When I am recruiting for a role, I will often describe a good candidate as someone who “gets it.” I think, what I am really trying to say, is that I want someone who understands the mission, who has a sense of the whole, who can ying and yang in a fast-paced environment and not get frazzled or thrown off. I want someone who can keep focus and push ahead – a self-leader. I will never forget, early in my career, when one of my first hiring decisions didn’t work out (NB CLI team – I said early in my career). I was lamenting to a college friend about why I couldn’t find anyone who “gets it.” Her response was short and to the point, “Dan, do you give it?”
As an outside observer, occasionally I hear leaders in parishes or dioceses say that people in the pews or in their ministries “just don’t get it.” It bothers me. Yet, if I am honest, I find myself guilty of the same sin more often than I would care to admit. “Giving it” and “getting it” both require sharing it, which “requires conversion, and this is a challenge.” Am I open to what truly investing in someone might do to me? How it might challenge me? How it might force me to consider something I hadn’t before? What if it makes me question this amorphous “it” that I seem to prize above all else? Thankfully, God’s love and patience for my understanding is much greater than mine. He continues to give it, no matter how little I might get it.
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Steady as He Grows
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Emboldening Our Clergy
CLI serves Church leaders, helping them rediscover their potential and forming them to be more intentional with those they serve.
Igniting Our Parishes
CLI helps empower and energize Catholic leaders by providing focus and courage to engage the culture with an apostolic mindset.
Forging Our Future
CLI provides vision and hope about the future of the Church with a humble, yet strategic approach.