Get Small

Last week, our Church celebrated the feast day of a modern day saint: Mother Teresa of Kolkata (September 5). Known for her radical charity and courageous service to those afflicted by poverty and disease, she consistently offered messages of love and service. The following stand as two of my favorites:

• Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.

• Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.

In light of my own messages the past two weeks about culture, strategy, and mission, I want to scale back using St. Teresa's words and encourage all of us to get small. We must embrace the fact that the most beautiful mission statements, the most comprehensive cultural frameworks, and the most detailed strategies are only as strong as the individual and intimate relationships between and among members of our communities.

If we want to accomplish amazing things - Holy Spirit-inspired accomplishments - we will do so, paradoxically, by getting small.

Efforts to help teachers grow will fall flat if we do not prioritize the smallest of interactions with each other: returning emails, smiling, greeting them by name, following up regarding questions or concerns or problems, checking in with them, asking for feedback (and listening!).

We can't ensure dental health with a marathon brushing session the night before our teeth cleaning. We can't achieve physical health with a workout and salad the day before our annual physical examination. Both of these require ongoing - and small - maintenance efforts. Similarly, our spiritual lives, while they can be ignited by mountaintop experiences, are sustained and enhanced by daily habits of prayer. Over time, the cumulative effect of brushing our teeth every day, staying active, eating healthy, committing to habits of prayer - anything in which we want to improve - can yield huge payoffs.

Daniel Coyle, in his 2018 text The Culture Code, lifts up starlings and their murmurations as a microcosm of strong cultures built upon a series of small, intimate, and relationship-building interactions. 

The birds move as one unit because they exist in close and safe proximity to each other, vulnerably respond to each others signals, and purposefully unite to appear much larger and more powerful than any one bird by itself. 

Simply put, Coyle (2018) posits strong cultures across sectors rely on three key strategies, all of which intertwine and impact each other: 

1. Build safety
2. Share vulnerably
3. Establish purpose

Additionally, strong cultures, fool-proof strategies, and momentum generating mission statements can be enhanced by our love. Start with our families. Extend that to our friends. Amplify this love out to our coworkers and students and families and those within our communities. Love the person that God has put in front of you right now.

Keep getting small.

Keep loving big.

Missionary

Last week I wrote about the interconnectedness of strategies and culture. As I've reflected on that message and contemplated one for this week, it dawned on me that I, uncharacteristically, did not draw any lines between culture/strategy and our faith.

Foundationally, our work within Catholic schools - culture and strategy - must stand tall upon the pillars of our faith: Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Operationally, our work must advance the mission of Christ: making disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Trinity, and teaching others to observe all that Jesus commanded us (Matthew 26:19-20).

So, when we consider how culture informs our strategies and how our strategies reveal our culture, Christ compels us as Catholic educators to root all that we say and do in Him. If the pursuits in our schools don't lead to Christ, they need pruned, uprooted, and dismantled. Similarly, we need to nurture the fruits of our labors that stem from the Vine and graft new ones onto Him that will allow us to bear an even more abundant harvest.

The Gospel from this past weekend reminded me that we need to vulnerably look at our schools and analyze how we might "cling to human tradition" while disregarding "God's commandments."

What are those practices within our schools that distract us from our true purpose? What policies, procedures, and practices undermine our beliefs, values, and mission? How often are we "keeping the tradition of our elders" instead of focusing on the true, the good, and the beautiful?

If we could reengineer our schools and build them back up, how closely would they resemble our current landscapes? If we started to passionately operate on behalf of the missions of our schools, how might we better prioritize our work, anchor decisions regarding complex situations in our beliefs and values, and point our communities to what's truly important and worthy of our time, talent, treasure, and prayers? If we courageously committed to our convictions and clearly communicated the connections between our behaviors and our beliefs, how much more energy, momentum, and enthusiasm might we generate about our schools?

Cling to God's commandments.

Hold fast to the messages of our schools' missions, beliefs, values, pillars, charisms, and philosophies.

As a missionary for Christ and His schools, "go and make disciples" through irresistibly Catholic, academically excellent, operationally vibrant, and zealously lead Catholic schools.