'Stakeholders'
'Community In Formation'
These are not terms used in most folks’ everyday conversations. But they are words which were heard often at Stony Point Center during a "Stakeholders Meeting" held February 15-18.
First, stakeholders. Stakeholders are people who have a stake, an investment, in what is happening and in what outcomes will occur. They want to see something happen and are willing to risk themselves and at least some of their resources for that thing to come to pass.
Many of us have participated in forming communities. Most often we don’t think of what we’re doing in those terms. Most elementarily, when you went to pre-school and/or kindergarten and/or first grade you participated in forming Mrs. Brown’s preschool three-year-old class, or the four-year-old class. Or you participated in forming Washington school’s afternoon kindergarten class. Or you participated in Lincoln School’s first grade. As the school year began, the class, assembled by forces far beyond your awareness, was putting in place together a group of people who would become a community. Community forms when people come together and do things together, things like studying, putting on skits, and, eventually, graduating.
You and I participate in other communities–geopolitical ones like our town, our county, our state, and our country; religious ones, like our congregations and fellowships, our prayer groups, our Bible study classes. We are also part of social communities. We may be part of professional communities or learning communities or scientific communities. You can probably think of other communities of which you are a part as well.
Most of the communities we are a part of happen without our effort in forming them. The community of my family already existed before I came along. It may have changed some when I came along, but it was already present and functioning before me. When I join a Meeting or a church, I join a community already formed; and it will be re-formed because I have come into it.
But not often do we get the experience, from the ground up, of working on building a community intentionally. An intentional community being formed is a group of people who come together for the purpose of forming a community. When a new congregation or Meeting begins, it begins as a community-in-formation. The people who gather work together to form a culture, with norms or mores, gathering around a purpose and setting up goals.
So it is that on February 15 to 18, approximately 40 people came together to begin forming an intentional community. The community to be formed came out of a vision for a community of Christians (and potentially others) committed to supporting each other spiritually around the issues of peace and justice. It is a vision brought by Kitty and Rick Ufford-Chase as they came to be Co-directors of Stony Point Center, a vision which the Board of Directors of Stony Point Center supports.
What was common among those who came together–they were known by Rick and Kitty and were known to have interest in focusing on peace and justice. Otherwise the group was diverse in age and background, in geographic location and occupation.
At the conclusion of the meeting, which included rich sharing about joys and yearnings around community, the participants as a group approved the following statement:
We are a Christian community in formation, responding to God’s call and strengthening our connections to God and one another.
We seek to discern God’s call in our lives, to support one another as we follow where Jesus may lead, and to encourage one another in the Spirit as we boldly live out that call. Our love of God leads us to create a community that stands and works for peace, justice, non-violence, and care for God’s creation.
We embrace our interdependent emerging community, which includes those who live and serve at Stony Point Center and those who live and serve elsewhere in the world.
The group then formed some teams which are called "seasoning circles" to further the work of the community until it gathers again, being planned for the fall of 2009. Seasoning circles are formed on the following tasks and topics:
The participants–stakeholders–now have more than an abstract idea about what this community-in-formation is becoming. They have participated in the initial formation of an identity and empowered groups to continue the work in the interim before the next gathering.
This community-in-formation is an open group. New people are welcome and sought. If you have questions about the group’s formation and progress, please contact Kitty or Rick by telephone at 845-786-5674 or email Kitty or Rick.
Written by Dan Fullerton, Mission Volunteer and 'Stakeholder's Gathering' participant
Stony Point Center
http://www.stonypointcenter.org/staticpages/index.php?page=stakeholder