Interpretation...

Hello, friends! 
This story is a little bit old, but it is still a good one worth sharing.  One of my roles this year is being a part of the planning team for MOmentum, our area-wide evangelism training.  It's a pretty sweet program because we teach students how to do mission, and then they go do it!  We have already seen tons of fruit from the program and I believe it is a huge benefit to our chapters. 

Part of MOmentum is what we call a growth project.  After the training we ask students to prepare, pray, go, and reflect on a mission of some sort.  This is where the real magic happens because if students are being trained but aren't actually engaging in mission, what good is the training? 

For this last MOmentum, I was in charge of part of the training, which meant that I was in charge of writing the growth project for my section.  One of the things that I love about our team is that we are open and honest with each other about feedback.  We want to make each other better staff workers.  With that being said, I wrote up my growth project and emailed it to the team, looking for some feedback.  

Ashley, one of my best friends in the world and a great staff worker, emailed me back with her thoughts.  I opened up the attachment and saw nothing but read lines and new text.  It was like she had re-written the whole thing!  At first I was worried.  What was going on here?  But, when I looked at it, what I saw was not a content change as much as it was a language change. 

See, one thing about me is that I am very task oriented and very direct in my speech.  I think that translates to how I write too.  The writing on the growth project definitely reflected that.  It wasn't a bad project, but it had a certain cold and assignment like feel to it.  Personally, if I had been the one receiving it, I would have been perfectly fine with it.  But, I am learning that not everyone is like me, and Ashley had the presence of mind to change the language so that it felt much less like an assignment and much more like an invitation to see the Spirit work. 

Who was right?  I don't know if there is a right or wrong on this one.  For the sake of the audience, Ashley's revisions were almost certainly helpful and for that I am grateful.  Of course, I am sure that there will be times when my style is much more appropriate and I will have the opportunity to show off my direct and sometimes off putting style.  =0).  Until then, I'll just keep doing my best to think about my audience and pray that Jesus works in spite of my abrasiveness. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam