In this Update, I’d like to tell you about the recent MLED (M what?) and a few interesting goals for our consideration this year.
What is MLED?
Okay, InterVarsity is guilty (like the military), of incessant acronyms. I pretty much hate them, but can’t quite shake the virus. Sigh.
MLED stands for Managing & Leading Ethnic Diversity. Paul Tokunaga (VP, Strategic Ministries) developed this training course and offered it at NISET 2007 for Staff Directors who supervise staff of a different ethnicity than their own and who lead multi-ethnic staff teams. Under Kathy Cooper’s leadership, GFM partnered with the Learning and Talent department to offer a revised version of this training to all GFM supervisors plus a select group of undergrad colleagues. About 30 gathered in Chicago two weeks ago for this valuable program. The trainers were experienced, the learning environment positive, and all of us participants eager.
I gave a short opening talk to set the tone. (The text, “God’s Bright Presence”, is attached at the bottom of this page, if you are interested). The training covered: awareness of where people can fall along cultural continuums, such as emotional expression/restraint or direct/indirect communication, and how to navigate such differences; the value of “getting on the balcony” (sometimes alone, sometimes with others) to reflect on our cross-cultural situations; and the importance of “leaning in/staying in” as we persist in our learning, engage in courageous conversations, and advocate for others. (Refer to the attached document for the MLED learning goals). The meetings were surrounded and undergirded by prayer and I sensed that we all gained significantly from the training and the conversations.
Why, again, did we invest the time and resources to go deeper in this area?
Because multi-ethnic growth is core to our current vision: we seek to reach and better serve the full range of students and faculty on campus (currently, 24% of GFM participants are ethnic minority and 23% internationals). We will become more effective if all are consciously developing our cross-cultural dexterity and if we all belong to multi-ethnic teams (currently, 13 of our 28 teams are still all white). Thus, we want all of our staff directors equipped with skills for offering cross-cultural supervision and shaping hospitable, diverse teams. Hence MLED.
Our sustained attention to this work will be good for our fruitfulness on campus. It will be good for our organizational life together. And it will be good for our very selves as we grow in Christ-like capacity to love our neighbors. Thank you for leaning in and staying in as we learn together in a climate of grace.
A few goals for your awareness this year
In addition to our multi-ethnic growth, let me mention three interesting goals that the GFM Leadership Team has adopted for this year (for the full set of goals, refer to the attached document).
- “Make every effort to enter God’s rest,” especially through Sabbath-keeping. Every year our team chooses a Spiritual Foundation theme to help us root our work in prayerful dependency on God. This is our emphasis this year. By attending to rhythms of work and rest, we hope to exercise a more joyful trust in God.
- Offer more explicit opportunities for response to the gospel. Out of 427 evangelistic events offered by our 189 fellowships, at only 53 did we present the gospel and invite a response. We have realized before God that this was far too few. Altogether, the RDs have targeted to almost double this number to 105 or more. Thank you for stretching out with your students or faculty in this way this year.
- Practice listening globally. The Lord led us at the start of the year to add this goal to our list. We were prompted by the inspiring reports from our folks at the IFES World Assembly and then realized that we will have many opportunities to listen this year: to colleagues who have recently been overseas (like Jay Sivits and Janna Louie); at Urbana 15; to our counterparts in the Caribbean (at Mundelein); and, of course from the many internationals in our fellowships. What does the Lord have to say to us through these voices?
As always, I am grateful for your work on campus to love and lead those God has entrusted to our stewardship for a time. May you have joy in the work this fall.
Bobby
God's Bright Presence (download pdf)
Purpose and Learning Goals MLED 2015 (download pdf)
GFMLT Major Goals 2015-16 (download pdf)
