\u201cLiquid Modernity,\u201d \u201cChaordic Age,\u201d \u201cPost-post\u2014Modernity,\u201d \u201cPost-Christian,\u201d \u201cPost-Church,\u201d \u00a0 uuuuggghhhhh!\u00a0 It\u2019s exhausting!\u00a0 We are forced more and more to navigate nuances, to make values-based decisions while constantly adjusting our vision to ever-morphing shades of grey.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it means to be a church leader today.\u00a0 If I\u2019m being honest, sometimes I just want things to be simple, cut and dried, black and white, wrong and right.\u00a0 It seems that it would be much easier to lead if the goalposts weren\u2019t always moving around!\u00a0 But, as leaders, are we called to \u201ceasy?\u201d\u00a0 Probably not\u2026<\/p>\n
Meg Wheatley holds to the view that a leader’s best contribution isn\u2019t to be causal, but rather to engage in organizational midwifery, stewarding the \u201cqualities of commitment, compassion, generosity and creativity that are in all of us to start with.\u201d1 \u00a0Hmm\u2026\u00a0 So if people would just come to grips and get in touch with the goodness that is resident in them then organizational leaders would really only have to just stand at their helms, gently steering their adoring subordinates as they glide farther and farther along, out across the glassy seas of human accomplishment.\u00a0 I\u2019m thinking the doctrine of original sin and the general propensities of fallen humanity might argue against this leadership philosophy.<\/p>\n
Pema Chodron agrees with Wheatley just so long as individuals in these organizations are able to muster up \u201ca lot of trust in their own goodness, and\u2026 not freak out in the face of insecurity and uncertainty.\u201d2 \u00a0I get it,\u00a0(I trust that a little of my good-natured sarcasm is coming through here)<\/i>\u00a0and agree that in a perfect world, these approaches may work but what do we do when the very uncertainty and complexity facing us is\u00a0largely<\/i>\u00a0caused by the toxicity resident in our own humanity?\u00a0 How do we skillfully guide good-hearted people when their very own dysfunctions continue to perpetuate the uncertainty, not to mention the dysfunctions of us, the leaders?\u00a0 Is the Spirit of God and the renewed nature of regenerated Christians enough to counteract the environmental mess created by original sin?\u00a0 Can we be hopeful? \u00a0Len Hjalmarson seems to think so.<\/p>\n
Len offers the view that the present crisis of uncertainty offers fertile soil for seeds of rediscovery, rediscovery of the church\u2019s original mission: \u201cauthentic community, a living priesthood, missional people in a foreign land.\u201d\u00a0 We have the opportunity to make a shift from \u201cleadership cults to leadership cultures.\u201d3 \u00a0And while this is a hopeful, optimistic view, what evidence do we have that church leaders will rise to this challenge?\u00a0 Throughout church history, we have had ample times of fluidity which could have been leveraged into meaningful change yet somehow, the seasons on the emergent side of liminality always seem to wind up more messy than the previous.<\/p>\n
\u201cShut it Jon!\u00a0 Be hopeful!\u201d\u00a0 Like Dr. Hjalmarson\u2026<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0Margaret Wheatley & Pema Chodron, \u201cIt Starts With Uncertainty\u201d\u00a0Shambala Sun<\/i>\u00a0(November 1999).<\/p>\n
2. Ibid.<\/p>\n
3. Len Hajalmarson, \u201cLeadership in the Chadic Age,\u201d (an article). 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLiquid Modernity,\u201d \u201cChaordic Age,\u201d \u201cPost-post\u2014Modernity,\u201d \u201cPost-Christian,\u201d \u201cPost-Church,\u201d \u00a0 uuuuggghhhhh!\u00a0 It\u2019s exhausting!\u00a0 We are forced more and more to navigate nuances, to make values-based decisions while constantly adjusting our vision to ever-morphing shades of grey.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it means to be a church leader today.\u00a0 If I\u2019m being honest, sometimes I just want things to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"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":[22,647,475],"class_list":["post-5218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dimlgp","tag-hjalmarson","tag-lgp5-2","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218","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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5221,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions\/5221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}