05.20.08

Grandfather clause..

Posted in culture, emergence, gospel, leadership, postmodernity, transition at 5:30 am by len

Brad asks,

“In the next 25 years, every North American church must face its future: Will its current leaders make clear, intentional decisions to turn over their legacy to next generations of disciples? Will they “grandfather clause” their own paradigm, systems, and methodologies onto that future? Or will they let the next leaders develop it in ways they discern as appropriate to their own times – even if that means radical departures paradigm-wise from past ways, though not from The Way of truth?”

Brad notes that a creative combination of paradigms is not possible. This is because paradigms are based on different models of reality: they do not build on one another, they are not progressive or simply a new “level;” rather, they replace one another. Paradigms are like Newton vs Einstein, “mars” versus “venus,” land and sea. They grow out of different maps and languages. Brad continues,

People from Traditional and Pragmatic paradigms want structures that are authoritative, professional, clearly divided, and clean. They see Holistic approaches as too emotional, amateurish, interwoven, and messy for their tastes.

People from Holistic paradigms want structures that are authentic, peer-oriented, relationally inclusive, and personal. They see Traditional and Pragmatic approaches as controlling, exclusive, divisive, and distant.

Because of their personal paradigm and values, Holistic people will not find any natural inclination to stay where they cannot participate. It is their nature to serve, but they expect to be treated as peers in learning and working together. If everything is being controlled on their behalf, why should they stay? In their eyes, they are being kept children.

And all this relates, of course, to profound cultural sea changes around us. What if we viewed churches as storage houses for incredible social resources. But sadly, we only know how to use 10% of given resources at any time. But then.. God engineers an event that begins to liberate all those resources for the kingdom. Bill Kinnon’s post relating to the Web 2.0 conference points in this direction..

Earlier this month, Jay pointed to Clay Shirky’s important presention at O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Conference.

Shirky, who teaches at NYU but in a different program, has a new book out: Here Comes Everybody (“The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.”)* This speech stands alone. You can read it here, but you should really watch him here— after absorbing this post. The clip is less than 15 minutes. It lets you think along with Shirky as he explains “the cognitive surplus” we developed during the age of TV.

Be sure to watch at least the last five minutes.

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