{"id":1035,"date":"2015-02-16T19:15:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T19:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2015\/02\/16\/want-to-become-a-better-leader-stop-talking-and-start-listening\/"},"modified":"2015-02-16T19:15:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T19:15:45","slug":"want-to-become-a-better-leader-stop-talking-and-start-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/want-to-become-a-better-leader-stop-talking-and-start-listening\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to become a better leader? Stop talking and start listening."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>16 February 2015 | St Albans, United Kingdom [Adrian Peck, ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/span> Organisations frequently talk of the need to be learning entities, consultative and open to constructive criticism and feedback, but few in reality follow through these assertions. Putting this into practice the Trans-European Division (TED) gathered 79 \u2018front strikers\u2019 in St Albans, United Kingdom, from 9-13 February to function as a think-tank, addressing the key issues and challenges that face, and will continue to face, the TED over the next five years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
[Photo taken by Tor Tjeransen]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Despite a rather imposing functional title, \u2018The TED Strategic Priority Consultation\u2019, the aim of the meetings was to be found in the catchphrase, \u2018Aiming Higher\u2019. God\u2019s guidance was sought through heartfelt prayer resulting in intense and creative reflection and passionate and often profound conversation with focus on mission.<\/p>\n

Comprising an eclectic mix of lay-workers, pastors, administrators and professionals from across the TED, with support from the General Conference (GC) and sister Divisions, the five main areas addressed were: general existential considerations, Mission, Youth, Media and Family. Many of the participants were people who are involved in mission \u2018where the rubber meets the road\u2019. No topic or \u2018elephant-in-the-room\u2019 was off limits. A spirit of trust pervaded the meetings, along with an implicit permission to consider change and to think outside the box, resulting in an environment that challenged and energised participants.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
[Photo taken by Dejan Stojkovic]<\/figcaption><\/figure>The result of the meetings was the first draft of a Strategic Framework which is the initial phase in producing a Strategic Plan to help guide the TED\u2019s activities over the next five years. Numerically, it consisted of 107 observations on the nature of the Church and the TED and 123 specific recommendations on how the Adventist Church in the TED can improve its ministry, mission and administration. However, not all the recommendations will or can be implemented as some are mutually incompatible, but they provide a basis for going forward.<\/p>\n

Pavle Trajkovski, from Serbia, proposed that: \u2018youth need to be involved in all aspects of church life\u2019, but also challenged the need for expensive and glamorous events, suggesting that all that is sometimes needed is \u2018a simple phone call or a meeting over a cup of tea\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
[Photo taken by Tor Tjeransen]<\/figcaption><\/figure>It was not all talk! Midway through the week, the group took to the streets of St Albans to distribute roses and a card affirming the love that Jesus has for all. This very practical Valentine\u2019s initiative, gave a chance for the group to not just be mired down in theory and what-ifs, but to be missional in practice.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, a week-long meeting can be a soul-sapping venture. However, for these meetings the most often-used word was \u2018excited\u2019. As Sophia Peart, a UK post-graduate student at Newbold put it, \u201cthe synergy during this think-tank has been inspirational\u201d.<\/p>\n

As the process moves forward in a spirit of prayer and asking the Lord for his guidance and leading, we would also ask for your prayers, so that the Church in Europe will experience the renewal and regeneration we long for. [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

[Group photo taken by Dragana S.D.G.]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org<\/a>
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a>16 February 2015 | St Albans, United Kingdom [Adrian Peck, ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/span> Organisations frequently talk of the need to be learning entities, consultative and open to constructive criticism and feedback, but few in reality follow through these assertions. Putting this into practice the Trans-European Division (TED) gathered 79 \u2018front strikers\u2019 in St Albans, United Kingdom, from 9-13 February to function as a think-tank, addressing the key issues and challenges that face, and will continue to face, the TED over the next five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1576,7,1588],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-development","category-news","category-united-kingdom-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}