The complete survey from which these data has been taken is found here.
Reflections on FGC’s 2012 Stakeholder Survey
The complete survey from which these data has been taken is found here.
I think you hit the nail on the head!
Love this. Very much in line with what I have been feeling. I personally continue to struggle with discerning when the seeming lack of action is really deep worship, or just complacency. But I think that may just be me and my ego talking. When we trust that way will open, it usually does.
I've posted my own response here:
http://leftistquaker.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/the-future-of-quakerism/
Callid, this is so incredibly timely! This topic came up obliquely this past weekend at a workshop on Community at an NYYM monthly meeting. I shared my experience, gleaned as an Advancement clerk in a meeting in the mid-west, that before you can do outreach there has to be an agreement about the contours of the community. There has to be a sense that the meeting (or the RSoF) stands for this, and not for that. Only when there is a shared sense of identity can there be a message to take forth and share, a message that will be sufficiently compelling to draw people in.
My hunch is that many people are nervous doing that. As soon as you say, this community is dedicated to humble obedience to God, or something like that, you've implicitly said that it is not dedicated to "finding enlightenment" or "social activism" or "good conversation with like-minded people" or "learning tolerance" or any of the other reasons that people may come to Friends meetings. It may be perceived as exclusionary. It may BE exclusionary. Then again,"small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life." Is life what we want? Or do we want to go on as we are, but with more bodies on the benches?