Convening Communities of Shared Accountablity

At the crossroads where individual ministry and service intersect with community, there are opportunities for healing and for creating new conversations which can make a lasting, positive difference. In 2000 the Mastery Foundation began developing programs and initiatives for those who—through their ministries, their work, or their activities—are directly involved in making their communities better places to live.

These initiatives are not the usual meetings around the issues of community. They are not about negotiating, resolving conflicts, solving problems, or coming up with answers. Instead, they are designed to empower people in their relationship to their communities, giving them a new power and new tools to make their communities the places they want them to be.

Participants from every part of the community bring their individual concerns and experiences together to explore questions such as

• What matters to us as individuals and as a community? And why does it matter?
• How can we begin to create authentic connection and relationship with others, particularly across the different interests and divisions in our community?
• How do we change the community conversation from one of negotiation to one of dialogue?

The result is new conversations free of the cynicism and resignation inherited from the past and the creation of new possibilities for a future in which everyone has a place and is valued.

Among the principles of our work in community are the following:

• Connecting with each other precedes any content
• Questions bring value where answers have disappointed or failed
• Invitation and dialogue replace giving direction
• Having an authentic choice (which means being able to say no) opens the door to commitment
• New conversations are an access to new outcomes
• Gifts pre-empt deficiencies. Community works best when the gifts of those on the margin are brought into the center