Last Sunday, Faithbridge had their first Values Blitz of the year. Three "blitzes" a year make up the backbone of our leadership development process. Basically the Values Blitz is an unforgettable shared experience around one of Faithbridge's six core values. By having three a year, every leader gets total exposure to all six values every two years.
The idea behind the shared experience is rooted in the model of Jesus. He seemed to focus on identity much more than activity. Likewise our goal was "be more" together and not just to talk about our "doing." Jesus also would immerse his followers into symbolic experiences that would find meaning after the fact.
During this blitz on fervent prayer, we emphasized the dynamic of listening to God. The total experience together was designed with 25 minutes of teaching and celebration and 25 minutes of unexpected silence. For the silent part we used Rob Bell's Nooma video, Noise, which kicked off a powerful 8 minutes. Following this we asked leaders to respond to "What is God saying to you right now?" by writing on large listening wall. The whole 25 minutes was held in a very dynamic silence. God was in it and four days later, many leaders have not stopped talking about the unique time together. As leaders left, all had a dot sticker on their cell phone with the number 10, symbolizing a commitment to listen to God in silence for 10 minutes a day for the next week.