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<P>Group: Northern Colorado TeaM Group
#22</P>
<DIV> Topics: <STRONG> Community
Leadership</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV>
Current models:
Political, Military, and Business</DIV>
<DIV>
Construct for
intentional community</DIV>
<DIV>
Responsibilities for
leadership </DIV>
<DIV>
Consistency, not
mediocrity</DIV>
<DIV>
Superior moral and
ethical standards</DIV>
<DIV>
Opportunities for
service and individual growth</DIV>
<DIV>
Working through issues
of power and control</DIV>
<DIV>
Developing whole and
complete individuals</DIV>
<DIV>
Causes for community
and leadership failures</DIV>
<DIV>
Planning all levels
within community</DIV>
<DIV>
Christ Michael is our
leadership model</DIV>
<DIV>
Supporting individual
unique value</DIV>
<DIV>
Lead without overt
authority</DIV>
<DIV>
Leading individual
minds to greatness</DIV>
<DIV>
Changing "the system"
through motivation, awareness, and</DIV>
<DIV>
necessity</DIV>
<DIV>
Nurturing leadership in
the family</DIV>
<P>Teacher: <STRONG> </STRONG><B>Rayson</B> (TR Daniel)</P><B>
<P>August 11, 2002</P></B>
<P>Good afternoon, friends, this is Rayson. It is good to be here with you once
again. I so much appreciate your stability, your thoughtful, levelheaded
acceptance and appreciation for what has been given to you. We who serve this
Northern Colorado Teaching Mission Group know well of your enthusiasm, your
tremendous joy and excitement about what has been shared with you, and what it
offers to yourselves, to your communities and to your world.</P>
<P>Let’s take a few moments now please, to go to that Stillness, that quiet
place and in doing so, be mindful to connect to the merkaba, declare your
intentions for being here and invoke the presence of Michael, Nebadonia and the
Creator to fulfill your intentions. (Pause) Please bring your consciousness to
the center.</P>
<P>Today we will continue a very important lesson of community. If you would
think of community as a ship, one ship in an armada, a fleet of ships, going in
a direction towards Paradise of mortal, spiritual ascension, how would they get
to their destination? They of course would have a fleet Admiral in charge, who
would understand the overall plans and journey and mission of the armada. This
admiral would be privy to the greatest designs of its nation and its positive
purpose for its world. Think of the Admiral as Machiventa, who is privy to the
grand plans of your planet with Michael, the plan is the Correcting Time. Now
the Admiral cannot be on every ship, can he? Of course not. So this is shared
with captains of each ship. And each ship has various departments/sections and
work areas, and each of those has a leader who knows what they are to do in
their respective area. And in the best armadas, every sailor knows the way,
every sailor knows the function and mission and destination of its ship, and its
fleet and its armada. Everyone is "operating on the same page." And should
something happen to that sailor’s section chief, that sailor could take over,
<I>would</I> take over. And if the Executive officer or First Mate found that
the Captain of the ship had left or had died or was sleeping, they could
continue the course of that ship, and so on. Every ship is a community, and
every community is a ship. And every community needs leadership, and that is
today’s topic—<B>Leadership</B>. </P>
<P>We have spoken briefly about it before; we have alluded to it many times; we
have always known that Michael is our leader, our Commander in chief, who is
guiding our ships along the way. So today, we must look at leadership, and the
metaphor of the armada, the fleets and the ships, Captains, First Mates, and
Section Chiefs—is very, very intimate to our work with communities. One of the
reasons communities have failed on your world, whether it is in Europe or the
United States, through the ideas of utopian communities, the reasons why those
have failed is that not everyone was privy to the leadership organization
process that you will be, and you are becoming aware of, through the Teaching
Mission and its part within the Correcting Time.</P>
<P>Now, you are most acquainted with <B>political leadership</B>, but this is
only one form, and it is a most difficult form of leadership. You are also aware
of <B>military leadership</B>, and this is also a concept of leadership that has
its own inherent difficulties. But military leadership offers us many parallels
for the community leadership, and that is the necessity of sharing all the
leader’s goals with every member of the community, and that the lines of
communication, whether they are authoritarian, or through delegation, or through
the carrying out of service, or whether they are copper or fiber wires, they are
all known and used and everyone is trained in their usage; and it goes well, it
works well. But in a military organization, in a military body, there is a chain
of authority that requires obedience, subordination of individual goals to those
of the organization. And even when captains and generals and admirals go astray
in other ways, those subordinate to them rarely, if ever, offer guidance or
critique to those leaders.</P>
<P>The <B>business model</B> also offers a wonderful opportunity to examine its
processes of leadership, and importantly, participation. Military organizations
succeed because the goals are known, lines of authority are well established and
the delegation of authority is implicit and it is explicit; everyone knows it,
everyone follows it. They do not approach their missions in terms of a
committee, but in terms of teamwork, where lines of authority and communication
offer everyone an opportunity to participate. In a business community, its
success lies in the lowliest member having the capacity and capability of
communicating along lines to provide ideas, which supplement, add to and enhance
the product or service line of the business. And so everyone is accorded more
recognition as they provide more capability to the fulfillment of the
business.</P>
<P>Yet in a business model, there is much missing too. The personal life its
leaders are oftentimes separate and distinct from the business. And what one
does in their leisure time may be completely inconsistent with what they are
doing in their business life, and yet they can succeed in business. In an
<B>intentional community, a spiritually developed community</B> in which
spiritual goals and ends are sought for, and striven to be fulfilled, where
individuals strive to aid themselves and aid the community for everyone, offers
a much different opportunity for leadership. And the <B>responsibilities for
leadership</B> are as weighty upon the individual as they are upon the leader,
whether that is the community leader, politically, economically, religiously,
socially—whatever level you would think of—each individual in the community is
responsible for the leadership within that community. In these communities,
everyone strives for <B>consistency</B>. Not mediocrity, oh far from it my
friends! Not mediocrity but <B>uniformity of superior results of moral and
ethical standards</B>, where leaders are respected because they are consistent
and they provide wisdom in leadership in all phases of their life. Not out of
oaths or vows, or obligations of office, but through <B>dedication of their
intent to serve</B> the First Source and Center, our Father, Christ Michael, and
the good of all concerned. These are not obligations taken on, but
<B>opportunities for service</B>, opportunities to grow at that level. And you
my friends, will in time, through yourself or through your
children/grandchildren, have opportunities for leadership in high positions. But
do not defer your leadership input until then. Offer your input <B>now</B>, your
suggestions <B>now</B>.</P>
<P>Leadership that we speak of today is at odds with the leadership that you
have seen recently in your economy, in politics and in your churches. These
communities require leadership that pulls and pulls and pulls and pulls and
draws it into the future, safely, securely, surely. And this cannot be done when
individuals have their own agenda for their positions of authority, their
positions of respect. Their agendas must always be for the survival, the growth,
maintenance and the augmentation of increased values and beliefs that are
higher-minded, that serve others <B>equally</B>, as they serve you. Selfishness,
egoism, separateness, arrogance, feelings of being "better than" others,
"needing" to be better than others in material ways, more power, more authority,
more money, more control, more self-aggrandizement—these are temporary! And as
an aside, we have learned, my friends, that these things are truly lessons, they
are just issues to be worked through. </P>
<P>Each of you, no matter how humble your circumstances or how humble your
origins, <B>each will work through these issues of power and control,
self-aggrandizement, ego, selfishness—these are simply lessons</B>. As you know,
and as you see in your society today, many have failed those tests. They have
houses, millions of dollars in the bank, much personal acclaim and respect from
others, power and control, and yet, they seem to seek more. Will this kind of
leadership be sufficient to lead an intentional community into the future for
centuries? We know it will not. </P>
<P>Yet, just as we do not encourage or support mediocrity, we also do not
support the loss of individuality in the group, in the community. We do not
support ideas of a hive or colony mentality, where the individual’s unique value
is lost among many. But in fact, we seek to develop the opposite in intentional
communities with you, and it is particularly the value, the uniqueness of each
individual that gives an intentional community its biggest and greatest support.
And you know from past lessons that <B>one of the main missions of an
intentional community is to develop independent, unique individuals who are
whole and complete</B>. Only those are best prepared to go into the future, to
the morontial worlds quickly, at higher levels of attainment, to come away from
their world experience with <B>full souls</B>, where they have made decisions of
choice, of moral and ethical value, who understand the beliefs and support
them.</P>
<P>You perhaps are wondering after this discourse, how leadership could be
developed among you in an intentional community. That is a good question. It is
a sincere, earnest question that needs to be answered. Let us point to the ways
that are not productive, and your own historical records show the ways that
leadership does not work. We could point to many, many communities that have
failed, whether it is the "Jim Jones cyanide/Kool-Aid community" in South
America, whether it is a "guru" community in the United States or some other
foreign country, whose reasons for existence swirls around the life of one guru
individual, who dies and the community passes away as well. You have seen
communities where leadership has used its followers as slaves, has taken their
property, their materiality and their means of living away from them so they
become dependent upon the guru community.</P>
<P>You have also seen communities without gurus, that come together, live
together in a communal environment. Some have been very productive and last a
long time, yet most have been unable to fill the individual lives with soul
making decisions and opportunities; some have. The intentional community is a
most difficult one to envision in your society and upon this world. Yet, we
offer it to you not as an ideal, but as something you can strive towards, and
this is how your leadership will evolve. It will evolve through a participation
of individuals, who have like, or similar intents and desires. It does not
require a sacrifice of your lives, but the willing participation of your
energies in a higher social setting.</P>
<P>It may seem remarkable to you that even your study groups offer a small
wedge, a crack in the door of the future, of looking at intentional community.
You come together with an intention of learning, of growing; you come together
without the intention of swaying the other person’s thinking towards your
beliefs or how you believe about <I>the Urantia Book</I> or the Teaching
Mission, but allow that person to come and experience their life in this setting
for only that brief period of time, without judgement, without usurping their
prerogatives and individuality. You could expand this to a larger community—it
could be academic, perhaps. Your most obvious thoughts of leadership concern
this community becoming a material community, where there is land and buildings.
These offer as many distractions and negative influences for the constructive
development of intentional community as not having them, because they objectify
the community in terms of a material setting, and roles to maintain that
material setting. </P>
<P>Much better thought would be involved, perhaps in thinking about <B>planning
out</B> <B>the various levels of a community</B>, and this planning may go on
for years, it could go on for 10 or 20 years, just the planning. But as you
plan, you would be devising the social groupings, the social working groups who
would take on various aspects of the community, whether it is in the expression
of religion and fellowship, or in education—education for surviving and
maximizing the benefits in your society in material ways, or whether it is your
education for your spiritual and religious growth.</P>
<P>Be aware though, that we will be there with you, aiding you and assisting
you. One thing you will need to remember is that the way is not clear, or the
way is not known, fully. But you must move ahead; take steps, trusting that you
will be led as you seek guidance from within and from without, always allowing
for new influences, new ideas, but never becoming distracted from your goals.
You know that <B>the leadership model has been provided by Christ Michael</B>
during the era of his mortal time here on this planet, as Jesus. This is the
model of <B>interpersonal relationships of love and personal growth</B>. The
model also extends to the Correcting Time and His work with Machiventa upon this
planet. And nowhere do you see callous usurpation of the individual’s power or
authority, but always the opportunity to grow, always the opportunity to make
individual decisions. This is how we will be working with you and developing an
intentional community. And you will know when you are "right," in the "right
direction" and the "right stream" of thought, because it will "fit" with plans
for this world, plans for each individual. They have to match; whether plans for
the rehabilitation of the planet or the plans for spiritual-emotional growth in
the individual, they must be consistent. As you think about the ethics of
banking, the ethics of political leadership, the ethics of educational
leadership, the ethics of spiritual and religious leadership—as you think about
the ethical and moral requirements of family leadership—they are all consistent.
<B>When they are all consistent</B>; they all pull the long pull that pulls you
into the future consistently, with dedication of service. Surely, you will have
to forego immediate gratification sometimes, but in the long term, you will be
satisfied and you will be filled and you are always loved.</P>
<P>Do you have questions now, concerning leadership? I would like to get those
out of the way before we deal with questions of other natures. Take your time;
let’s take a short break, perhaps and then come back to the questions and
answers.</P>
<P>[Resume and re-link with merkaba.]</P>
<P>Rayson: It is ironic that the leadership that you will require is the
leadership that is also self-effacing. The model for leadership that is best
offered, is again, Jesus with his Disciples. He led without being authoritarian;
he led with giving each individual opportunity for decision making, for soul
growth, for participation or not. And those individuals, or that individual, who
had such a difficult time fully accepting the course that Jesus had set for the
group, was left intentionally to find his way, not out of neglect, but out of
opportunity for growth, for willing service and participation. At no time, did
the leader, Jesus, demand their obedience—at any time. </P>
<P>And so too, the leadership of your intentional communities will need that
irony, to <B>lead without overt authority</B>, but the authority that is given
by individuals to participate or not. And in that following, each individual
would offer assistance, guidance, and leadership in areas where they think the
group may be going in a different direction or a wrong direction. So leadership
must begin with the individual—<B>each individual</B>—and the leadership must
begin with the leader. A circle of leadership is that everyone participates in
the circle of leadership and authority. And were someone to say, "Oh, I am not
the leader, and I am not the lieutenant. What I would say wouldn’t count," is
completely invalid, for everyone’s voice counts. The failure would come for that
individual if they were <I>not</I> to share their thinking, not to share their
opinion and their wisdom and their guidance. <B>That too, is a decision that can
contribute to your soul’s growth or not</B>. </P>
<P>You realize from being taught in <I>the Urantia Book</I>, that opportunity
for soul growth comes from making moral and ethical decisions. And you also
know, that <B>soul growth comes through service</B>; and as you grow, so too,
will you serve. But leadership of service that is stilled within yourself, that
is not shared, with-holds from you the opportunity to grow in your soul’s growth
by participating and sharing your thoughts. So it is important, <I>soulfully
important</I> that leaders and followers actively participate. This does not
lead to leadership by chaos, or leadership by committee opinion, but more so
through leadership by consensus and revelation that is validated by individuals
and others. [Pause]</P>
<P>Student: May I ask a question? (Certainly.) In <I>the Urantia Book</I>—I
believe it’s in the section on Life on a Neighboring Planet—they talk about
leadership being prepared for by a "statesmanship method" where they apprentice
up the line until they have experienced the whole gamut before they go through
an election to become a leader. I can see that this is far superior to what we
have with our "paid political process," where money rules. Do the Celestials
have any ideas for ways that we can revamp our political system so that we can
change to a statesmanship-type system?</P>
<P>Rayson: Is your question complete?</P>
<P>Student: Well, there is one other point to it. I am also wondering with
starting a new intentional community, I suppose that process of finding leaders
would take place in the planning stages, where you would find the people that
would be the best leaders through their participation from the ground up. I
"think" that is my complete statement.</P>
<P>Rayson: I will try to answer your several questions. Yes, the Celestials do
have many ideas about ways your system could be revamped, but sudden change is
often cataclysmic. And we are not given authority to make changes that lead to
sudden abrupt changes; we are not empowered to bring about sudden changes in
your system, but can only apply the slow, dedicated approach of <B>leading
individual minds to greatness</B>. Your thoughts are similar and are those
thoughts that lead to greatness in a community. Your government has a system of
developing within the military, those leaders who have capability. Your
Ambassadorial Corps has a similar way of educating its members to gain greater
experience in various settings, so that eventually they may become effective
Foreign Service Officers, supporting the Ambassador Corps. </P>
<P>Some thoughtful individuals who have leadership in their family, or who have
thoughts of leadership on their own, who may or may not have gotten political
savvy through colleges and universities, also often see a life-time career of
office-holding as a progressive one for gaining experience. But much is missing
from that ladder, as there are not many that are service oriented. It would be
most helpful in your society to have a system of political and governmental
office holding (and those are two distinct areas,) for gaining experience as a
career chain for individuals. So that eventually, you would end up with a cadre
of well- experienced individuals in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s who would
be wise leaders, capable leaders, who have a broad base of experience in their
government service and in their political arenas. This would be most helpful.
</P>
<P>You know that your system now is quite easily managed so that even an
inexperienced individual can become the President of your nation. There is a
fortunate side to this, when the very best of those individuals who come out of
nowhere, attain leadership to bring into the fold, new thoughts, new creativity,
new visions for the leadership of their nation. But all too often, these
individuals who occupy those places of authority are those who attained such
through the manipulation of their societies and through the media. This is most
unfortunate. Have I answered your questions? I feel like I have left one
undone.</P>
<P>Student: I guess I see that our political system as so huge and so entrenched
that I wonder if we can even make changes in the system by the time we reach
Light and Life! It seems like the political parties won’t let those changes take
place because they will lose too much of their own power, money and control. Is
it a function that our government is so big, or is it just a function of our
culture that is based on greed?</P>
<P>Rayson: Actually, neither. You have within this nation, all the capability of
tremendous political change. All the major elements for the mechanisms to bring
about those changes are here. But the great problem, is that feeling of
powerlessness that you yourself speak of. If you are cynical, if you think you
are powerless, then of course you are. But through the mechanisms that your
governmental institution’s documents have provided to you, you have all the
power to change the system. What are missing are the <B>motivation</B> and the
<B>awareness</B> of the individuals that they can do this, and the
<B>necessity</B> to do this. Do you see what I am speaking of? (Yes.) Your
people will do nothing until they feel they need to do something, and then they
will. And the mechanisms are there for them to do that, and then there will be
change. Until then, maintain hope, be optimistic, and participate in the system
as best you can, either immediately or as opportunity arises that calls for your
attention and participation.</P>
<P>(Thank you.) You are welcome.</P>
<P>Student: Seems to me that service is the key. I know of many politicians who
claim that they only want to serve and upon examining their record and their
histories, their service is for companies, organizations, other than their
constituents. On creating leadership, statesmanship schools—how would this be
generated, started, or are we back to talking about establishing ethics in
schools and its furtherance all the way along the ladder to create people who
want to serve, who—I’m just kind of out here in the field, envisioning all kinds
of problems in getting this thing generated, developing leaders. How do we best
develop leaders?</P>
<P>Rayson: In the usual place, my friend. <B>In the family</B>! And when leaders
come forth, encourage them, rather than offering them cynical advice about the
potential of their capacity to lead anyone. The worst thing that you can do is
to share your cynical perspectives with young adults. Always offer them hope and
knowledge and awareness, that there is <B>always</B> <B>opportunity for
leadership</B>. Leadership is a commodity that is always needed, always in
demand, always something that is present, something every individual community
and society looks for. The leaders that come forward are often shaped by the
opportunities that come along, and if everyone were cynical about starting a
business and become a millionaire on their own as sole proprietor, then no one
would. But yet, many thousands of individuals continue to do that, year after
year. So too, if you tell your children that it is impossible to become a moral
and capable president of this nation, or other nations, then they will not come
forward. But offer them encouragement, to hold high hopes and understand the
mechanisms wherein leadership comes forward. </P>
<P>Leadership is also always brought forward in dramatic ways when circumstances
dictate and require. Call this opportunity, call this historic opportunity, it
does arise and in the months and years and decades ahead, there will surely be a
strong and clear call for leadership of the highest caliber. For you find, and
history repeats and shows clearly, that leadership of lower quality fails in the
long run, it is self-defeating. And though a president may complete his/her term
successfully, perpetuation of those forms of leadership and those styles of
leadership, which do not promote permanence, but self-aggrandizement, greed and
protection of one’s interest and power group, leads to demise and eventual
social failure. Then, must there come forward, individuals of high moral and
ethical perspective, those who are willing to serve for the good of all, and in
turn will be served, themselves. (Another student: Thank you, Rayson. That
helped answer my question further too.) You are welcome.</P>
<P>It is essential to develop leadership within an intentional community from
the earliest years of an individual’s life. Knowing that there is a way of
becoming a leader, there must be an opportunity or chain of ascension, a chain
of accomplishment or development that leads to higher and higher levels of
responsibility. Leaders within these intentional communities, of which we have
spoken, are also spiritual leaders. They may not necessarily be religious
leaders, but they would be spiritual leaders, those who live out their lives
achieving and maintaining the highest levels of ethical and moral and social
achievement. And their lives will be easily and plainly seen to be clear of all
encumbrances of wrongdoing. It is not that you are seeking leaders with a
totally pure record, but those who have indicated and shown a penchant for
positive, constructive service towards their community, who learn from their
mistakes, and associate with those who teach them well.</P>
<P>Student: I see the farthest reaches of intentional community is being settled
in Light and Life—it’s going to be great fun getting there!</P>
<P>Rayson: [Laughing] Yes! When you near the stages of—even before you achieve
Light and Life—and centuries before that, there will be a long history of social
growth and achievement and excellent leadership. Those are required for
societies to eventually achieve moral, spiritual and ethical leadership on an
individual basis throughout a society, a world. Further questions? </P>
<P>Student: Our oldest son was in a President’s Leadership Class at Colorado
University, and many of the things you talked about in the development of the
individual and their leadership qualities and abilities were emphasized in the
different aspects of this program. I have seen some examples where it developed
some really exceptional children and so I am encouraged in so many ways by what
we have already experienced, and I see plenty of room for advancement and
achievement in new areas. Thank you, Teacher Rayson.</P>
<P>Rayson: You are welcome. There are many aspects already in place in your
society that produce different attributes of leadership that could be replicated
in an intentional community. The intentional communities have the possibility of
existence and development now in your world, because there are so many
supporting activities in your society that would lend themselves to this
community. An intentional community will be far more than a piece of ground, a
church or study center, and individuals living around it, going to church. It
will be far more than that. And it will be far more than a commune; it will be
far more than a discipleship, hidden away in the trees somewhere. </P>
<P>I know there must be one last question, and I will strive to answer that. And
that is, we will not overlay a template of leadership upon your groups that
strive to develop an intentional community, but work with the leadership that is
there, and strive to instill in the group, the avenues of leadership and how to
develop leadership. For if you accept that leadership exists at <B>one</B> point
in an organization or community, then you have lost the idea. But leadership
must be <B>many points</B> within that circle of a community. <B>It is the
thought, acceptance and belief in leadership that is the responsibility of each
individual</B>, and from there, we can assist you in developing your intentional
communities in real, material ways. This closes our lesson for today unless
there are further questions. (None.) </P>
<P>Thank you for your time. We will have one more session before we are in
recess with Daniel, and we hope you will continue on with your every-other-week
gatherings, so that we can continue on. Blessings to you. Good night. (Group:
Thank you. We plan to continue on!)</P></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>