SPELLING O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y. -3-

Opportunity What an incredible opportunity we’ve been given. After all the tears and headaches, we have a magnificent facility that is making a difference in our community every day. Thank you, Lord. Children and adults are being exposed to music and art and dance and gardening and Jesus. Thank you, Lord. We have the opportunity, as does the Starbucks chain, to be welcoming, genuine, considerate, knowledgeable and involved. Thank you, Lord. Like Starbucks, we can make it our own. We can recognize that everything matters. We can be open to surprise and delight. We can embrace resistance rather than fight it. And we can leave our mark. Thank you, Lord. What an incredible opportunity we’ve been given.

Prayer

’Mid all the traffic of the ways, Turmoils without, within,
Make in my heart a quiet place, And come and dwell therein.

A little place of mystic grace, Of self and sin swept bare,
Where I may look upon Thy face, And talk with Thee in prayer.

William Dunkerley’s words speak to a place in the heart, yet also describe a place within the busyness of the center. A small room was initially meant as a crying room for parents to use if their babies needed to be taken out of the church services but now has been set up as a prayer room. It has become a place of mystic grace for many in our community, as has the labyrinth in the southwest corner of the property.

Questions Richard Rinehart asks the following five questions:
Is Jesus Christ the focus of attention around here?
Are relationships the lifeblood of this ministry?
Can I let go of control and step aside when I need to?
Am I growing more conscious of my leadership values and assumptions?
What kind of change agent am I?

Role Model Yogi Berra tells us that “you can observe a lot by just watching.” Many eyes are on these new centers, and our actions are being observed by children and adults alike. It is a great gift and a great responsibility. Oh, God, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”

Structure and System Somewhere I ran across the concept that suggests that where the spirit is right, any structure will work. I’m not so sure of that. Our structure and the systems that support the work are important to what we’re doing. Perhaps our greatest challenge in the early days was that we didn’t have enough ‘system’ in place to allow staff to relax into their positions. We are still challenged by phones, the copier, Kroc Suites, statistical collection and accounting decisions. It seemed as though we had worked a lot on getting systems in place, and so it was frustrating to see how much we hadn’t gotten finished prior to opening. There are days when I simply want to throw open the doors and say, “come on in” – we’ll figure out the paperwork and stats later. Perhaps there’s a spiritual lesson to be learned??

Tension There is a tension between two descriptors of our work: saving souls, serving suffering humanity, and making saints versus the goals of developing character, confidence, capacity and hope. There is a tension between ‘go for souls and go for the worst’ and offering programs in the arts, education, andrecreation for the underserved, the undeserving (dare we say that word out loud), and the paying audience. There may be a tension between those who have been faithful to the Salvation Army through thick and thin, and those newcomers who may seem like ‘carpetbaggers’ to those who have been in the war for a long time.

Tension is not inherently good or bad. After all, without tension in the strings, a cello is silent. Joan Borysenko understands: “Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.”
Naming the tensions when they exist and valuing the hearts of all who are included will allow for love, healing, forgiveness and service to occur.

Under Authority Regardless of the Kroc distinction or aura, we are the
Salvation Army, and as such remain people under authority. We do have unique concerns that we’d like the corporate Army to understand and to bend its long standing practices that would make our job easier, but that may not happen. We need to accept that and get on with it.

Vision Without vision, the people perish. The challenge of the Kroc projects is that there are a number of visions that have to somehow be integrated into a
whole. First, the vision of Catherine and William Booth, that the lost of the world might know Jesus. Next, Joan Kroc’s vision that placed specific parameters around the use of her gift. Then there is the vision of the local community, that
may not understand the requirements of the gift or the machinations of the Salvation Army. Add to that mix the levels of DHQ and THQ, where each personaround the board table has his or her own ideas and priorities, and we have quite a task of integration. Is there room for the vision of the advisory board or corps council? The children? What of the vision of the officers who are appointed to the Kroc center development, often partway through the process? And, first and foremost, what does God want? The Kroc leader has the responsibility of taking hundreds of vision-bearing images and crafting them into a coherent film. “Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart.”
Welcome “There is a welcome here for you. A cup of water, a warm embrace, there is a welcome here for you.” Is that evident? Space can be designed to
create an atmosphere of welcome, and systems can be developed to facilitate methods of welcome, but in the end it depends on people.

eXamine How will we evaluate what is happening in the centers and in the lives of its participants? We’re so busy trying to get programming started that we’ve not been very good at building in an evaluative component. This is our baby – what if someone says it’s ugly? How open can we be to feedback?

Yes Tony Blair suggests that “the art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” While I get his point, I suggest that our centers need to be places where “yes” is heard more often than “no.” Yes, you can do this, I believe in you. Yes, you can sing and dance. Yes, you can run and fly kites. Yes, you can love Jesus and love your brother and sister. Yes, you can be safe here. Yes, you can dream. Yes, you can hope. Yes, you can reach your capacity. Yes, you can!

Zoo During our assignment at the Cleveland Hough Center, definitely a precursor for the Kroc Center concept, a Salvation Army leader joined us on a
busy evening at the center and commented: “This is a zoo, and you’re the zookeeper.” Ouch! I’m not always good at responding in the moment, but nearly twenty years later, I can tell him that a zoo is the wrong metaphor. We don’t have people in cages, and while we may have a lot of activity in the centers, it is not chaos.

It’s up to us to choose healthy metaphors for our centers. While we continue to be the Salvation Army, a military metaphor may not be the only one to use in these settings. Might we also see ourselves as a circle, a harbor, a well, or the village green? How we as leaders see our centers will influence what they become.

PART -3-

Major JoAnn Shade
Administrator