Tag: culture

6 things not to like about Committees (and what to do about them)

committees

Whether it be work, church, or community groups we have all sat through meetings that make us sad, mad, and bad. Sad about the wasted time and expertise. Mad about the outcomes. Bad inside is often how we feel and it can make us want to behave badly too! So what to do about the things that we hate about Committees?

6 things to hate about committee meetings!

      • Meetings that go for hours longer than necessary
      • Valuable people time is used for no good result
      • Processes that often leave the people affected by the decisions confused, disempowered, hurt and angry
      • A few people within committees seem to hold the power and the greatest influence on decisions
      • Quieter members do not speak up or challenge proposals that some see as unfair or unjust or uncaring
      • Inexperienced and untrained people who deal with complicated and sensitive issues

Wasting Time

I am sure that we have all sat in meetings and thought “surely we can do this business faster than it is taking!” The signs of time-wasting include repeat expressions of the same point of view, going around in circles, never finishing a discussion, people bringing up things that are irrelevant to the matter at hand, etc. I am sure that you can add to the list.

One of the complaints sometimes made about using a consensus-building approach is that it takes too much time. This is a fallacy. It is actually very efficient because it focuses on the things that matter in making a decision rather than let a rambling succession of speeches pile up in the hope of wearing people down to your point of view.

The key to efficiency is not to shut down the conversation and “run a tight ship”. Rather it is to make sure that you open up the discussion early so that you focus on the core issues.

For example, most motions/proposals/recommendations that come before a meeting are that a certain thing is done. It is an action step. The Chair will then often ask “what do you think of this idea?” This has the potential to (and it often does) lead to a spray of reactions, comments, and alternatives. One reason for this is because an action step is a “strategy” – a means of achieving something else. That something else is a goal. There are lots of ways to achieve a goal and we waste time when we don’t first consider what we are trying to achieve.

Tip one for saving time: focus on the real issues. Clarify the issue – what are we being asked to make a decision on? For example, if it is a discussion about using new music in worship the first answer might be “to be more contemporary”. But dig deeper and the issues expand and become clearer- the importance of cultural relevance to mission, supporting the diverse spirituality and faith experience of different members, including more people in leading the worship, etc. Now you know what you are talking about. This helps you to be more systematic in the conversation by working through the goals one at a time rather than the discussion spraying all over the place.

Poor stewardship of people resources

Sit in any meeting – local, regional or wider and multiply the number of people by the meeting hours by the number of meetings a year. A local Church council of 12 people meeting for 3 hours a month 11 times a year is 396 hours a year of valuable people time. Saving an hour puts 132 hours back into a mission activity. Regional meetings can burn thousands of hours a year in ministry time – what a waste of God’s resources! Yes, we need meetings but there is always a question about how many people need to be involved, how often they should meet and how long they should run.

The solution to squandering people’s time resources is to have efficient meetings, good delegations, and very clear role descriptions. I worked once with a local Church Council that went from 45 members to 14! One part of the strategy to releasing over 1,000  hours a year to support local mission was to give people the ability to swap that meeting for another respected and important leadership role – plus get the meetings to work better!

Processes that often leave people confused, disempowered, hurt and angry

I could write a book about this! That’s right I did: The Church Guide for Making Decisions Together. There isn’t space here to cover everything that helps to avoid these problems, but here are some key elements that you want in your process.

      • everyone gets to express their feelings, hopes, fears, and ideas
      • all the issues are understood
      • all the implications of a decision have been thought through
      • the group has all the information that it needs to make a good decision

If these things are going to happen you have to create a culture of co-operation, a place where people feel safe to speak their mind, ask the right questions of the group, always begin with questions for clarification – so people know what they are talking about, use the blue and orange cards, don’t put haste ahead of care for people. Easy!

A few people hold the power and  greatest influence

Could it be that there is some cultural influence at play? There are some cultural groups where it is not appropriate for persons of a particular age or gender to contribute on some subjects. Another kind of culture is where committee members defer to ordained people or those who have high power professional jobs. Still another culture is one where certain people are the gatekeepers and power brokers in a congregation and they expect to be followed.

Different cultural sensitivities need to be respected even if that tends towards the exclusion of certain voices or fosters a hierarchy with Ministers at the top. Respect doesn’t mean that it goes unchallenged but this issue needs to be named and sensitively explored from a theological and cultural perspective. Western individualism also needs to be critiqued from the same angles.

The key to addressing power is to name it out loud and to find a way to talk about it. If the use of power includes intimidation, disrespect of others and arrogance then it is a spiritual issue and a matter of discipleship. Allowing bad behaviour to continue unchecked is a failure of leadership.

Alongside naming power, understanding where it is based, exploring it, and teaching about it we need to operate in a way that shows appropriate respect for all – not just the powerful. This can be done in ways a simple as who we ask to contribute first in a discussion through to how we praise and honour the contribution of everyone.

Quieter members do not speak up

One of the reasons that this happens is because people are dealing with the use of power and culture that we just talked about. However it can also be that some people have low self-esteem, or they process things slower than debater types, some people need to talk their ideas out loud before they come to a view and can’t jump into a debate, some people are just shy, still others avoid conflict or have a personality that wants to accommodate other people and not be self-assertive, etc. You need to know your group and devise a process that meets their needs.

Tools that are mentioned in our book include using small groups to explore more complex issues, ask people to think about their response to a lead question for a minute or so (maybe writing a note to themselves) before asking anyone to speak, invite people to talk to one or two persons around them so that they can surface their thinking before the group discussion, and use a behavioural covenant to create a safe place for dealing with differences. There are plenty of other things that you can do – what are your suggestions?

People don’t have the experience or training they need

This can happen a lot in church meetings. It is not necessary to be an expert to be on a church committee but people should have the ability to grow and build on the skills that they bring from other parts of their life.

Ongoing professional and personal development should be part of what happens in all committees. If that is going to happen then you have to spend time understanding what your task is and what skills are needed. Many leadership groups in the secular world have retreats and planning meetings as part of their schedule. There is nothing to stop a church committee from setting aside some or all of one of their meetings a year to ask the following questions:

      • What is our reason for having a meeting?
      • What skills, attitudes, and spiritual gifts do we need to do our job?
      • Are there gaps in what we need?
      • If so, how do we fill them, eg training, spiritual growth, new people?
      • Looking back on the past year – have we done a good job?
      • How can we better fulfill our calling in the next 12 months

Self-evaluation and training based on recognized needs is a great first step to having skilled and effective members for your committee.

Conclusion

Meetings do matter so we have to do them as well and as faithfully as we can. I encourage you not to put up with less than the best. You don’t have to hate committee meetings and be frustrated by their results. There are simple steps that you can follow to overcome the problems. It truly is worth the effort.

 

We need to talk!

Talk

Why talk together?

We need to talk together because the world is changing! The days of the local church where everyone came from the same background, had similar religious experiences and shared the same cultural views and practices are numbered. Sure they will hang around for a while but they are dying out.

In a very simple, clear and accurate article, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson writes about the future of the church. He makes the compelling case that the game is up for would be homogenous churches. Try as they might most of these types of churches can not grow. This is because demography, culture and changing world views have left them behind. In the US it is expected that 100 of these aging white Protestant mainline churches will close each year for the foreseeable future. It has been happening in Australia and Europe for decades.

Lectures and directives from the pulpit might work when the majority accept the dominant world view. However, when groups are diverse and hold different perspectives and experiences they will not be told. Talk together is the key to sustaining diverse communities.

The changing landscape for the church

Granberg-Michaelson says that the changes that make this death spiral inevitable include:

  • Multiracial congregations are expanding to draw 1 in 5 churchgoing Americans. Surveys on American congregations report a higher level of spiritual vitality among them compared with racially homogeneous congregations.
  • For 400 years, the faith has been moulded by the largely European culture that came out of the Enlightenment. But today church vitality is coming from emerging expressions of Christianity in Africa as well as in Asia and Latin America.
  • These new influences are raising new questions about the relationship of the individual to the community, rational versus non-rational pathways to perceiving truth and the interplay of the spiritual and material realms.
  • As the yearning for authentic spiritual experience moves from the head to the heart in this new environment, spirit-filled communities are flourishing.
  • The culture wars in the church are divisions that are not seen as the core of the gospel and many contemporary people don’t want to fight over them.
  • “Belonging before believing” is reshaping pathways of discipleship. The demand that outsiders first adhere to specific beliefs expressed in creeds or confessions is giving way to inviting them first to explore and share in worship, reflection, and service.

Evangelism needs us to talk together

Anyone who has a genuine concern and capacity for evangelism knows how important it is to understand the context. To understand context  – the life, experience, and values of people – requires listening. Talking together starts with the dominant group listening to the ones who are different.

When it is appropriate there will be a place for the evangelical person, or church, to share their perspective. However, it can never again be in the arrogant, superior, assumption of knowing what others need to learn. The talking will be more in the form of testimony about what God has meant in their life. Then, once again, it is time to listen to how others have experienced God in their life.

To talk together today about faith (or anything in the church) requires patience and humility. It requires a setting and practices that make it possible for all to share. Many of the processes in the Western church assume that there is one place of knowledge and one way to work it out. We need processes for being in a community that is open to learning from the stories and experiences of others. There needs to be space to experience the non-rational ways of gaining insight.

How does your congregation foster open, honest and risk taking conversations? When you meet for Bible study how do you listen to one another? When you meet to make decisions about how to you talk together so that all perspectives are heard? Unless churches develop a process that help them to talk together they will not navigate the changing landscape of society and the church.

Cross-Cultural Sensitivity

We often take for granted culture, question established practices, and make assumptions from our own particular world view. This rarely supports the strong respect necessary to help others with diverse backgrounds work productively on the issues and challenges we all face.

Today, the church is not only a multi-cultural body of Christ- it also serves a globally diverse world with a myriad of cultures. Today, an ability to reach across the cultures to offer Christ and make Christ known is an essential gift that church members can share if they are culturally savvy.

The neighborhood where I grew up was a place of white faces that came from Italy, Germany, Poland or Ireland. This was reflected in the various languages spoken and the wonderful food we shared.  I recognized from a very early age that people came from different places and did things differently.  Yet, we had one thing in common:  a desire to respectfully work together.  To understand one another and be understood. This was especially true at church where we sat on committees or worked on projects side by side. One example of this happening was the various cultures that came together to build the new church building – side by side.  There were many successful fundraisers:  Polish Sausage sandwiches, Spaghetti Diners, Saurerkraut sales, and of course, St. Patrick’s Day Irish Corned Beef.

Today,  that same neighborhood and church are full of a greater variety of cultures:  European, Asian, African, and Hispanic.  There are various holidays and festivals that bring people together.  But the road has not always been easy!

Each culture has it’s own styles of communicating, making decisions, and resolving conflict.  Gone are the days (if they ever existed), that there is one way to do things.

Perhaps you have been asked to mediate a conflict in a Korean congregation or work with a Hispanic fellowship to establish a new worship center in your community. What can you do if you find yourself working cross-culturally?

Here are some practical steps to improve your CQ (Cultural Competency):

Establish Trust

    • Convey your desire to be culturally sensitive early on the process.
    • Be clear about why you are there and what you need from the group to complete the work requested, as well as naming what you have to offer to the process.
    • Acknowledge that you are aware that you have much to learn from the other group(s).
    • Focus on the shared task ahead.  Form community: hard to create – even harder to sustain.
    • Be sure to seek feedback when you see people behaving in ways that are puzzling to you.
    • Remember people care about what you know when they know that you care about them.
    • Be vulnerable.  When you do not know something or an issue is beyond your expertise, name it.
    • Discover who some of the key shareholders are in the group and go to them to ask for their support to accomplish the task that you were given. Ask them what you need to know about the group’s culture that would help them accept you and make you a better contributor.
    • Bottom line:  learn the culture you are working with (customs, ways of making decisions, even some keywords or phrases).

Get to know members of the other group

    • Take the time to listen to people’s stories and experiences.  I often ask people to share pictures of important people or celebrations in their life with me as a way to introduce ourselves. I then do the same.
    • Encourage people from the other culture to use their skills for the welfare of the entire group and the shared goals.
    • Foster healthy, strong relationships among members of the group.  Take time for team building.
    • Establish good bonds with participants that will help you be effective in working with the group
    • Don’t generalize.
    • Try not to intervene too quickly when people are on opposite sides of an issue or decision.  Ask guiding questions to surface common ground.

Form a team of Culturally Inclusive Leaders

    • This is a team of people from the group who can help you work through your process (lead listening sessions for you, remind people of meetings and assignments, lead Devotions or times of Centering, etc.
    • Invite this Team to generate communications and be part of a feedback loop.
    • Demonstrates an ability to work with and appreciate others cross-culturally.
    • Embrace diversity.  Give a little to the others on a team to accomplish and accept their way of getting the job done even if it is a method you have not used in the past.  Be sure to stay in the loop and monitor how the work gets done.
    • Encourage!

Promote Open, Honest Communication

    • Keep instructions simple and ask for clarity when necessary
    • Have an interpreter present especially if you are working with 1st generation immigrants or members of the culture who do not speak English well.
    • Request that the group be direct and speak to others not about them.  No triangulation.
    • Avoid slang and jargon. Literal interpretations are often misunderstood.
    • Learn to respect silence. It means respect in several cultures because it demonstrates a willingness to listen.  Be patient when asking questions or providing choices.
    • Don’t accept myths about the other culture
    • Resolution skills practiced should always give the work back to the people.  This brings an increased awareness of how members can best resolve conflict in the future.
    • Put things in writing.  Ensure that they are distributed to the right people and at the same time if possible.
    • Adapt customs of the culture you are working with into the process you have designed.  For example, when I am working with a group from the South Pacific Islands I frequently convene a Soamoan Listening Circle to surface thoughts and feelings. It works!

Set a clear, compelling direction

    • Explain the process clearly and invite questions for clarity.
    • Be sure that participants understand why you are there and what the end product is of the work.
    • Involve every participant in the process. Let them know that every person is essential to completing the task before them whether it is assessing a Pastor, moving to a new location, resolving conflict, etc.
    • Stay focused on your goals.
    • Evaluate progress by the steps you have taken to facilitate the group dealing with their issues, make good decisions, or resolve conflict.
    • Don’t take slow-downs personally. Listen to the stories and be patient.  This is one way a culture communicates its values and boundaries.

Explore Differences Within the Group

    • Treat others as they want to be treated.
    • Acknowledge the “fault lines” present in the group by naming the distinctions within the group. They may be generational, gender, language, place of birth, etc.
    • Know what motivates participants.  Why should they work with you?  What do you add that they can do themselves?
    • Manage friction with sensitivity.

Create clear rules of engagement and maintain them

    • Incorporate practices from various cultures. Examples include using a talking piece when speaking in the group, or sitting in a circle to hear the wisdom of the elders.
    • Establish norms for behavior.  I am a firm behavior in establishing a covenant with a group on how they want to be treated and treat others.
    • Stick with established guidelines so you do not get off track.
    • Be polite yet firm when someone acts outside of Covenant.  Re-invite the person to stand inside the Covenant or let them remove themselves from the work.

Resolve Conflict Quickly

    • When you observe tension in the group deal with it swiftly.  Don’t let it fester.
    • Use the cultural perspectives of the group to serve as a cultural bridge.  For example, in Asian cultures, you do not cause another person to lose face (be embarrassed in pubic).

Benefits of Working Cross-Culturally

Why do all this work?  Why develop sensitivity and appreciation of working with various cultures beyond your own?

There are many benefits:

    1. The ability to plan and adapt your work for various audiences leads to a stronger process and greater effectiveness professionally.
    2. Other people bring cultural insights that you will find helpful even when working with your own culture.  I have learned many tools from cross-cultural work that are fun and engaging.
    3. Being collegial across cultural lines improves relationships and expands your network. I have discovered that despite cultural differences there is a common core that remains the same among humans:  love, care, respect, encouragement, etc.
    4. The more culturally diverse the group is, the greater the array of options generated. You get a better solution that people can live with later.
    5. Because the world is growing more diverse, I find myself curious when encountering cultural distinctions. I am better for each encounter.

One of the most important things that you can do is to be a lifelong learner of working with others cross-culturally.  A great resource offered by the Evangelical Lutherans in the USA is a short workbook: http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Talking_Together_As_Christians_Cross_Culturally_A_Field_Guide.pdf

Conclusion

Perhaps it is easier to work with people just like you yet the world is so diverse and exciting for the many people who live in this world.  The odds of you encountering people from a different culture are more likely today than ever before. These encounters are not to be feared but embraced. Our challenge is to be aware of our cultural bias and blindspots.

As a church consultant, I welcome the opportunity to share my skills and abilities with others regardless of culture.  It’s not a barrier to me because I have learned how to be culturally sensitive and recognize that I have even further to go.

The Gospel is intended for all people regardless of where they were born or the language they speak.  Wasn’t it Paul who once said that in Christ there is no black or white, East or West, male or female…?  The Apostle was talking about surface things that tend to divide us when in fact they are strengths that can unite us.

Perhaps the task of cross-cultural conversation and work may be to discern and develop effective ways to talk and work together.  To do this, we must own our own culture and biases and be willing to embrace another’s culture with curiosity and respect.

Cross-cultural sensitivity doesn’t just happen. It is challenging and hard works yet it is possible to do.  What’s your CQ?

I hope you found this article helpful.  Drop me a line and let me know your cross-cultural learnings that help shape your ministry. I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

Overcoming our blind spots

overcoming blind spots

Blind spots and me

Blind spots – all of us have differing degrees of ignorance about what is going on inside us. In the previous post, I used the example of white privilege as a case study on blind spots. There I wrote about the reality of them and how they distort our relationships and world view.

It is dangerous for others and harmful to us when we don’t recognize our our blind spots. When we don’t recognize our privilege then we:
    • mess up and don’t make the best response to situations
    • don’t understand the feelings of others
    • fail to provide genuine spaces for all to contribute
    • damage relationships
    • miss out on accessing the best wisdom to address our problems

Blind spots are real and we need to deal with them for the sake of creating healthy communities – Christian and otherwise.

Consensus discernment is hampered by blind spots

Have you ever been in conversation, or perhaps a meeting, where someone is incredibly biased? So often this person doesn’t even realise how their behaviour is excluding or harming others. For them, their attitudes are normal and they assume that everyone else thinks the same. And if they don’t think the same then they certainly should!

I recall working with a church body introducing them to consensus processes. After the presentation, the first three people to speak were all white, male, middle-aged, first world, well-educated clergy. They were all opposed to consensus processes. From their point of view, the parliamentary style of debating was just fine and everyone could do it. It was immediately clear that they just did not recognise the privilege that came from their position as white, male, middle-aged, first world, well-educated clergy! Multiple blind spots prevented them from seeing how other people were disadvantaged by the things that work for them.

Consensus building is seriously disadvantaged when people do not deal with their blind spots. Consensus discernment only works if:

    • all the people in a meeting can contribute
    • the culture and practices make it a safe space to contribute
    • the powerful keep quiet long enough to hear from the weak
    • people are humble enough to be corrected by different perspectives
    • the methods for exploring issues do not privilege certain participants

What can be done?

1. It’s a spiritual problem

The first thing to understand is that these blind spots are a spiritual issue. This is because they prevent us from living as Christ intends. When we live out of our subconscious privilege then we disempower and estrange others which is the antithesis of the reconciliation that God seeks through Christ.

Therefore the first thing that we need to do is to listen carefully to the heart message of the Scripture. In this, we must take on the role of the humble one who expects God to correct us.

Quoting Richard Rohr: “Evil is always incapable of critiquing itself. Evil depends upon disguise and tries to look like virtue. We have to fully cooperate in God’s constant work, spoken so clearly in Mary’s prayer (Luke 1:52) which is always “bringing down the mighty from their thrones and exalting the lowly.” It is the de facto story of history, art, and drama. And we have to get in on the story.”

Groups that seek consensus will create a culture where people can be challenged to see their biases and the weak can find their voice. We have to live the story of “exalting the lowly” and “bringing down the mighty” – even when we are the mighty ones.

2. Spiritual disciplines

If we have a spiritual problem then we need spiritual resources in order to effectively address it. Richard Rohr is a contemplative Franciscan so he offers the experience of his tradition.

“Some form of contemplative practice is the only way (apart from great love and great suffering) to rewire people’s minds and hearts. It is the only form of prayer that dips into the unconscious and changes people at deep levels — where all of the wounds, angers, and recognitions lie hidden. Prayer that is too verbal, too social, too external, too heady never changes people at the level where they really need to change. Only some form of prayer of quiet changes people for good and for others in any long term way.”

The important take away here is that the spirituality of our meetings cannot be some superficial touch of the Bible and a few rushed words of prayer. People in our meetings are full of feelings and in need of correction and healing or both. So we need a spirituality of gathering that makes room for these things to be addressed. These are not things that we put at the start and end like bookends to a collection of stories. They are the story.

3. A deep and genuine desire for equality

Rohr again: “As long as all of us really want to be on top, and would do the same privileged things if we could get there, there will never be an actual love of equality. This challenges all of us to change and not just those folks who temporarily are ‘on the top.'”

This is an attitude of the mind, and orientation of the heart. It requires the saving work of Jesus Christ to have touched our lives and an openness to the Holy Spirit leading us to sanctification.

How sad I find it when I am present at discussions among Christians and arrogance is so obvious. It is as though the experience and the perspectives of others are irrelevant. Yet in the ecclesiology of my church, this is a heresy. The Uniting Church declares that government in the church is a calling from God to women and men who are chosen because God has gifted them for this role. So to deny them processes that help to give them their voice is to insult God. All persons who are present in our decision-making contexts are there because God has gifted them to us. Therefore we do well to create processes that ensure that all can contribute.

4. Live the way of Jesus

“Jesus’ basic social agenda was simple living, humility, and love of neighbour. We all have to live this way ourselves, and from that position, God can do God’s work rather easily.” (Richard Rohr)

Consensus-based processes assume love for neighbour and humility. By building these expectations into the way we discern Christ’s will for his church we are laying down the tracks that will help overcome blind spots. Sometimes we have to learn by doing. Therefore using processes that match what we know is authentic Christian behaviour – even before people are ready to do it – can deliver positive outcomes and change lives. I think it was John Wesley who, when concerned about the poverty of this faith, was told to “preach faith until you have faith”.  So let’s do the things that express and foster faithfulness until they become natural.

Conclusion

It is naive to think that we can avoid subconscious biases influencing our meetings. Therefore the best thing to do is to name the issue right out in front. This will mean that on some occasions we name our privilege and the disadvantage of others so that we can try and work out what to do with it.

It is foolish to think that people will do their own spiritual work before they come to our church meetings. Of course, some will but many will need help. Embed deep spiritual practices into your meeting – especially when biases start to show up and/or things get ugly!!

Create processes that reflect the highest Christian expectations – equality, respect, humility, love, desire for growth and maturity in faith, etc. Lay down the tracks for faithfulness until that behaviour becomes the norm.

Finding our blind spots

Blind spots – they are with us all the time

Blind spots were something that Jesus was very concerned about. In a very well known passage from Luke he is recorded as saying:
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)
The inability to see inside ourselves is a major problem for our relationships, our effectiveness at work and our ability to build consensus with others. Our blind spots mean that we do not realise the problems that we make for other people! When we do not see the things that put us outside a healthy relationship with others then the wheels come off our ability to collaborate with them.

Where are your blind spots?

My thinking about blind spots and its impact on consensus building was stimulated by an article written by Romal Tune. The article appeared in Sojourners Magazine. In that article, he interviews Richard Rohr who is a Franciscan priest from the USA on his experience of white privilege.
As I read the interview, I was reflecting on how deeply hidden our biases are! Our core operating assumptions are often unknown to us. Everything that he was saying about white privilege can be applied to other social advantages. Many of us do not think of ourselves as racist. We men probably don’t see ourselves as sexist. Social status in Australia is not venerated as much as it is in other cultures.  Many members of the clergy don’t like to see themselves as superior or privileged over lay people. Yet within us, there are assumptions that drive our behaviour that surely rest on the privileges of race, gender, class and social position.

White privilege: a study in subjective blindness

Rohr says: “White privilege is largely hidden from our eyes if we are white. Why? Because it is structural instead of psychological, and we tend to interpret most things in personal, individual, and psychological ways. Since we do not consciously have racist attitudes or overt racist behaviour, we kindly judge ourselves to be open-minded, egalitarian, “liberal,” and therefore surely not racist.
Because we have never been on the other side, we largely do not recognize the structural access, the trust we think we deserve, the assumption that we always belong and do not have to earn our belonging, the “we set the tone” mood that we white folks live inside of — and take totally for granted and even naturally deserved.”
We may not be racist but we can presume and enjoy all the benefits of white privilege. We may not be patriarchal but men operate as though they have a right of presence and agency that not many women automatically feel belongs to them. Some clergy may like to think that they can treat all members of the church with respect, but they still enjoy the privileged place of being sought after as a contributor and counsel in all situations.

What’s wrong with using these privileges?

Rohr notes: “I profited from white privilege on so many fronts that I had to misread the situation many, many times before I began to feel what others feel and see what others could clearly see. Many must have just rolled their eyes and hopefully forgiven me!”
When we don’t recognize our privilege then we:
    • mess up and don’t make the best response to situations
    • don’t understand the feelings of others
    • fail to provide genuine spaces for all to contribute
    • damage relationships
    • miss out on accessing the best wisdom to address our problems
Rohr again: “Frankly, it is dangerous to put the Bible into the hands of people who still worship their own group, their own country, their own denomination, or any other idolatry. They will always abuse it.”
Perhaps even more concerning is that because of our blind spots we probably end up abusing the Bible and misrepresenting God! When we take our subjective reality and make it the social norm then we put our perspective/group on top. When people are on top they often use the Bible to keep themselves there!!

Where are your blind spots?

Before you can answer this question you need to get help. We cannot know how our subjective worldview skews things. The only way to glimpse its impact is to have friends, colleagues and opponents point them out to you.

In the next post, I will look further at this question. For now, I invite you to prayerfully reflect on your situation. Where might your privilege be and what negative effects is it having?

Blind spots and consensus discernment

Our ability to grasp how our biases and privileges are at work is incredibly difficult. Failure to understand and allow for the inherent privileges that we possess makes genuine engagement with others impossible. When others are not engaged in the process of discernment then genuine consensus is not possible. Consensus building approaches to discernment need to address the subconscious and subjective privilege of all participants in the process. To fail to do so entrenches the dominant privilege(s) and creates significant disruption to the quality of the community’s life and decision-making ability.