weekly report: week 10

Church of the Resurrection, Intern’s Weekly Report

Week 10 July 09 to July 16

The fine art of "facilitating" versus "doing it yourself".

This weeks learning has been critical - it is seeing if I can indeed ‘cause an event in church to go off without a hitch' by getting other people to do the work. This is known as facilitating, and in all honesty I have never done this before in a church setting.

The cool school has been a good introduction, and a good harbinger of what might come for daycamp. The first few days were very difficult to step back from, but the intention was fulfilled: the set up was done for the teachers, the curriculum handed out and any and all gaps were up to them to close. Each and every class was handled magnificently when the teachers with the necessary skills were given clear guidelines, all the materials they needed, adequate lead time and then empowered to do what they felt was most appropriate.

The only identifiable gap that I had to close was the clean up: clearly I failed to make sure the teachers knew that getting the kids to help tidy up was part of the curriculum, and so I ended up cleaning up the parish hall a few times. I certainly didn't mind the work, but felt that I had not adequately succeeded in "facilitating" a complete and independent cool school.

Same goes for daycamp. One of the keys I collected early on about the congregation is that their approach to volunteering in many cases is "if you're stuck, I would be glad to help you out". So I am getting "stuck" a fair bit, and the congregation are stepping up to the plate admirably. I know that there are people "sweeping up quietly" behind me, and have been for a while - and it both frustrates and heartens me: it frustrates me because part of me thinks I am not doing a good job or working hard enough or paying enough attention to detail; the other part is heartened because it means that the intention of the exercise is indeed being met.

I am taking on the "framework": organization, volunteer recruitment, volunteer mentorship, administration, program etc. - but the actual "doing" is left up to the congregation. Its not necessarily an even division of labour but a) this is still very new to me and b) I am still learning to understand the dynamics of each of these specific projects.

however, if the daycamp/ cool school do go off as planned, all of the angst and nailbiting will have been worth it because then I can, in all honesty say, I am able to 'facilitate' major projects in church, and know that it's true.