AnamCara
At the Baptist Order Convocation, someone quoted from a booklet, AnamCara: Collegial Clergy Communities by Mahan Siler. A number of us were captivated and so we ordered some copies from the States.
It really is a booklet and not a book, but this slim volume is dense with beautiful writing and deep wisdom.
'How do you stoke the fire of soul within your institutional role? How do you keep alive your curiosity about this mysterious generosity that wants to surge through you and your ministry? How do you lead with passion and vision within a congregation that may desire more management than leadership, more comfort than challenge, more efficiency than effectiveness?
'My response from fifty years in our vocation, is this: You cannot by yourself. Without soul friends, vital pastoral leadership is not possible. A single log will not remain aflame.'
And another extract, 'How do we get to that place where the Music of the gospel becomes again and again more important than we are? With friends, I submit. I imagine pastors circling up with other colleagues to "jam", to lose and find themselves again in the Music. I picture AnamCara as one of those gathering places where vocational friends, practice, improvise, harmonise, note the discordant sounds, learn from one another, laugh with one another over mistakes - in other words, to love the Music together.'
It really is a booklet and not a book, but this slim volume is dense with beautiful writing and deep wisdom.
'How do you stoke the fire of soul within your institutional role? How do you keep alive your curiosity about this mysterious generosity that wants to surge through you and your ministry? How do you lead with passion and vision within a congregation that may desire more management than leadership, more comfort than challenge, more efficiency than effectiveness?
'My response from fifty years in our vocation, is this: You cannot by yourself. Without soul friends, vital pastoral leadership is not possible. A single log will not remain aflame.'
And another extract, 'How do we get to that place where the Music of the gospel becomes again and again more important than we are? With friends, I submit. I imagine pastors circling up with other colleagues to "jam", to lose and find themselves again in the Music. I picture AnamCara as one of those gathering places where vocational friends, practice, improvise, harmonise, note the discordant sounds, learn from one another, laugh with one another over mistakes - in other words, to love the Music together.'
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