When Strategy Isn't Enough

A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” – Psalm 127:1

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Photo by Robert Clark on Unsplash

Over the past few weeks, I’ve sat in meeting after meeting with good, smart, compassionate people. All of us are trying to save something - the planet, democracy, the church, our collective future. We’re doing it with the best of intentions—mobilizing our gifts and organizing capacity to try and make a meaningful difference.

The energy in these gatherings is often high. We bring our whole selves to the work. We talk about how to scale impact. We map out stakeholders and relationships. We try to anticipate how to hold complexity, how to find leverage points, how to communicate clearly and persuasively. We work hard—really hard—to develop strategies that might stand a chance in the face of so much unraveling.

But I keep noticing something just beneath the surface.

So much of this work, though well-intentioned and deeply faithful, still relies on the logic of the very systems we know are collapsing. We’re trying to respond to the moment using the tools that helped create it—linear thinking, measurable outcomes, institutional structures, speed, and urgency.

We’re trying to organize our way out of collapse.

And maybe—maybe outwitting collapse is not what’s needed most.

What if salvation was never the point? What if the era of problem-solving is giving way to something else? What if what’s needed now is sacred accompaniment—learning to stay with one another, stay with the earth, stay with the brokenness—without trying to fix it all?

If we allow ourselves to shift from thinking primarily in terms of strategy to thinking in terms of story, of relationality, a new kind of clarity emerges.

This is a different kind of labor. It doesn’t move on spreadsheets. It moves in the dark, through the marrow, in the quiet fidelity of those who refuse to leave one another, no matter what comes.

It’s the shift from:

• Strategy → Story

• Systems thinking → Relational sensing

• Scalability → Soilability (What can grow here, now?)

• Problem-solving → Pattern-seeing

• Deliverables → Devotion

That doesn’t mean we stop planning. But it does mean we hold our plans more lightly. It means we allow relationships, trust, and attentiveness to guide us more than deadlines, leverage points, or key performance indicators.

In this way, we are not building institutions. We are cultivating a field—alive with prayer, presence, and mutual remembering.

And in that field:

• Actions emerge from attunement, not agenda.

• Relationships self-organize around resonance, not roles.

• The story you carry guides the rhythm, not the roadmap.

When we do that, we shift the field. We stop trying to hold things together with pressure and start tending a space where Presence can emerge. We become people who listen more than fix, who discern more than direct, who nourish more than control.

That may not look “effective” in the eyes of old systems. But it is deeply faithful. And it might be the only way life continues in times of collapse.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

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• In what areas of your life are you trying to “solve” what might instead need tending, witnessing, or grieving?

• What assumptions do you hold about effectiveness? Where did they come from?

• What does sacred presence look like for you in the midst of uncertainty?

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A Prayer for the Day

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For What Grows in Sacred Ground

Holy One who holds what we cannot,
Teach us to trust what doesn’t move in straight lines.
When our minds rush to fix, help our hearts remember how to feel.
When fear tempts us to organize our way to safety,
Return us to the deeper knowing that relationship is what saves us.
Plant in us a faith that grows roots—not reach.
Shape in us a rhythm of care, not conquest.
And let what grows from this soil be enough.

Amen.

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Spiritual Practice

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Tending the Relational Field

Set aside 15 minutes today to take stock of the “relational field” around you—your conversations, your community, the relationships in your care. Notice where you’re acting from pressure or performance. Notice where you’re rushing to fix, resolve, or control.

Then choose one relationship, conversation, or responsibility to approach differently this week, not with strategy, but with presence. Show up without needing to be the expert. Be available, not just helpful. Trust that presence is a form of care, and that deep change often emerges when people feel seen, not managed.

Write down what you noticed afterward. How did your presence shift the interaction? What did it make possible?

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Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

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SOLD OUT!!! July 20-25, 2025 - The Art of Wilding: A 5-Day Expedition in Wyoming for Women Leaders. Click here to learn more in case you want to come next year!

August 11, 2025, 2pm ET - Dr. Andrew Root and I will be hosting a 6 part series on Spirituality in the Secular Age based on his research. The dates are August 11, 18, September 8, 15, and October 6, 13. Mark your calendars! More on this soon.

September 4, 4:30pm ET - I will be collaborating with the Anderson Forum for Progressive Theology to host a conversation with Thomas Jay Oord on Open and Relational theology. It’s a FREE event. Register here.

October 15-18, 2025 - Converging 2025: Sing Truth Conference (all musicians invited!) at Northwest Christian Church in Columbus, OH. Register here!

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

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If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.