WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:21.943 --> 00:00:27.283 ​ Chris: Okay, so the thing that I find weird and frustrating and confusing as 00:00:27.283 --> 00:00:31.993 conversations happen around this kind of the church and the struggles and 00:00:31.993 --> 00:00:35.893 the things that have happened over the last year to 15 months plus whatever. 00:00:36.373 --> 00:00:41.818 The main thing I run up against in conversations is, uh, a 00:00:41.818 --> 00:00:44.218 lack of appetite or energy, 00:00:45.313 --> 00:00:50.893 towards doing things to improve the situation, whatever that might be. 00:00:50.953 --> 00:00:52.963 Doesn't matter how big or how small. 00:00:53.573 --> 00:00:57.023 Sometimes there's energy around having conversations about, around 00:00:57.023 --> 00:00:59.453 venting, around talking, sharing. 00:00:59.873 --> 00:01:04.043 All very good things I think that at a community level, it's important 00:01:04.043 --> 00:01:08.593 to be able to share pains, hurts, frustrations, joys, celebrations, 00:01:08.598 --> 00:01:12.913 happiness, sadness, laments, um, praise. 00:01:12.913 --> 00:01:15.703 All those things are important parts of community. 00:01:16.953 --> 00:01:21.898 But taking it to that next step of action, some sort of action, not 00:01:21.898 --> 00:01:26.098 just like the big extreme blow it all up and start over again kind of 00:01:26.098 --> 00:01:28.738 action, but like just a, a baby step. 00:01:28.858 --> 00:01:33.658 Uh, let's schedule a meeting, or let's talk about how we could 00:01:34.108 --> 00:01:37.648 write a letter, or let's talk about what we could actually do. 00:01:38.338 --> 00:01:42.608 There is a lack of energy for that part of the conversation. 00:01:42.728 --> 00:01:43.358 And I get it. 00:01:43.358 --> 00:01:44.018 It's hard. 00:01:44.168 --> 00:01:44.888 We're busy. 00:01:44.938 --> 00:01:51.928 It just feels like for a community that has been ripped apart in so many 00:01:51.933 --> 00:01:56.168 different ways, pulled in so many different directions by a very small 00:01:56.638 --> 00:02:02.848 minority group of people, I would think and hope that this community that's 00:02:02.848 --> 00:02:05.368 been through many things over the last, 00:02:05.938 --> 00:02:10.048 however long you've been around 10, maybe just two years, maybe 10 years, 00:02:10.048 --> 00:02:12.238 maybe 30 years, maybe 40, 50, 60 years. 00:02:12.898 --> 00:02:18.778 There'd be an an energy for not maintaining the community as it was 00:02:19.318 --> 00:02:25.228 during your glory days, whenever that was, but for maintaining what 00:02:25.378 --> 00:02:30.848 you hoped and dreamed and thought even the community was, and is. 00:02:33.158 --> 00:02:35.278 And obviously that will look very different for everybody else. 00:02:36.418 --> 00:02:44.458 But when core tenets of transparency, accountability, truth, sneaking around, 00:02:44.578 --> 00:02:50.303 lying, those kinds of things are being done within the community, I would've 00:02:50.303 --> 00:02:55.153 hoped, and I was naive, I think, that there would be an appetite and an energy 00:02:55.363 --> 00:02:57.493 for finding a way. 00:02:57.668 --> 00:03:01.298 I don't have the answer for how to deal with that, but finding a way and wanting 00:03:01.298 --> 00:03:04.028 to work through how to deal with that. 00:03:04.301 --> 00:03:08.441 Picking any number of issues and events and the way things have 00:03:08.441 --> 00:03:11.471 happened over the last year plus. 00:03:11.621 --> 00:03:15.851 Just, just even one of them and walking through it as a community. 00:03:16.451 --> 00:03:20.891 Processing, um, sharing how people were hurt, 00:03:21.401 --> 00:03:25.781 sharing why people were hurt, sharing the true reasons why things 00:03:25.781 --> 00:03:30.891 happened, the motives, where we hope to be because of those actions. 00:03:32.031 --> 00:03:36.771 Talking openly about all of those kinds of things without the fear of worrying 00:03:36.771 --> 00:03:40.251 that you're going to either offend someone, or that you're going to reveal 00:03:40.251 --> 00:03:43.601 something, a motive, a desire, that 00:03:44.541 --> 00:03:48.911 uh, cancels out the effects of what you just did in terms of leadership. 00:03:48.961 --> 00:03:51.751 All these conversations can very easily rabbit trail down, like, 00:03:51.756 --> 00:03:54.591 I can't believe this happened, or did you know that she did this? 00:03:54.591 --> 00:03:58.011 And then she said that and he, he said this in response to her and, 00:03:58.521 --> 00:04:00.021 I'm here for that energy, believe me. 00:04:00.374 --> 00:04:02.594 But I also want to know and work through. 00:04:02.894 --> 00:04:03.014 Okay. 00:04:03.014 --> 00:04:04.064 Well, but now what? 00:04:04.844 --> 00:04:11.834 It's been a year plus of talking, of flags being raised, of concerns, people 00:04:11.834 --> 00:04:17.169 leaving, families just like gutted, entire church community gutted, and 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:22.879 there is no appetite for accountability. 00:04:23.469 --> 00:04:28.239 Even just hearing or listening to what has gone on, the hurts, and the pains, 00:04:28.239 --> 00:04:30.129 and the confusion over what's gone on. 00:04:30.429 --> 00:04:31.989 Just gotta keep plowing ahead. 00:04:32.349 --> 00:04:34.749 Once we do X, then we'll be okay. 00:04:34.749 --> 00:04:37.329 Once we get rid of this person, then it'll be okay. 00:04:37.599 --> 00:04:41.155 Once this person stops asking about this, then it'll be okay. 00:04:42.054 --> 00:04:43.465 But we can't be okay. 00:04:43.825 --> 00:04:47.935 There's no amount of reconciliation that can happen unless there's 00:04:47.940 --> 00:04:52.715 truth, transparency, honesty, listening and sharing the hurts, 00:04:53.405 --> 00:04:55.145 the confusions, the questions. 00:04:56.224 --> 00:05:00.244 And not telling people what their questions are, not putting a sheet 00:05:00.244 --> 00:05:03.664 in front of them for discussion that guides them to a specific 00:05:03.664 --> 00:05:08.074 discussion, and ignores the pain of what just happened in the community. 00:05:10.744 --> 00:05:17.134 So that's my thoughts for today, Wednesday, March 15th, 2023. 00:05:17.911 --> 00:05:18.571 Thanks for listening.