{"id":5195,"date":"2015-06-03T19:41:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T02:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5195"},"modified":"2015-06-03T19:41:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T02:41:42","slug":"the-space-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-space-between\/","title":{"rendered":"The Space Between"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve never been a fan of the Oreo cookie. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s not the whole thing that I don\u2019t like\u2026I\u2019m not that crazy. The cream part in the middle, that\u2019s where you\u2019ll find me. In fact when I was younger (hmmm, including yesterday) I used to remove the top cookie, eat the middle and either leave the wafers for someone else to eat or throw them away. For me, the good stuff is what happens in the space between the hard places of the top and bottom wafer.<\/p>\n

\"oreo-twist-off1\"<\/p>\n

Liminality is defined as a place in between. To some it\u2019s a place of uncertainty and incompleteness. For others it\u2019s a place of discovery and possibilities. Liminal space is a place of the no longer, the not yet, and the might be. It\u2019s a fascinating place to find yourself; especially as it relates to the church.\u00a0\u00a0 Canadian Author and Pastor, Len Hjalmarson put it this way: \u201cChurches are entering a nowhere land that has come into being in the turbulent waters of societal shift. We have become like travelers with maps that are outdated and that no longer describe the landscape. The sense that our maps no longer function increases our sense of lostness, as well as our anxiety about the future. \u201c (Broken Futures, p.2)<\/p>\n

We love maps, GPS systems and tracking devices of all kinds. It\u2019s comforting to know where we are in relationship to where we\u2019ve been and more importantly to where we\u2019re going. It also helps us to know where everyone else is as well. The challenge for leadership in churches during these messy or chaotic times of uncertainty will require a different set of tools. Helping people to navigate their cultural context can seem like an imposing task, unless of course we recognize the importance of using the resources that God has given to us as opposed to the way things have always been done. Hjalmarson refers to these resources as frameworks, therefore the role of leadership is to help people find meaning and purpose within them: \u201cThe meaning-making view assumes that people are naturally in motion, always doing something, and that they need, rather than motivation to act, frameworks within which their action makes sense.\u201d (Leadership in a Chaordic Age, p.5)<\/p>\n

Perhaps then one of the transitions we need to be unafraid to make is the transition from clean ministry to messy ministry, being unafraid to encounter, even welcome, healthy conflict which can used to filter through how our past contributes to our future. Conflict in these spaces in between need not be feared, rather embraced in as much as the clear purposes, are not sacrificed or compromised. A few observations about the transition from the clean, stream lined institutional view of the church to one that embraces the complexity of messiness:<\/p>\n