Tough Meeting

I was in a really tough meeting today. That is not unusual, as a pastor I am in a lot of meetings and the law of averages say that some of them have to be tough. So today was the day.

Today was tough, people yelled at each other, some walked out and the rest of us dropped our heads and tried to ride it out. I came out of the meeting realizing several things.

I realized that some people have the people skills of a wildebeast. If there was a kind way to say something and an agressive way to say something, agression seemed to always be the winner.

I realized that some people are so wounded that the conflict was a very personal, hurtful experience.

I also realized that it was very different to have conflict when I was not leading the meeting. That meant that I was not the responsible party to reign things in. However I found that I wanted to be.

All in all the meeting made me sad, brought some concerns to the surface and reminded me that a diverse group of people have diverse outlooks and personalities.

Now the trick will be to somehow keep us all friends in the process ...

Just Connie