namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Rock! It's a winning formula. Two or three even otherwise mediocre speakers can hold attention and engage an audience with the material when they are speaking to each other.

It introduces elements of relationship (rasa), and unpredictibility, both powerful stimuli for engagement.

Not that either Arjuna or Krishna are mediocre, but you'll notice that this is the format of Bhagavad-gita and much of Srimad Bhagavatam.

“Think Steps, Not Programs” is how Andy Stanley and the crew at Northpoint summarize the concept that I spoke about in the article People are the Focus.

The idea is this: instead of having a strategic vision that focuses on programs, you have a strategic vision of a people-process - a pathway that takes people from where they are now, to where you want them to be. You then make sure that you have all the programs you need along that pathway, in easy, obvious, and strategic steps that take them from point A to point B.

Literally - here’s our new stage:

We bought this stage this past week. Param Satya and Madana-Gopal lead that one up. This next week we’re going to get another one just like it and then we’ll turn that one sideways and put the other one next to it, to get double the space. You’ve got to build things for growth. This way the guests can sit on chairs, and we can do kirtan sitting down where they can see us. Nothing more boring than staring at the back of someone’s head for half an hour.

One of the implications or complications of the expansion to the new facility, is the issue of the Krishna Kids Club - our program for children on Sundays. We have this program for a number of reasons:

1. To enable the teaching to go on in the main space without the interruption of children in the audience
2. To enable people to come to hear, even when they have children they are responsible for
3. To enable us to give the children an appropriate experience of Krishna Consciousness, targeted to their needs
4. To encourage children to drag their parents along

It has actually become a very popular program, and part of the drawcard for many parents. I know that for many months Param or I would walk the streets outside with Prahlad during the teaching. Once we got the Loft facility next door to Govinda’s restaurant, where the Sunday feast is held, we had a space to go with Prahlad during the program, and we knew there were many others in the same boat as us. So we launched the Krishna Kids Club program under the leadership of Channell.

Ladies and Gentlemen, an excerpt from my upcoming book “Preach on Purpose” - a rough draft of a chapter about the Sunday Feast. Really it needs to be made into a section of the book, and the different parts made into chapters. The information density is really high. Anyway, you might get something from it.

My usual disclaimer applies: please be a hamsa and take whatever nectar is there and neglect the nonsense. Whatever good and valuable that is to found is the result of some unknowing service that I have rendered to great souls. Whatever is useless or incorrect is the product of my own frailties.