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NAINConnect 2008 Workshops |
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Theme: Gifts We Bring
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY IN INTER- AND INTRA-FAITH CONTEXTS
WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to community that focuses on generating vitality and action around what we most value as an alternative to fixing what we don’t like or is broken. Organizationally, AI has influenced grassroots interfaith work around the world. And what has been learned generating appreciative interfaith activity is now being used in generating healthy, vital intrafaith relationships. Along with an overview, the workshop will allow participants to experience the process and excitement that it brings to a community.
PRESENTERS
Kay Lindahl & Paul Chaffee
Kay Lindahl is the author of books about sacred listening and an interfaith activist who founded Alliance for Spiritual Community. She served for a number of years on the United Religions Initiative Global Council. After a term as NAIN’s Chair, she continues on the Board of Directors as Treasurer.
Rev. Paul Chaffee is the founding Executive Director of Interfaith Center at the Presidio. He served as Secretary for six years on United Religion Initiative's initial Board of Directors and currently is Program Chair for the NAIN board of directors. His books include Shared Wisdom Workbook – Growing Grassroots Interfaith Relations (2004). He chairs the NAINConnect 2008 Host Committee.
Workshop is interactive - please post a comment and note your interest
DISCUSSION AND COMMENTS
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OPENING STATEMENT
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) suggests that transformation is more about envisioning and creating the world we yearn for than with solving the problems keeping us from that world. Starting in 1985 with the work of David Cooperrider, AI has upended organization development around the world. Google “AI Commons” to find a library with thousands of articles about how AI improves everything from village development to violin teaching, from strategic planning to deepening relationships.
By accident or by grace, interfaith dialogue has been a major beneficiary of AI’s emergence. When United Religions Initiative (URI) was but an idea Bishop William Swing was promoting, David Cooperrider heard about it and got in touch. The ensuing relationship made URI the largest AI project in the world, in terms of developing appreciatively from a seed notion into an international network with more than 400 groups in 60 plus countries. (The story is told in Birth of World Community: Appreciative Inquiry in Action by Charles Gibbs and Sally Mahe, published in 2003.)
In our workshop this July, Kay and I will offer a quick introduction to working appreciatively in faith and interfaith communities. We’ll actually do some appreciative exercises and talk about how this gift can bring vitality and health to our spiritual families.
This introductory blog can go any direction we want. We can talk about AI’s assumptions and goals, and how it works. We can share stories about how appreciative tools provide both balm and inspiration to faith communities hungry for a new life and better relationships.
Perhaps I can begin our discussion in a personal way. URI and the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, where I work, were formed at the same time with a number of the same leaders. All of us got to know David Cooperrider, his colleague Diana Whitney, and some of their doctoral students, including Gurudev Khalsa. Personally, they and their tribe opened the doors to seriously studying what is most valuable regarding my family, my faith, and my work. They taught me to imagine and think about how to improve the world where I live. And, with a lot of participation from their colleagues, they’ve provided a catalogue of tools for creating the world of our hopes and dreams.
If the subject intrigues you, add your comment, story, or question!
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| Date |
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| 05/22/08 |
Sande Hart |
Got AI? |
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| I have had the privilege to participate in Appreciative Inquiries facilitated by Kay Lindahl and they changed my life and empowered me to be a more effective parent, partner, daughter and leader. Dialogue is essential in creating a peaceful world and the actual rules for effective listening (and hearing) are not about being restrictive but being expandable and broadening. I have the opportunity to lead interfaith dialogue groups and using the skills that I learned from Kay about AI, the sessions were empowering, thought provoking and heart changing. AI is essential if we hope to find peace and reconciliation through dialogue.
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| 07/08/08 |
Theodore Timpson |
education |
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| I work as a school teacher, and I have known for a long time the need to focus words on what we want (as distinct from what we DON'T want). With children in particular, the imprint of words is powerful, and the minute you name a behavior, it starts to take root in their minds, even if it's the behavior you're trying to eliminate! So we try to change the language around to focus on encouragement and support. From what I've read, this seems to be the main thrust of AI.
I have to say, although I can repeat this principle very well, I often notice myself forgetting it! There is a kind of vigilance and self-study required to really move the pattern of our communication in a positive direction. I feel sometimes like I am predisposed to see pro . . .
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| 03/02/09 |
jeremy taylor |
type in google rev jeremy taylor d.min stole the n |
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| type in google dr. jeremy taylor d.min stole the name, he stole a God spoken protected christians ministry name and wrote and called ministry above copyrights, now kathy taylor has his website in her name, so if rev jeremy taylor lies to you, like he did to me, dont beleive him and tell on him
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