Whenever people think of the World Race, the first thought is almost always “11 countries in 11 months? Doing MISSION WORK!? What an adventure for Jesus!!!” There are countless vlogs and instagram posts of racers with the children they get to serve, the adventure days they go on, and blogs talking about personal spiritual growth. But there is something that happens on the World Race behind the scenes that is a HUGE part of our kingdom culture here:
FEEDBACK!
You may already know this, but each team on the World Race is asked to do DAILY feedback, either affirmative or constructive, for themselves or other members of their team.
WOOF! That’s seems like a lot to swallow!
Well, let me break it down for you.
Feedback is actually a super great way to cultivate community, intimacy, and mission, and it is NOT as scary as it sounds.
This month, in order for our squad to grow in giving healthy feedback, we have challenged ourselves once a week to have a feedback session where we all give EVERYBODY constructive and affirmative feedback about how they are growing in the fruits of the spirit, and this has been an awesome lesson in the power of feedback. At first it was a lot to swallow. Getting constructive feedback from 7 people in the course of 2 hours is a lot to digest, so knowing this, we had to be very intentional about preparing feedback. Praying about it is KEY! We want to make sure that if we are encouraging someone to grow, that that growth is also in line with how the Father wants to grow them, too, otherwise our words are just a clanging cymbal and they are not going to help the person in the long run.
It is also important to make sure feedback lines up with scripture. I can’t just give feedback to a teammate because she constantly chews gum during ministry and I think it’s annoying. If she is still reflecting the love of Christ, I just need to get over my annoyance and let her keep serving the way she serves best. Good feedback is feedback that points people back to God, since everyone’s goal here is to get closer to God and learn what it means to live for Him.
Doing the fruit of the spirit feedback has been a great way to learn how to give constructive feedback healthily and lovingly, so that when a circumstance arises where we really do need to give hard feedback, we know how to do it in a way that still reflects the Father’s heart. There have already been times on this race where I have given or received hard feedback, and since we have had this time to practice digesting that feedback, I was able to take it more graciously and take it to the Lord and let that feedback be a way for me to get closer to God, rather than viewing it as an attack.
Another important thing about feedback is to pray about feedback you receive. We are human and sometimes we say things that aren’t always helpful. If we have not been intentional about praying for feedback, it could have the potential to hurt someone unintentionally or speak false truth over them. This is why feedback should go through our own prayer filter as well. It is important to ask God what He thinks about certain feedback to make sure it lines up with the identity He has already given us. At the end of the day, we want to please God, not man, so if we get feedback that may make a teammate happier, but compromises who you are in the eyes of God, you don’t always have to take that feedback.
Now, normally during daily feedback, 3 or 4 people may have some to give, and maybe every other day there is constructive feedback, so it is not always a big scary thing. It is a way to just be intentional about building teams up and having clear communication and vulnerability. I honestly love feedback. In the past I have struggled with communicating clearly with people in community. I would let things bother me and never bring them up, but I would never affirm people when they were on fire for the Lord, either. You really need both for healthy communication in a group, and I love that we are held to this standard to be so intentional with each other and help each other along this journey, knowing full well that we make mistakes, but not letting those mistakes define us and moving past them with our eyes fixed on God.
Looking at World Race meme pages and hearing past stories about feedback, a lot of people build it up to be this big terrible thing we are forced to do, when in reality, it is just a way we are encouraged to press into community and be aware of ourselves and our growth in our faith. It is really such a beautiful thing and I have fallen in love with it, and I hope to take this practice home with me after the race to foster even better communication in relationships I already have.
