ACC leaders meet annually in February for a Winter Retreat. In recent years this one-day event has taken place in the friendly environment of Tel Hai Camp. The participants included members of the Executive Committee, Cluster Conveners and Committee chairs. At the 2004 retreat we laid the groundwork for the Core Values statement that was reviewed at the Spring delegate meeting and approved at the Fall delegate meeting. It promises to provide ACC with a clear focus for years to come.
This year our agenda was…. Can I admit this? Truth be known, we had none! No agenda? Is that as unthinkable as a worship service without a sermon? Call it what you will, we had no agenda. We gathered in what is called “Open Space.” This is a relatively new technique that permits participants to create and manage their own agenda around a central theme of strategic importance. It is sometimes referred to as passion bounded by responsibility.
Appropriate to the theme of “Open Spaces,” the Moderator used for an opening devotional the story of Abraham responding to God's instruction to “go to a land that I will show you.” We invited God's Holy Spirit to fill this open space. Then our facilitator, John Engle, suggested a few ground rules and invited participants to come forward, record briefly on a placard what they wanted to talk about with provision for interested persons to join.
Nelson Yoder broke the ensuing silence by inviting others to think with him about healthy relationships between congregations and conference. This was followed by requests to discuss a definition of “healthy congregations”, the role of scripture in our life together, and the balancing act of getting things done or letting them happen. In less than a half an hour ten topics had been put forward. They were by definition topics participants wanted to discuss. The topics were organized into one-hour time slots after which participants scattered to the far corners of the lodge to engage in lively discussion on topics of their choosing.
The law of two feet was in effect, permitting anyone not pleased with how a given discussion was going to transfer to another group. (I am not aware that any did!)
After a lunch break we returned to focus on what needs to happen next. In the late afternoon we closed the circle by using the ancient Indian Talking Stick technique by which each participant was invited to speak what was on his or her mind. Repeatedly we heard how unfamiliar this method of meeting was, but how welcome to be trusted with “Open Space,” - to make our agenda, allowing us to interact on common issues. Several spoke movingly about having experienced God's Spirit in our midst. Our relationships were obviously deepened, as we ventilated our thoughts and feelings on conference related issues, including concerns that elude routine agendas.
I do not anticipate that all future meetings will be agenda-less but I expect us to resort to some variation of this technique for special occasions. Some were even heard to wonder what the reaction would be if a future delegate meeting would be Open Space? God sometimes works in strange and unfamiliar ways God's wonders to perform.