Transformed to Transformation

Last week, Glenn attended the T2 (Transformed to Transformation) workshop concerning the new structure of CAM. CAM International is currently reorganizing our structure to maximize effectiveness and accountability to CAM's end statement.

With authorization from the T2 website, I have included some brief thoughts about the meetings. Enjoy the read.

What is discipleship? What is disciple-making? What exactly do we need to measure? How do we measure it? What is community? What is a team? How do we care for each other? What do we call this new structure? These and many other T2 questions, which have been a focus of town hall meetings and much dialog for the past 5 months, are now being looked at in much more detail by 33 CAMers working in 4 task forces who are prayerfully and creatively finding answers.

We witnessed synergy today at the T2 Workshop.

Synergy (from the Greek syn-ergo, meaning working together) is a term used to describe a situation where the final outcome of a system is greater than the sum of its parts (definition from Wikipedia). Paul used the word in 1 Corinthians 3:9 - " We are fellow workers (synergoi) with God; you are God's cultivation, God's building."

Cross-pollination is another term that conveys what took place today at T2. The task forces began to hone in today on greater clarity of the overall direction that this is all headed. After a day and a half of good meetings which were primarily taking place in individual task forces, some real breakthroughs came in the afternoon as task forces met together to collaborate on key issues. Some "aha" moments came when task forces spent time talking about issues they had each been working on separately. The outcome was greater than the sum of its parts.

In his book As Iron Sharpens Iron, Howard Hendricks writes: "There is no substitute for knowing and being known by another human being. There is no other way to experience what deep down we really want as people - to be heard, to be understood, to feel that our life counts...If you know that someone really cares, you are much more likely to give your best effort rather than disappoint. But if you're swimming against the tide all by yourself, chances are you'll just give up."

Transformation is at the core of CAM's structure change. Community is vital in getting us there.

The caravan of vehicles from Big Sandy arrived back at CAM Center around 5:15pm. The group is tired but content at having accomplished so much. As we were wrapping up the week, some of the sentiments expressed were that the week was great, and although tense at times, there was a strong feeling that the task forces who spent the week working together functioned as a community. The experience of the week itself built directly into the structure design.

Are we done? Ready to launch? Questions answered? Not by a long shot. The feeling is that something like 90% of our goals (deliverables) for the week were met. But, hay mucha tela que cortar. Significant steps were taken to clarify foggy ideas. Flesh was put on the bones of the skeleton model. But there is much yet to do, and the task forces have follow-up and integration tasks that will stretch into the weeks and months ahead. Please continue to pray for the process as we know you did during this important week. And stay tuned to this blog for updates on some of the process details in the comings weeks.

Concluding, please continue to pray for the leadership of CAM and the challenges of change.

More later,

Judy