church issue/ power of positive thinking?

[Zoe Girl]

Well on the bright side I can trust my gut feeling!

(if you have checked out my church when I have shared please do not pass anything on, I will keep this as generic as I can, I have to trust a little)

Well it turns out that our church has been in some financial straits for some time. The previous minister was at one church for a long time and had a wonderful personal following that went away when she got sick and retired. She passed away about 2 months ago in fact. So the new minister has had her hands full trying to get us all close to break even with the projects we have such as feeding homeless people. Now some of it is becoming public as it can be. We were apparently embezzled from by a bookeeper and are not sure if we are going to get this back, this recently was made public.

On a side issue, I have found that throughout some of my buddhist dealings (not all by a long shot) there is the 'old school' style power of positive thinking. So the idea that you do things and have a visualized positive outcome and it pretty much happens. It is no coincidence that most all of these people are in a slightly older group where many people benefitted from an awesome economy. Others in the same generation that did not have the same abundance do not seem to have the same ideas however. Some of these people are involved in meditation groups and we have one at my church that is really not providing any support to the church. I found out that we have spent money hiring different teachers to come in as well as paying someone who is in a much higher income category that me or the minister to organize this while the church has been struggling. I guess that is the power of positive thinking, this person is making money because of what? his thoughts? and the lack of awareness that the church that supports this program is struggling.

I have been to several sittings where the teacher was financially able to travel overseas and study for an extended time. They also were able to return and earn a decent income. Some are pretty aware of finances and offer scholarships to retreats. I think I have something really great to offer as at least a meditation leader however I have yet to find a path that does not ask for things I simply cannot do such as longer retreats, attending a consistent group for a long time or simply being able to put buddhist study ahead of family and work. I am not making excuses, in fact I am careful about not using meditation to think I am running away from anything. If I was sharing responsibility of this service however I could make it a priority to at least break even on opening the doors and turning on the hot water. My minister seems okay with me leading meditation without a credential, I am not too confident to proceed without a credential.

I will cut the details there, but it really supports much of what I have thought about some of the people who do the positive thinking deal (please do not think I generalize to all). Some of them are wonderfully positive but not sensitive or aware of what else is going on. I hope this all makes sense

[lhamo]

I am a bit confused by your post, honestly. Seems like there are several core issues.

1. Some people have a "everything will be just fine" kind of outlook and that can lead them to overlook serious problems that are just under the surface.

2. Church is in bad financial situation due to a number of reasons, including theft by a staff person (somewhat random, though ultimately the responsibility falls on the pastor for not managing things better/more tightly) and poor choices about how to spend limited funds (paying high wages for a meditation teacher for classes that are offered for free to participants).

3. You would like to explore the possibility of leading these classes, even without formal training. But you are a bit nervous about it.

I would say go for it. Rather than asking for pay to being with, maybe you can offer this as a service to the church, build up your group, and then eventually ask for donations to begin with, and then pay from the church. I would put everything in writing with the pastor about what the plan is -- free service for 6 months or until you get X number of participants, then requested donation of $Y/session, followed by shift to pay for services by the church at a certain time point or income level. If that doesn't work for them, then maybe the church could cover some more formal training for you as a way of compensating you for your service. Maybe use Ramit Sethi's "Earn 1k" approach to get this started as a small business to bring in extra funds. You will be establishing your credibility as a meditation leader and the church will keep an activity that plays into community outreach/recruitment of new members.

I'm not entirely sure what the positive thinking stuff has to do with all this, but I find as I get older I have made a deliberate attempt to be a more "glass half full" type of person and focus on the positive and what can be done to move things forward, even in difficult circumstances. that doesn't mean ignoring problems -- that won't get you anywhere. But to dwell on the negative is not very productive. I like to be a problem solver wherever possible. YMMV.

Good luck to your church in working through this! Hope they can get the money back from the thief. Who steals from a church? Unfortunately more people than you would think, but I still find it unbelievable...

lhamo

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you , I think you got it. I was necessarily vague about things for privacy. However I can differentiate something better based on what you said.

There is a huge umbrella of 'positive thinking' and some of it is just plain not paying attention. Also a bit of selfishness (the positive thinking got me this sweet deal teaching something that is more often offered on small donation basis). But then I am cautious to say anything since I do not know the whole story, mostly from similar situations. That is not positive thinking in the sense that we keep a positive attitude and then work at whatever presents itself and needs to be done. Hmm,

As far as leading meditation, I am going with the plan of making this my contribution to the church. I love doing it and it is not an overwhelming task. If we can make the changes needed then it will support the church while my personal donation is necessarily small. I still struggle because I feel to be valid I need a teacher and to have done certain things like longer retreats and that is very difficult, leading me to wonder about how to bring in more diverse teachers in buddhism who also have this challenge.

[citrine]

I think you are selling yourself short :)
Buddha did not have a certificate to do what he did or lead longer retreats...he just did what he was compelled to do for himself. If you have a regular meditation practice and are able to help others do the same, then you are a teacher. It is simple as that :)

[lhamo]

I think you are selling yourself short :)
Buddha did not have a certificate to do what he did or lead longer retreats...he just did what he was compelled to do for himself. If you have a regular meditation practice and are able to help others do the same, then you are a teacher. It is simple as that :)

+1!

[Zoe Girl]

I hadn't thought of that, well maybe I can just do this. We have a meeting with the people from this group on Sunday after our service and we will see how we can reinvigorate it. I really want to see if we can collect some money to get some meditation cushions for the church.