~What I learned at Boot Camp~

 

About three weeks ago I attended my church’s first Boot Camp. I was quite excited and anticipatory because I have gone through Marine Corps Boot Camp and a Police Academy but have never experienced any kind of extensive spiritual Boot Camp setting. My desire was for a growth spurt in whatever area God saw fit. And I was quite excited to see what He was going to come up with 🙂

Amidst the early morning workout sessions, time constricted scripture memorizations and prayerfully structured lessons, I felt the challenge at one of the more innocuous sessions: it was on Communication Styles. It was innocuous to me because it was the one session that didn’t appear to be too God focused, plus we have all had to do communication styles exercises for our jobs, so I was expecting the usual.

The first thing we were told was to Assume Positive Intent (with any communication). We then filled out a quick one-sheet test and charted it to find out our personality types as it related to four birds; the Dove, the Peacock, the Owl and the Eagle. The goal was to understand our own communication style, be familiar with the other three styles, and know how to communicate with the four styles. I was immediately intrigued, because I don’t know how we can do much of anything without communicating and dealing with people! Ministry = dealing with people (in its most generic form). Work for most of us means dealing with people. And having a family goes without saying.

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