So we’ve moved into what some people call The Conceptual Age. For those who promote such a reality (i.e. Tom Peters and Thomas Friedman, to name two) this new era is pronounced with three simple yet profound questions:
1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Am I offering something that satisfies the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age?
These three questions, first posed by Daniel Pink, have been rattling around in my thinking for the past few months. What is the Conceptual Age saying to church and to church leaders?
But let’s not be too modern in our engagement with this question. Rather than straight line these questions, let’s take a curved approach. What are some of the animations of the new age? (Again Pink is helpful here.)
• Creation of artistic and emotional beauty.
• Crafting a satisfying narrative.
• Combining seemingly unrelated ideas into something new.
• Embracing high touch; empathize with others; understand subtleties of human interaction; to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning.
This list could go on, but the amazing thing for every pastor or church leader in examining these animations is that the Church and the Gospel checks out high on each of them.
Everything the Conceptual Age calls out for – the Church and the Gospel can more than deliver on.
The Church and the Gospel should be fully impactful in the new age.
This is our time.
BUT ….for leaders to charge full speed into this new conceptual age leaders need to flick the switch from left brain to right brain. This is the challenge. Most of our churches and most of our denominations or organizations are led by left brainers. But, left brain will leave you short every drive.
This is the right brain time.
Strategic plan – out; holistic design in.
Church growth theory – out; journey in.
Goals - out; synthesis in.
Data and information – OK; but organizational and behavioral empathy better.
Size - says something; depth says something more.
So what could this look like in a local church setting?
While there will remain the need for making plans and having tactics, new aspects of church will emerge ….local church global involvement. Not the surrendering of this to a para-church missions organization, but the local church doing it. Community care – bigger than pastoral care, but community care that meets the needs of the community at large, not the community within. Planting churches, but churches that not only preach and teach but feed and care and heal and work for justice. Holistic design.
Theories, formulas, models of how it all works are out ….its the journey, the story, the narrative specific to your context, your thumbprint, your DNA. Each one will be distinct, each one will be compelling. But don’t try to replicate someone else’s story. Journey is in.
It’s about seeing, more than goals. It’s about art more than math’s. It’s about music more than science. The difference – art, music, seeing …are much more subjective, more relational. This pushes us away from the flat lines of goals, to the symphony of metaphor.
And …..it is done with feeling, with soul, more than with targets or data. This is synthesis, this is empathy.
Instead of seeking to grow a large church, the church will see the health of reproduction over production. This is the size of health. This is depth.
It’s a new day in church leadership. The shift is subtle.
It happens through fermentation.
But …it’s the way of the now.
It’s our day.
Make the shift.
Change your thinking.
Welcome to the labyrinth of effective church leadership.
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2 comments:
It is sad that the church has spent so much time focused on size and church growth. And to top it off it’s not even about growing the church by bringing people to Christ. It’s about how many people you can steal from other churches. Jesus said go and make disciples, not build me temples all over the world (the Jews already tried that one and Jesus didn’t go for it).
Making disciples requires one to be holistic, to join that person on their journey to show empathy and most of all to have a relationship with depth. Unfortunately it is easier to pay someone to be a priest then to have to be one yourself. To say the church needs to be these things is easy because we like to think of the church as the building and the staff. It is so much harder when we the body have to be these things.
I don’t remember who said it but it has been said that the non believer can do anything the church can and many times do it better except in one area and that is we have grace. And it is that grace which allows us to take the journey and have a relationship with depth.
OK, so turn loose the right brain and what do you get? The church is infamous for being prescriptive on how things are done.
On one hand, right brainers are "too sensitive."
And think too much, leaders are decisive.
On the other hand, without the modern use of data, how do we know we're growing?
How do we measure depth?
Do we repent of modernism and never turn back?
Is there nothing to glean from the modern age? Many pioneers of the modern age, the Enlightenment/ Renaissance/ Scientific age were sincere Christians seeking God. They were coming out of their Dark Age. Are we coming out of ours?
I've heard the Modern Age compared to the Titanic, but God isn't that wasteful, especially with his beloved.
Just now, I'm thinking of the comparison of the kingdom of God to the mustard seed. Small beginnings, but what does the end look like? The mustard seed is like David. The smallest, but still chosen of God, putting the greatest to shame.
Did the small put the great to shame in the modern age?
I don't know, but one thing is clear, the church as a whole threw the baby out with the bath water in the modern age. The contemplative slice of following Christ has seen a resurgence of late. But it was all but forgotten during the modern age of the church. There must be something to glean from the modern age, as well. Contemplative christians lost their way in the modern church, or more accurately found their way out. Sad for them and others.
We X-ers and millenials say, "Forge ahead, it's time for change." How do "modern" church leaders react? How does the shift happen? Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Or do you have to start over with pups?
Gilbert says the shift is subtle, is it also slow? due to the relearning process.
We are creatures of habit. I don't know how many times I've missed a turn because my unconscious brain was just heading to work. All the while, the whole car load is making fun of me. "What are you laughing at, you've done the same thing. Oh, that's why you're laughing."
I just get so tired of how "busy" we are. We ask - are you keeping busy? And wear it like a badge. We ask - how are you? And the answer is "busy." The only way to stay busy is to find your groove until it turns into a rut until it turns into a grave. And it's a lonely road.
Back to the point of discussion - the left brain mindset is ingrained - even in so many right brainers. The path to leadership is rarely sought by right brainers because of the trauma of not being qualified in the modern sense. Again, old dog new tricks?
Gilbert gives data an OK, and size a seat at the table. But holistic design, journey and synthesis kick strategic planning, church growth theory and goals out.
What do we do with the helpfulness those three tools offered once?
What helps me bridge the left and right is narrative. Understanding narrative in a broader perspective is helpful.
Narrative on a basic level is story telling. We tell stories to make sense of things. Hawaiians talk story, which is to say they hang out and talk. And Seinfeld took that to a new level - a show about nothing - dull, everyday conversations with friends, making sense of what happened to them in the course of life. That's what mankind has been doing since prehistory.
The modern age was a new story/ narrative. Data and statistics helped people make sense of the world. But statistics could never answer some questions. Those unanswered questions have caused us to formulate other stories to make sense of those things that statistics could not make sense of.
So, can the postmodern artist utilize the mechanisms of the modern age? Well, I haven't been to the Sistine Chapel yet, but I'd say Michaelangelo had a pretty good grasp of the art AND science of things.
Funny, he was one of those Renaissance guys. Where did we go wrong? How would he have built the Titanic? More important, I think he would have listened to the warnings of icebergs.
The thing is - few modern places are able to teach both sides of the brain. Our schools and universities and many seminaries are left-brain production factories. There's no time or funding for developing the right-brain. Hmmm, maybe there's a mustard seed shrub somewhere that can make/let it happen? The renaissance of the renaissance in a sense.
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