Jean Vanier offered these reflections on how coordinating teams function best. In most communities, teams consist of a handful of members, a coordinator, and a spiritual assistant. At the national level, they include regional coordinators and a national coordinator.
These teams are less a management structure than an expression of how to work together—a method that sustains the spiritual growth of the community and its members. They emerge from the conviction that shared work toward a common goal—whether organizing a single gathering, a weekend retreat, or a national assembly—matters deeply.
Meet regularly
Team members should gather on a fixed schedule, with a set start time and a known duration. This discipline becomes essential when people are traveling from a distance.
Three moments in every meeting
A good team meeting unfolds in three distinct phases, in whatever order seems right.
- A time of silence and prayer. This centers the team on listening and makes room for the Holy Spirit in projects that belong not to us, but to God.
- A time of work. First comes dreaming: each person speaks freely about what they wish to do. Dreaming is a way of letting God's folly enter us—of saying aloud everything that comes to mind. Then comes organization. The team settles on a project and asks the practical questions: when, where, who, how? They work out concrete answers.
- A time of ease and lightness. A meeting needs this too. Sharing a meal together, telling stories, taking a break—these moments transform faces. Ideally, the team would find time away from the agenda to relax together, pray, and know each other better. New projects are born when people have truly met.
The coordinator's role
A coordinator listens and draws people out rather than directing from above. Yes, the coordinator must sometimes enforce basic rules that allow the work to happen—punctuality, one person speaking at a time, time limits on contributions. The coordinator sets the frame, the rhythm, and suggests working methods. But the coordinator's deeper task is to listen for the Spirit speaking through the group and through individuals. Pay attention to the quiet person who may have much to say—not much in quantity, but rich in quality.
Decisions come by consensus, by a shared understanding. The coordinator's gift is to notice when agreement has formed and name it aloud.
Projects
It matters that Faith and Light communities birth projects without waiting indefinitely. Desires and needs are real, and projects give a group energy and purpose. Anyone can take responsibility. But two mistakes lurk here: delaying a project forever, hunting for perfect conditions, until nothing happens at all. Or rushing ahead too fast, without discerning what God is asking, driven by the need to act and avoid the anxiety of waiting.
Evaluation
After a gathering, a weekend, a Mass, the team should pause and assess what happened. The coordinating team asks itself: Did it go well? Was the welcome genuine? What did people take away?
Regular evaluation keeps a community alive and prevents comfortable mediocrity—or exhaustion from doing too much, too carelessly.
Trust
Sometimes a team lacks energy. Members mean well but feel depleted, bereft of dynamism and creativity. In those moments, stay faithful—at least in prayer and gathering. Remember: wherever two or three gather in Jesus's name, Jesus is there.
— Jean Vanier, 2003