Thursday Report, 10 October 2019, Leadership Workshop and Congregational Conference 2019.

Today (Thursday, October 10), the brothers came together to discuss and share on one of the relevant topics, namely teamwork and team building. The presentation was done by Bro. Augustine Kubdaar. At the beginning of the session, participants were invited to reflect on a scriptural passage related to the topic for our inspiration. The text chosen is from the Gospel of Mark (2: 1-12) . Each character in the story plays a role in the healing process of the crippled man. The inspiration gained from this story is that in teamwork there should be a vision, there should be goals to be achieved, a strategy, creativity, and innovation.

The presentations were very comprehensive and stimulating because Bro. Augustine invited the brothers to follow a story about Tortoise and Rabbit. From this witty story the participants discovered the principles related to teamwork and teambuilding. This wise story teaches about the importance of being steady and consistent. Also, rather than engaging in competition with our individual competences, gifts and talents, let us combine them, and we shall always win. In other words, it is good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless we are able to work in a team and harness each other’s core competencies, we will always perform below average because there will always be a situation where one will do poorly while another one does well. Thus, teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, that is letting the person with the relevant core competencies in a situation take the leadership.

The presentation went further to engage participants to be aware of the characteristics of effective and ineffective teams. The characteristics of effective teams include openness, involving others, open and honest information, regarding conflicts as natural and collaboration. Characteristics of ineffective teams, on the other hand are competition, withholding information, destructive conflicts, selfish motives and lack of openness, among others.

Carefully, Bro. Augustine explained the ten characteristics of a high performance team, such as: clear goals, defined roles, types of roles, open and clear communication, effective decision making, balanced participation, valued diversity, managing conflicts well, creating positive atmosphere, cooperate relationships, and participatory leadership. At the end Bro. Augustine gave several conditions that can make a team not function optimally. He also revealed some things that need to be cultivated so that everyone in the team gains the energy to get involved. Some reflective questions he gave also helped the participants in the process of understanding the topic better.

In the last session of the day Bro. Raphael Besigrinee gave a presentation on "Thinking With The Church". He invited participants to discuss FIC's relationship with the clergy in our ministry of evangelization. The Brothers' vocation is often not appreciated or promoted sufficiently by the hierarchical Church. The attitude or actions of some priests hinder the participation of religious in the mission of the diocese. But this should never be a hindrance to our full involvement in the life of the church. Brothers are called be witnesses, to be visible signs of Jesus' presence in our society. How do we become visible?

Bro. Raphael posed a number of questions to enable Brothers go into the area of FIC's participation in the ministry of the church and the need to get involved in the ministry reserved for us. How can FIC make the clergy and other diocesan authorities understand and appreciate our way of life better? In which ways can FIC collaborate with the ordained in order to make them aware that religious are partners in the ministry of evangelization? How far are FIC Brothers involved in the life and work of their local church? Are we involved in youth activities of the parish? In what ways can we be more involved?

The deepening of this theme was enriched by ideas from the document: Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church. This document re-affirms the vocation of the brother. Moreover, it stresses that the Brother's vocation is complete in itself and needs nothing more to be lived fully as a prophetic sign in the world, and a witness to God's love. The Brothers were enriched on what kind of presence we should live so that the Lord Jesus can be seen, experienced and touched by people today. The discussion brought an end to the day's deliberations.

Prepared by bro. Michael Sidarta (Indonesia Province)