Infrastructure for Souls is sort of a pictorial essay that traces “…the parallel histories of the American megachurch and the corporate-organizational complex.” (via Tony Morgan Live on Twitter.)
There’s a lot of criticism of the megachurch in the world today (including some of my own) for using “corporate” strategy to reach people for Christ. But I think this essay provides a much broader overview. In this context, I’m not sure that the parallels are inherently either good or bad.
The church exists in the world. We naturally move forward with it: use of the printing press, telephones, cars, airplanes, technology, etc. So I guess it seems natural that there would be a correlation between the spaces where we work and live, and the places where we worship.
What do you think? I especially enjoy any kind of “overview” which extends beyond the last 20 years - they seem to provide a more objective perspective - broader cultural change vs. singular incidents of change.
I’ve been reading Brian McLaren’s Finding Our Way Again - the Return of the Ancient Practices. The book looks at early spiritual practices (fixed-hour prayer, fasting, observing the Sabbath) as ways to nurture our souls in today’s crazy world. But something he said jumped out at me in relation to my ongoing disagreement with today’s “Leadership” culture.
“The Greek word akolouzein, which means ‘to follow,’ appears about 90 times in the New Testament, almost always related to following Jesus.”
That one sentence captured my attention, because it unwittingly points out a key danger of today’s “Leadership” obsession. The word “follow” in the New Testament almost always refers to following Jesus. But what I see in much of today’s “Leadership” is a very subtle shift from following Jesus (being like Him), to being a leader (like Him) who others follow.
It explains the insistence of reading into Jesus’ clear teaching on being a servant (Mark 10, John 13) the awkward interpretations of “Jesus as team coach” or “Jesus as CEO.” Because if we make Jesus into a manager/leader who knew how to rally people around a goal, we can aspire to be a manager/leader who rallies people around our goal.
And yes, there are leaders in the New Testament - the apostles and other leaders of the early church. But their “leadership” wasn’t focused on “creating momentum” or “developing influence” or “getting the right people on the team.” They served the early church by keeping the new converts focused on following Christ.
I have a confession to make. It’s been two weeks since I was laid off my job, and I’ve done pretty well at keeping busy, being productive, working the internet employment sites. But a couple of days ago, I did absolutely nothing. I ate potato chips and watched reality shows on TV all day (and I hate reality TV). I was useless and good for nothing. I wallowed.
The next day I talked it over with God. And somewhere in the conversation, my mind wandered off and remembered that I used to volunteer at a certain agency in my area and they hadn’t contacted me in awhile and maybe I should check to make sure I was still on the volunteer roster. And what the heck, since I have some free time on my hands, maybe see if they need any help in the next week or two. Sorry God… where were we?
But this was a grace from God. It was an answer, and a nudge… instead of wallowing, get out and do something. Instead of frantically searching for the next thing for myself, get out and serve someone else. The answer in hard times is not to cling, it’s to give. Fear makes us clench our fists and hold on even tighter to what little we have. It’s an attitude of scarcity.
The secular world almost understands this better than we do, recognizing a law of abundance in the universe. As Christians, we actually know the God of the “abundant” universe, and have a personal relationship with him. Do you see how ridiculous scarcity thinking is in His context? In these tough economic times, are you tithing? Are you willing even to be generous? It’s crazy and a little reckless and it’s the only way to dare God.
And he seems eager for the challenge. “Go ahead,” he says. “Dare me. See if I don’t blow the lid off the abundant universe!” Giving and serving in times when we don’t have enough is one way to challenge God. Rather than clinging tightly to the little you have and begging him to please give you more, maybe faith is about giving it up and letting it go, and challenging him - daring him - to provide.
The Proposal is a new movie featuring Sandra Bullock as a rather pushy business woman. The Women’s Business Examiner decried this stereotype of the pushy female boss in light of “the difficult tight rope that we walk every day between being too nice and too pushy.”
But the real find in this article was a link to a recent Catalyst study called “The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t”. The study found that “Because they are often evaluated against a “masculine” standard of leadership, women are left with limited and unfavorable options, no matter how they behave and perform as leaders.” These unfavorable options are outlined as three “predicaments,” which place women leaders in a double-bind.
My favorite of the predicaments is the first one, which seems especially prevalent in the Church. [My comments in brackets.]
* When women act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes [i.e. when they act like women], they are viewed as less competent leaders.
* When women act in ways that are inconsistent with such stereotypes [i.e. when they are unemotional, business-like, dare we say "tough"], they are considered unfeminine.
But requiring women to lead like men is just one small part of the problem, in my opinion. Today’s “Leadership” culture attempts to shoehorn every type of spiritual gifting into one style of leadership. “Leadership” is now both the narrow gate (there’s only one way to do it) and the wide road (everyone is required to be that kind of leader). Very little is written about encouraging different leadership styles based on personality and gifting. And these, I would think, are two key characteristics that should set apart Christian leaders as members of the body of Christ.
As someone who was constantly juggling multiple projects, priorities, demands and deadlines, I used to consider this question about fifty times every day. Now what? What’s the next thing that needs to be done to keep all the plates spinning?
I still ask myself that question a couple of times a day, and of course in completely different contexts. I consider my blog and ask: now what? The poor View From Her is suffering from a complete identity crisis. Some of this is a result of the changing nature of blogging, and the growing popularity of “micro-blogging” such as Twitter, but much of it is simply a general lack of interest in many of the subjects which used to interest me. I feel I should apologize… but there it is.
I get up every day, and having a rather wide-open schedule, ask myself: now what? A friend wisely suggested taking on some of those projects you would normally never get around to. So far I’ve cleaned out a closet, swept out the garage, am working on fixing a non-working printer, and reading “Vanity Fair.” I’m also emailing friends about my job situation, and checking various job sites online daily.
And of course when I consider my recent job loss I ask: now what? I’m really good at coming up with ideas, at telling the story, art directing graphics and writing text so the message is clear and consistent across a variety of mediums. I love using those skills to help people think differently about God in their lives. At the same time, maybe it’s time for something different. Maybe God has another purpose in mind for these few skills he’s given me.
And mostly, every day, I sit at the dining room table with a cup of coffee and simply ask God, “now what?” Because I know that to him all this is less about what I do, and more about who I am in the process. So I ask him to search me, and know my heart, and remember my anxious thoughts, and see if there’s any offensive way in me (Psalm 139:23-24). And try to trust him for what’s next.
Now that I have some free time on my hands, I’ve been catching up on reading all my favorite blogs. You must check out this recent post over at Kinnon’s blog, in which he manages to skillfully blend all my favorite themes of Complimentarian vs. Egalitarian, leading vs. serving, and “why can’t we all just get along?”.
“We are all broken people who ’see as through a glass darkly’ - cracked Eikons, as it were. Extending grace, one to another, might go a long way in fulfilling Jesus prayer for our unity - whether we ever completely agree with each other. (We won’t.)”
So one week ago today, I received some startling news. It seems that the church where I work has, like so many others, finally succumbed to the economic downturn, necessitating budget cuts. These cuts included layoffs, and one of the eliminated positions was mine. Along with budget management, I suspect some “reprioritization” as well. Which is neither here nor there, as God ultimately moves people in and out of positions as needed according to his plan, not the plans of men.
God, of course, already knew this would be happening, and had thoughtfully arranged for a long-time friend to come the weekend before to stay with me. So along with having someone to talk to about things, I’ve actually been quite busy having dinner with friends, going to movies, shopping, etc.
This is not the first time I’ve been in this situation. (I worked in advertising for years where layoffs are almost a way of life.) I also documented a previous period of unemployment on this blog. Just glancing through those posts was an encouraging reminder of God’s provision.
So stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted on this new journey. As I wrote more than two years ago:
“A lot of life is lived between here and “there.” “There” being somewhere else we want to be. As singles, many of us want to be married. Most people want to achieve, impact, succeed, make a difference. It’s how we live in the in-between and deal with the challenges that shows what we really believe, and who we really are.”
In the light of this week’s shooting at the Holocaust Museum, Jim makes a perceptive observation.
The article says this about the 88-year-old white supremacist: “When his ex-wife met him in the mid-1960s, he was a wine swiller consumed by hatred.” Please note, that when she met him, he was already in possession of these illustrious qualities.
Jim points out:
“He was a ‘wine swiller consumed by hatred (and) would get angry and abusive’ whenever he was questioned about it. And still he was able to attract a woman 20 years younger than him… Ladies, it’s girls like her (and the one’s that marry the Menendez brothers and Scott Petersons of the world) that are holding you back. You need to do something about them.”
When you meet an alcoholic, raging and abusive hater, (can any of these qualities be on a woman’s list?) it’s not an opportunity to get out your toolbox and “Fix-it-Yourself Manual” (however much we believe “fixing” others is a distinctly female gift). It’s a chance to practice your freedom of “choice” to focus on a man who embodies respect, thoughtfulness, and kindness.
That way, we can focus our Fixing Gift on changing the world.
Leave it to a law enforcement officer of the U.K. to provide a frank and entertaining perspective on what he calls “this ‘leadership’ thing.” Apparently someone with experience in the grit and grime of real crises of crime has developed the skill of calling ‘em like he see’s ‘em. I liked him immediately.
He tells of how he came to go on “a training course on ‘Managing Change and Improvement,’” or what he refers to as “two days of twaddle.”
“‘Change’ is many things - but management training will tell you it is inevitable, a good thing, that organisations thrive on change an so on. Experience tells me that ‘change’ is inevitable, poorly thought out, often unnecessary, implemented for personal and self-promotional reasons, prone to being reversed. It is also politically motivated, sometimes follows changes in society, and the adage ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ works an awful lot of the time.”
See? A voice of practical reality in the midst of all the “leadership” hyperbole. He closes with this: “I may be wrong, I may be in a minority of one, but people who talk like professional managers, with ‘vision’ and a ‘mission’ come across as…”
Well, give yourself a treat and just read his entire post.
No big surprise here, we try to look attractive because we’re afraid of being rejected. In case for some reason you didn’t know that, they conducted a scientific study to prove it.
Frankly, I’m pretty sure anyone who’s older than the 5th grade has figured out the whole correlation thing between attractiveness and rejection, but you know science - always wanting to prove the obvious. Like this: “There is a lot of research to suggest that physically attractive people are less stigmatised by others in this society..” Reeeally. They’re less stigmatised in the 5th grade, too. This is my favorite:
“The study also found that men and women who had internalised media ideals of attractiveness had higher levels of appearance-based rejection sensitivity than did their peers.”
Just for the record, I think I may have problematic levels of humor-based rejection sensitivity. And please don’t take this personally - I hate to make it an issue, really - but I suspect a predisposition towards writing-based rejection sensitivity.
Just sayin’.
