JAC Online

ABC’S: Reflections on Kroc
 
Major JoAnn Shade   
September 2009

As children we learn the quasi-nursery rhyme song that concludes: now I sang my ABC’s, next time won’t you sing with me.  The following ABC reflections are offered as a part of the song I’ve now been singing for about three years, specifically in relation to the development of a Kroc Center, but the principles are broader than Kroc.  Hope you’re able to sing along.
 
Adaptability     “Here is the principle...adapt your measures to the necessity of the people to whom you minister. You are to take the Gospel to them in such modes...and circumstances as will gain for it from them a hearing” (Catherine Booth).  While we’ve been adapting in various ways since the days of William and Catherine, Kroc is a new song that we (individually and corporately) have never sung before.  We are each searching for our groove, straining to hear the notes flowing through our days.  We are adapting to a new paradigm, but none of us is quite sure what it will look like when it is complete. What saves us is that we know the Singer!
 
Balance
     This adventure requires that we find both organizational balance and personal balance.  Not the kind of wobbly, hold-your-breath kind of high wire walking, but a steady balance that lives from a well-grounded faith.  As Oprah Winfrey reminds us, “
I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time.“  Even if we’re doing it for Jesus.     
 
Communication   Even with all the expanding ways of communicating in our technological world, it remains a challenge to get and keep everyone on the same page.  Lotus Notes calendars and e-mails are wonderful tools, but we each have varying technological savvy and comfort.  We also have to realize that just because we sent an e-mail on a topic, it doesn’t follow that our staff has received and/or read their e-mail.  Also, there are some communications that should be handled in person (as our lawyer has recently reminded our division).    
 
Our on-going communication struggles are made more difficult by the longer hours that the RJKCCC is open.  There are part-time employees that we may not see for a couple of weeks if our schedules don’t coincide.  We do continue to have monthly full staff meetings where all employees are welcome but not mandated to attend.  We’ve also established ‘section’ meetings to bring together all those working in a particular area that have met with some success.  Yet if we were to name our biggest staff-related challenge, it would be communication.  We need to TALK! 
 
Determination    There is a measure of resolve and even stubbornness needed to bring these centers to completion.  There are times when we must do what we have to do to move the development ahead.  There are times when we just have to jump through one more hoop, and there are other times when we need to battle to dismantle a hoop or two.  Might we have the serenity to accept those things we cannot change, the courage to change those things we can change (or work to change), and the wisdom to know the difference.
 
Expectations           With all the hype surrounding the new centers, expectations have been flying sky-high.  Joan Kroc’s expectations for excellence come to us from the grave.  Our communities expect us to keep our promises, while many participants do not expect to have to pay for services from the Salvation Army – after all, ‘you are the Salvation Army.’  Our donors expect us to be the Salvation Army, careful of how we spend the money that’s been entrusted to us to use.  Our DHQ’s may expect our centers to be a resource to the division without realizing the local commitments we have.  Tourists expect to drop in and get a tour, often with the officers as tour guides.
 
We expect our staff to take a crash course in Salvation Army policy and procedure, and to know how to use systems that are still developing.  We expect excellence in programs from the start, and we have a “If we build it, they will come” mentality that may be naïve, especially in tough economic times.  We also expect too much of ourselves as leaders, and any workaholic tendencies we have are easily exacerbated in the Kroc experience.
 
To manage expectations, we need to make sure that we’re all telling the same story.  We need to be willing to say, “This is what we can do,” and offer alternatives when we can’t help or provide a particular karate class.  Even with the wonderful resources of the center, we cannot realistically be all things to all people.
 
Future-Thinking   What will our centers look like in five, ten, twenty or fifty years? We must think to the future, programmatically and facility-wise.  Just having celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the Hough Center in Cleveland, it was apparent that its inflexible facility footprint, lack of preventative maintenance, and on-going financial struggle are limiting its impact in the twenty-first century.  While we can’t predict the future, we can anticipate that change will occur and keep our centers open for shifting interests and needs within our communities.
 
Grace    Ah, it is an amazing grace.  Now is a time to offer grace for each other and for ourselves.  “You deserve a break today” isn’t only a McDonalds slogan – it’s a gift we can give each other.  In a big adventure like the Kroc Center development, we are sure to fail in some ways.  For every Big Mac that sold millions, there was an experiment like Ray Kroc’s Hula Burger that never made it out of the gate (grilled pineapple topped with cheese on a bun).  Dan Allender tells us that “to continue to dream when failure and disappointment cloud the sun is the radical gift of hope,” the kind of hope that is “a calculated risk that declares, whatever the loss, it is better than remaining where we are.”  Like it or not, we’ve thrown our hat over the fence, and have no choice but to go after it and give it our best shot.  When it doesn’t work out quite like we planned, we’ve got to have a large helping of grace to ease our sense of failure.
  
History     We must find ways to honor our heritage in the midst of the new work of the Lord in the centers.  In Ashland, the Salvation Army has been in operation since 1886, and we had to consider how that history could be honored.  In our case, this included story-telling with soldiers, finding a place for the existing altar and holiness table in the new building, and honoring Salvationists from prior generations through bricks and other naming opportunities.  These centers are not being developed in a vacuum, but instead, are part of a long train of mission stations in operating since the beginning of the church of Christ.     
 
Involvement    We’ve worked to create a team approach to leadership and to our work within the center, but that brings its own challenges.  Who does what?  How do we delegate?  How do we decide which voices have priority?  How do we handle conflict?  We’re not a voting organization, so this feels like new ground.   
 
Joy    “I’m lovin’ it!”  I’ve heard a number of our staff say, “I love my job.”  What can we put in place in the planning and structure so that this will be true?  Are employees and volunteers being affirmed?  Are conflicts being resolved so that there aren’t uneasy feelings at the center?  Is there room for celebration?  Are there enough flowers and chocolate?  Do we as leaders love our jobs?  Do we show it?     
 
Kites    We interviewed a candidate for one of our positions who wrote in her cover letter, “While I would love to be employed at the center, I do need to keep time to fly kites with my grandchildren.”  There’s got to be time and space for fun, and not just for center participants.  The development of these centers is hard work and very time-consuming.  Every once in a while, we need to hear the whisper from Mr. Banks and Bert of Mary Poppins fame: 
 
When you send it flyin' up there all at once you're lighter than air You can dance on the breeze over 'ouses and trees With your fist 'olding tight to the string of your kite   Oh, oh, oh!  Let's go fly a kite up to the highest height! Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring Up through the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear Oh, let's go fly a kite!
 
Love     Can these words be said of us?  “We are patient.  We are kind.  We don’t envy.  We don’t boast.  We are not proud.  We don’t dishonor others.  We are not self-seeking.  We are not easily angered.  We don’t keep a record of wrongs.  We don’t delight in evil.  We rejoice with the truth.  We always protect.  We always hope.  We always persevere.”
 
Mother     Let’s be clear here.  I am not your mother.  Your mother doesn’t work here, and your mother isn’t going to clean up after you.  More than that, our centers must find ways to move away from the parent-child relationships that occur so often in the Salvation Army so that we can invite people to healthy adult-to-adult relationships. 
 
Noise    Face it.  We want noise.  If our buildings are silent, we have failed. However, noise is not always welcome.  While some like the strains of our Dixieland band, others would prefer peace and quiet.  Crying babies in our Gathering Place make the welcome center job more difficult,  We have had more ‘concerns’ expressed over what kind of Muzak is playing in the hallways than anything else – classical, contemporary Christian, smooth jazz, SA brass music – every switch brings e-mails and suggestion cards lamenting or applauding the change.  What is noise to one is harmony to another.  Is there room for it all?  “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”  Psalm 98:4
 
Opportunity    What an incredible opportunity we’ve been given.  After all the tears and headaches, we have a magnificent facility that is making a difference in our community every day.  Thank you, Lord.  Children and adults are being exposed to music and art and dance and gardening and Jesus.  Thank you, Lord.  We have the opportunity, as does the Starbucks chain, to be welcoming, genuine, considerate, knowledgeable and involved.  Thank you, Lord.  Like Starbucks, we can make it our own.  We can recognize that everything matters.  We can be open to surprise and delight.  We can embrace resistance rather than fight it.  And we can leave our mark.  Thank you, Lord.  What an incredible opportunity we’ve been given.   
 
Prayer     
’Mid all the traffic of the ways, Turmoils without, within,
Make in my heart a quiet place, And come and dwell therein.
A little place of mystic grace, Of self and sin swept bare,
Where I may look upon Thy face, And talk with Thee in prayer.
 
William Dunkerley’s words speak to a place in the heart, yet also describe a place within the busyness of the center.  A small room was initially meant as a crying room for parents to use if their babies needed to be taken out of the church services but now has been set up as a prayer room.  It has become a place of mystic grace for many in our community, as has the labyrinth in the southwest corner of the property. 
 
Questions   Richard Rinehart asks the following five questions:
Is Jesus Christ the focus of attention around here?
Are relationships the lifeblood of this ministry?
Can I let go of control and step aside when I need to?
Am I growing more conscious of my leadership values and assumptions?
What kind of change agent am I?
 
Role Model   Yogi Berra tells us that “you can observe a lot by just watching.”  Many eyes are on these new centers, and our actions are being observed by children and adults alike.  It is a great gift and a great responsibility.  Oh, God, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”
 
Structure and System    Somewhere I ran across the concept that suggests that where the spirit is right, any structure will work.  I’m not so sure of that.  Our structure and the systems that support the work are important to what we’re doing.  Perhaps our greatest challenge in the early days was that we didn’t have enough ‘system’ in place to allow staff to relax into their positions.  We are still challenged by phones, the copier, Kroc Suites, statistical collection and accounting decisions.  It seemed as though we had worked a lot on getting systems in place, and so it was frustrating to see how much we hadn’t gotten finished prior to opening.  There are days when I simply want to throw open the doors and say, “come on in” – we’ll figure out the paperwork and stats later.  Perhaps there’s a spiritual lesson to be learned?? 
 
Tension     There is a tension between two descriptors of our work: saving souls, serving suffering humanity, and making saints versus the goals of developing character, confidence, capacity and hope.  There is a tension between ‘go for souls and go for the worst’ and offering programs in the arts, education, and recreation for the underserved, the undeserving (dare we say that word out loud), and the paying audience.  There may be a tension between those who have been faithful to the Salvation Army through thick and thin, and those newcomers who may seem like ‘carpetbaggers’ to those who have been in the war for a long time.
 
Tension is not inherently good or bad.  After all, without tension in the strings, a cello is silent.  Joan Borysenko understands:  “
Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.”  Naming the tensions when they exist and valuing the hearts of all who are included will allow for love, healing, forgiveness and service to occur. 
 
Under Authority   Regardless of the Kroc distinction or aura, we are the Salvation Army, and as such remain people under authority.  We do have unique concerns that we’d like the corporate Army to understand and to bend its long standing practices that would make our job easier, but that may not happen.  We need to accept that and get on with it.   
 
Vision    Without vision, the people perish.  The challenge of the Kroc projects is that there are a number of visions that have to somehow be integrated into a  whole.  First, the vision of Catherine and William Booth, that the lost of the world  might know Jesus. Next, Joan Kroc’s vision that placed specific parameters around the use of her gift.  Then there is the vision of the local community, that may not understand the requirements of the gift or the machinations of the Salvation Army.  Add to that mix the levels of DHQ and THQ, where each person around the board table has his or her own ideas and priorities, and we have quite a task of integration.  Is there room for the vision of the advisory board or corps council?  The children?  What of the vision of the officers who are appointed to the Kroc center development, often partway through the process?  And, first and foremost, what does God want?  The Kroc leader has the responsibility of taking hundreds of vision-bearing images and crafting them into a coherent film.  “Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart.”
 
Welcome    “There is a welcome here for you.  A cup of water, a warm embrace, there is a welcome here for you.”  Is that evident?  Space can be designed to create an atmosphere of welcome, and systems can be developed to facilitate methods of welcome, but in the end it depends on people.  
 
eXamine     How will we evaluate what is happening in the centers and in the lives of its participants?  We’re so busy trying to get programming started that we’ve not been very good at building in an evaluative component.  This is our baby – what if someone says it’s ugly?  How open can we be to feedback?
 
Yes     Tony Blair suggests that “the art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.  It is very easy to say yes.” While I get his point, I suggest that our centers need to be places where “yes” is heard more often than “no.”  Yes, you can do this, I believe in you.  Yes, you can sing and dance.  Yes, you can run and fly kites.  Yes, you can love Jesus and love your brother and sister.  Yes, you can be safe here.  Yes, you can dream.  Yes, you can hope.  Yes, you can reach your capacity.  Yes, you can! 
 
Zoo             During our assignment at the Cleveland Hough Center, definitely a precursor for the Kroc Center concept, a Salvation Army leader joined us on a busy evening at the center and commented: “This is a zoo, and you’re the zookeeper.”  Ouch!  I’m not always good at responding in the moment, but nearly twenty years later, I can tell him that a zoo is the wrong metaphor.  We don’t have people in cages, and while we may have a lot of activity in the centers, it is not chaos. 
 
It’s up to us to choose healthy metaphors for our centers.  While we continue to be the Salvation Army, a military metaphor may not be the only one to use in these settings.  Might we also see ourselves as a circle, a harbor, a well, or the village green?  How we as leaders see our centers will influence what they become. 
 

 

 

 

 

   

 

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