pioneering. In truth, they belong together symbiotically. The parish can be open to the new things God is doing and be willing to engage with those who are unconnected with the life and community of faith. Pioneers can foster, encourage and lead this engagement across cultures and need the support, understanding and involvement of the parish congregation to do it well.
In our Pioneering Parishes webinars we use a horticultural metaphor to show how this relationship can be symbiotic and create a win/win culture. The metaphor is from regenerative agriculture, where organic farmers plant the traditional crop of spring barley together with mixed beans. The beans are legumes; you may know these are plants that have the miraculous gift of converting nitrogen in the atmosphere into fertiliser that enriches the soil where they grow. Obviously this is an advantage for the barley too. So does the barley ‘win’ an unearned advantage while the beans ‘lose’? No, because the beans are able to use the strong upright barley stalk as a means of growing upright rather than along the ground. It is win/win. Both get something extra from being in partnership.
Working for a win/win outcome is the basis of negotiation, diplomacy, and ongoing trusting relationships. Through Christ we have access to a win/win relationship with the Creator where God gains our friendship and collaboration in the healing of the world, and we gain – well, much more than I can say!
How can you develop this kind of attitude towards pioneering and the parish church? How can you proceed so that everyone wins? Congregations, priests, pioneers (if they’re not priests) and most importantly, those who aren’t yet present at the feast?
Don’t forget to send us your experience of Pioneering Parishes. Email pioneeringparishes@churchmissionsociety.org with brief details of your experience please.
