The Power of Shared Experience

If there were ever a formula to connection, it would have to be shared experience.

Shared experience has power. It's the reason you can have "a moment" with a group of strangers at a restaurant when something funny happens or as a nation when something tragic occurs. It is the reason audiences become one during a show.

For the past two months all of the people in my office have been pursuing LEED accreditation. This isn't a simple thing. The test is hard. And the fact that we are all doing it together has caused a great deal of ownership when someone passes or fails.

Last Sunday, Crosspointe set out on an endeavor to "be the church instead of having church" and shared Christmas gifts with some families in our community in financial crisis.

Last year, John and I had to gearshift because we found that most of our significant "shared experiences" weren't actually with each other and so we audited our lifestyles and made some pretty profound changes.

Here's the thing. Shared experience doesn't often "just happen." It takes a great deal of openness to allow yourself to be part of something. Of putting yourself in a place where something could occur or better yet in actually initiating something yourself. Not showing up or worse participation without your heart engaged is the far safer path.

Fight that.