As readers (or reader…thanks Mom) undoubtedly know by now, we’re working on our business plan so that we’re always at the ready to describe succinctly our vision/mission, our strategic objectives and the functional imperatives that come from them here at DurhamCares. Chris Chuang, Bandwidth.com’s VP of Strategy, has been very gracious in donating his time through this process, and it truly has been a great one. We’ve been around for a year, and have always had a good sense for what we wanted to do, but the process of getting the 4 of us around a table to work on a formal plan….the kind that Bandwidth.com has, has been illuminating and much more thought provoking and in the end beneficial than I ever thought it would be.

There have been times that I thought the wrangling over the use of one word or words has been a bit overdone until I heard a story during breakfast from Lee Wheeler-Berliner, a Fuqua student who shared an experience that he had while working with a Habitat for Humanity Chpater that he used to volunteer with. As you’ll see this story proved helpful for my perspective on the power of word choice AND in how we wear our Christian badge (mentioned in past blogs).

He talked about how the group discussed for more than an hour whether to use the word “but” or “and.” You see, this chapter had previously stated that they were a Christian inspired organization BUT they also worked with non-Christians. After this wrangling process they made a significant change when they replaced the “BUT” with “AND”........if you do the same, you’ll see that it makes all the difference in the world.

And that is exactly how we want to present DurhamCares. We are a Christian organization and we should feel great about telling folks that AND that we DO help non-Christians too. The word “BUT” amounts to an apology or covers up something that we’re signalling that we’re embarassed about. Here is to lots more “ANDs” in all of our collective dialogs when we talk about our faith, and no more “BUTs”!

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