One of the outcomes of my Design Session was a new moniker for my target audience: The Precipice Dweller.<\/p>\n
She is a pilgrim who has dared to journey into a liminal space between “What I’m running from.” to “What I’m running toward.” She’s a sojourner whose rebellious spirit has taken her to the precipice and is in need of a revolutionary spirit to take her beyond the edge. She is moved, not by a strategy or an idea, but by a deep conviction that things are not yet as they could be. She’s convinced that the transformation that will prepare her to join God and others in ushering in a better world lies on the other side of the cliff. While she has tasted the benefits of it, she is dissatisfied with the social accolades for her wilderness wandering and precipice dwelling.<\/p>\n
Yet, at the moment she prepares to leap into the pilgrimage that will remake her, she scrambles for familiarity. Shenpa<\/em>, Tibetan for attachment, keeps her tethered to the security of solid ground. (Renner & D’Souza, Not Knowing<\/em>, 193).<\/p>\n As I consider the inertia toward the familiar for so many evangelical faith leaders who dwell at the edge of transformation, I wonder about the fears that keep us clipped in to the comforts of the known. It is as though each of us wears a set of carabiners on life’s harness, core fears, that keep us attached to what was and prevent us from moving toward what could be.<\/p>\n The first carabiner is identity.<\/strong> This is the sense of self that has been shaped within a system that rewards us for accomplishment. We have been groomed to believe that we are what we produce and that our value rises and falls based on the volume of an audience’s applause. On the Precipice’s Edge, we ask questions like, “Am I enough?” and “Who am I now?” The fear of identity’s loss causes many to clip back in to shenpa<\/em> and miss the transformation.<\/p>\n The second carabiner is livelihood<\/strong>. This is the idea that one’s worth is connected exclusively to one’s ability to prop up and propel a system that seduces us to give our lives away for the cause. We have been groomed to believe that God’s providence and our survival is connected to remaining in line and never questioning the hand that feeds us. On the Precipice’s Edge, we ask questions like, “How will I sustain and survive?” and “What will I do instead?” The fear of livelihood’s loss causes many to clip back in to shenpa<\/em> and miss the transformation.<\/p>\n The third carabiner is community.<\/strong> These are the interpersonal relationships deemed most intimate. They are personal friends, colleges, family and mentors. We’ve been groomed to believe that so long as we walk the party line, this community will support and celebrate our efforts. The threat is that to question or critique the system is to loose connection with those most dear. This threat is realized as the journey to the edge has already been inundated with the severe and persistent critiques of those who once celebrated our skill. On the Precipice’s Edge, we ask questions like, “How will the rejection of those closest to me impact me?” and “Will I be alone?” The fear of community’s loss causes many to clip back in to shenpa<\/em> and miss the transformation.<\/p>\n The fourth carabiner is influence.<\/strong> This is the idea that one’s impact is connected solely to talent and one’s capacity for inspiring the crowds. We’ve been groomed away from understanding influence as connected to virtue and the aligned life. Instead, we scramble to turn heads and to pursue the affection of the nameless masses with well crafted statements and carefully edited images. On the Precipice’s Edge, we ask, “Will my voice or life matter?” The fear of influence’s loss causes many to clip back into shenpa and miss the transformation.<\/p>\n It seems that many Precipice Dwellers have been groomed to understand their identity, livelihood, community, and influence as connected exclusively to and byproducts of fidelity to the system. When they start to question the system, their fidelity is challenged and their identity, livelihood, community, and influence are threatened. For many Precipice Dwellers, this becomes an existential crisis that causes them to clip in to the comfort of the status quo or cut ties with their faith & leadership calling altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet there are a few who dare to believe that their identity is found not in what they produce, but in whose they are. On the other side of the precipice, they are discovering the difference between friendship and sacramental community. They are finding their souls fill with a revolutionary spirit that fosters dreams, awakens imaginations, and emboldens resolve. As they walk the pilgrimage, they find themselves becoming substantively different versions of themselves who are aligned and cross-shaped.<\/p>\n Rather than their carabiners tethered to shenpa<\/em>, they are clipped in to one anothers.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the outcomes of my Design Session was a new moniker for my target audience: The Precipice Dweller. She is a pilgrim who has dared to journey into a liminal space between “What I’m running from.” to “What I’m running toward.” She’s a sojourner whose rebellious spirit has taken her to the precipice and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1904,1903,1912,1866],"class_list":["post-26936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pilgrimage","tag-precipice","tag-precipice-dweller","tag-renner-and-dsouza","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26937,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936\/revisions\/26937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}