Connected 2

connectED

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booksigning at 5

You as a connector

You are in Christian education at a critical

time.

(A sense of humor is required.)

What’s missing today is a high-quality discourse on rethinking the design and evolution of the entire system from scratch.

- Otto Scharmer

The quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality

of awareness from which the people in the system operate. (Otto

Scharmer)

Death Resurrection

Burial

Letting Go Letting Come

Letting Be

The future will be different from the past ...

From Wired, 6/7/2001But what about e-mail? If people write fewer letters, won't that hurt the bottom line even more?

"E-mail is not a threat," Brennan said.

Much of the content of many e-mails, from jokes to chain letters, would not have been sent via the U.S. Mail, said Tom Wakefield, president of PostalWorkersOnline.com. Many of these short communications would instead be conducted by telephone.

Rick Merritt, founder of PostalWatch, said he hasn't seen e-mail hurt it, yet. "If (electronic commerce and the Internet) are impacting the Postal Service at all, it's just now starting to," Merritt said.

But online billing is a threat because its potential for acceptance hasn't been realized yet, Brennan said.

... "First-class mail is enormously secure," Brennan said. "People trust the Postal Service."

... just as the Postal Service survived the telegraph, telephone and television, the demise of mail is nowhere near, advocates say.

"There are other, faster ways to communicate," Brennan said. "But some things will never change. There will always be some type of mail delivery."

"(Postal mail) is universal. The Internet is not."

from Huffington Post, November 12, 2010WASHINGTON — The Postal Service said Friday it lost $8.5 billion last year despite deep cuts of more than 100,000 jobs and other reductions in recent years. The post office had estimated it would lose $6 billion to $7 billion, but a sharp decline in mail took a toll. Increased use of the Internet and the recession, which cut advertising and other business mail, meant less money for the agency.

...Of particular concern has been the decline in the lucrative first-class mail, largely consisting of personal letters and cards, bills and payments and similar items. First-class mail volume fell 6.6 percent in 2010, 8.6 percent in 2009, and 4.8 percent in 2008. Traditionally, this mail has produced more than half of total revenue.

2011… “The situation is dire,” said Thomas R. Carper, the Delaware Democrat who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the postal service. “If we do nothing, if we don’t react in a smart, appropriate way, the postal service could literally close later this year….”

February 9, 2012Huffington PostUs Postal Service Loses $3.3 Billion in Just Three Months

The US Postal Service reported a net loss of $3.3 billion in its first quarter as plummeting mail volumes overshadowed stronger than expected holidy shipping, the cash-strapped agency said Thursday.... The service lost $5.1 billion last year....

The agency repeated calls to Congress to allow it to ... expand into new businesses....”

The analogy may be faulty.

But it may not.

Lessons to be learned?

Precautions to consider?

31

Are we in the envelope, paper, stamp, mailbox,

post office business?

Travel Agencies ...NewspapersTV NewsRecord Labels, etc.

Letting Go Letting Come

Letting Be

You as a connector ...

1. You ... connecting with God.

2. You ... connecting with your calling.

3. You ... connecting with the calling of others

on your teamin your tradition

in other traditions

4. You ... connecting with Scripture.

5. You ... connecting with your tradition’s initial impulse.

6.. You ... connecting with your peers ... and proteges.

7. You ... connecting with

the challenges of the moment.

8. You ... connecting to the opportunities of the

moment.

9. You ... connecting with your passion.

10. You ... connecting with your students (fellow

learners).

Do not merely try to bring others to where you are, as wonderful as that place might be.

But do not leave them where they are either.

Instead, go with them to a place neither you nor they

have ever been before.

Fr. Vincent Donovan (adapted)

Spiritual Directors/Mentors

Soul Friends Soul Friends

You

Soul Friends Soul Friends

Mentorees/Apprentices

Desired Outcome: Christ-like disciples who continue the movement

of Christ today, challenging all

institutions to new gains, for the common

good of all communities.