Tales of
exploration have always been exciting reading for me. Whether the focus is on the discovery of new
lands or surviving dangerous terrain, new challenges and trials bring out both
the best and the worst in us. We learn a
lot about our humanity when we try something new.
In Call to Commitment, Elizabeth O’Connor writes,
“When
the church starts to be the church, it will constantly be adventuring out into
places where there are no tried and tested ways. If the church in our day has
few prophetic voices to sound above the noises of the street, perhaps in large
part it is because the pioneering spirit has become foreign to it. It shows
little willingness to explore new ways. Where it does it has often been called
an experiment. We would say that the church of Christ is never an experiment,
but wherever that church is true to its mission it will be experimenting,
pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling Word of God
to its own age.”
Exploration
and experimentation are things we ask clients to do in coaching. Too often, we are burdened down not only by the
cares of everyday life but the baggage we have accumulated over the years. We have accepted what people have told us
about our limitations, we have failed to learn positive lessons from both the
successes and failures of life, and we spend more time looking at the cracks in
the sidewalk than the expanse of the horizon.
In
exploration, all bets are off. In the
initial coaching conversation, I often encourage my coaching clients to “think
blue sky”-- “If money were
no problem, you had all the time you needed, and there were no health
limitations or other obstacles, what would you do?” As we begin to think about the various ways
that they can address their growth area, a similar mindset helps. What would you like to try that you haven’t
before? What are some new paths to consider?
Too often as
individuals and as groups, we limit our options too quickly. We need both the
opportunity and the sense of freedom to consider all of the possibilities out
there. In so doing, we make exciting
discoveries.
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