Affinity Groups

Every large (and many small) organizations or communities develops their own way of self-expression. Insider lingo can be very helpful for those who are on the inside -- and often that's the whole point. However, this same helpful lingo can serve as a significant barrier to those once on the outside but now on the inside, but still unable to navigate the sea of acronymns and key terms.

So, if I tell you that this morning I had the privlige of sitting in on the meeting of the WMO's with 125+ Affinity Group, will you have any idea what I mean? Not likely.

So, I'll put it this way: I sat in a meeting of Directors of Wycliffe organizations that have more than 125 people who are currently serving from their organizations in the global Bible translation movement. Those present were from Korea, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, the U.K., Finland, Canada and the U.S. -- and the discussion was led by Kirk Franklin, Director of WBTI (defined in the last post, but this time with a link to the Int'l website).

I love when I get a chance to listen to leaders talk about their "stuff" in a context that is familiar enough to be safe. I always can learn from people who are willing to talk about their challenges and opportunities and failures and victories when I'm willing to listen. I listened today.

(Eddie Arthur is the guy in the red shirt in the middle of the goblet in the photo. He's the fairly new Wycliffe UK Director and his blog is one that I watch with regularity -- I've got an RSS feed onto my iGoogle front page so I don't miss anything unless I choose to. Anyhow, he linked to my blog today -- to the entry titled "If I could read minds" and snagged my photo from there for his site. I'm telling you all this for two reasons: so you can check out his blog and also because someone commented on the photo on his blog and said about me, "She’s so cheeky!" Can you imagine my delight!)