Books and Reviews...
The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back...
By Bill Shore.
Hardcover - 292 pages (June 1999),
Random House; ISBN: 0679457062
During a recent planning meeting, Dr. Bill Sullivan, Evangelism and Church
Growth Director, challenged us with the need to plan beyond our own term
of service. He warned that with retirement soon to catch up with some of
us, we might be inclined to plan only until the end of our term of service.
Aside from that, given the rapid change in denominational structures, no
position or program seems permanent. We were being asked to do something
that is becoming increasingly difficult--plan for a future we cannot foresee
and will not live to experience ourselves.
I immediately thought of Bill Shore's recent book, The Cathedral Within, which
is a sequel to his earlier book, Revolution of the Heart. In both books, he
describes what he sees as an emerging new "community-wealth movement" which
merges for-profit and non-profit entrepreneurs in innovative organizations
to meet human need.
He is of the opinion that most non-profit organizations do not plan to be
around for the long-term--sometimes not much longer than the tenure of the
founding director. According to Shore, at a time when non-profit, community-based
organizations are desperately needed to bridge the widening gap between the rich
and the poor, they are failing because they are not "built to last"--his
reference to a book by the same title by James Collins and Jerry Porras. Non-profits
focus too intently on particular social problems, competing for support from
scare and limited charitable dollars rather than building organizations that
have the capacity to generate what he describes as "community wealth."
As the director of Share Our Strength (S.O.S.) and a social entrepreneur himself,
he introduces us to several outstanding individuals who are leading organizations
designed to draw resources from the private sector to improve the quality of
American life. They include: Gary Mulhair of Pioneer Human Services in Seattle,
WA; Denver chef Noel Cunningham; Nancy Carstedt of the Chicago Children's Choir;
Alan Khazei of City Year; and Geoffery Canada from New York City.
As Shore sees it, their individual "stories"--how they have been
changed personally by committing themselves to something that counts--is as
important as what they do as leaders of organizations. Intertwined throughout
the stories are bits and pieces of wisdom that Shore describes as "cathedral
building."
From his love of cathedrals, primarily in Milan, Italy, and the National Cathedral
in Washington, D.C., Shore finds a metaphor to illustrate his theme. The cathedral
in Milan took over five hundred years to construct (1386-1887).
Shore writes: "The vast majority of those who worked on this (and every
other) cathedral did so knowing that they would not live to see the final, finished
achievement. This didn't diminish their dedication or craftsmanship. The evidence
suggests it enhanced it."
He continues: "The works of cathedral builders endure to this day. In
a world of ever more constant change, their achievements stand out uniquely
as something that lasts." Shore would have all those dedicated to improving
the quality of life to consider themselves "cathedral builders" laboring
for something that they'll never see completed, something more enduring than
life itself. The cathedral building lessons he develops are meant to breathe
new life into our feeble social structures and give an opportunity to do "something
that counts," as former press secretary Mike McCurry put it in his letter
to Shore after his resignation from the White House.
It is the sense of personal significance that Shore describes as the "cathedral
within." He quotes Antoine de Saint-Exupery: "A rock pile ceases
to be a rock pile that moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within
him the image of a cathedral."
It may be a stretch to think of a planning meeting within one division in
a denominational organizational as cathedral building. But in Shore's thinking
it is not the work itself but what we bring to the work that counts. However
temporary or frustrating our individual or group tasks, we are challenged to
see something more than a "rock pile" in our endless meetings and
short-lived projects and plans.
Dr. Tom Nees
Director, Mission Strategy USA/Canada
NOTE: Copies of Bill Shore’s The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your
Life by Giving Something Back can be ordered from your local bookstore.
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