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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this week\u2019s articles mostly because they beautifully articulated, \u201can itch I\u2019ve been wanting to scratch.\u201d I\u2019m guessing this week\u2019s readings would resonate with any one who finds themselves in leadership. The longing question Len asks, \u201cHow do we walk with God into a new future \u2013 an unknown place?[1]<\/a>\u201d is the question I go to sleep pondering many nights.<\/p>\n One needs only to look at this month\u2019s front cover of Vanity Fair to acknowledge we are living in a time of liminality, \u201ca space in-between, a transition point, where old and new collide.[2]<\/a>\u201d The Church mistakenly looks at this transition as a time to stand our ground and define right and wrong, when instead the Church should acknowledge this transition as an opportunity to embrace uncertainty and chaos, knowing \u201chumans thrive with stability \u2013 but the gospel seems to thrive on the edge of chaos.[3]<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n While everything seems to be changing we must also remember that nothing has changed at all. With liminal space in abundance and uncertainty all around, the Gospel hasn\u2019t changed and we are walking through chaos much like many other generations of believers have before us. Through all of history the Church has navigated the waves of culture and the Kingdom has continued to grow.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s important for believers today to understand the history of the Church, how those that have gone before us have navigated their culture, and for current believers to understand as best we can the times we currently find ourselves. What can we learn from the past and what can we learn from our current time\/place in this world?<\/p>\n This week\u2019s readings helped me understand that we need less answers and we need more courage and innovation. Margaret Wheatley says, \u201cWe really don\u2019t want any more meetings because all we\u2019ve done for years is accuse and yell at each other, trying to push our own agenda through this very dense resistance.[4]<\/a>\u201d Wheatley goes on to say, \u201cSo courage is what we need, and the source of that courage is recognizing that the questions, doubts and desires that move in me move in everyone else as well.[5]<\/a>\u201d As leaders we must have courage to enter into conversations not pushing an agenda and not knowing the answer, but instead trusting that our vulnerability and the process will lead towards true connection with one another and will result in a new way to engage our community for the sake of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n So \u201cHow do we walk with God into a new future \u2013 an unknown place?[6]<\/a>\u201d This is the question that looms within me but it is also the question that for two thousand years believers have been asking. Everything around us is changing and nothing is changing at the same time.<\/p>\n Father, I pray you give us the courage to ask questions we don\u2019t know the answers too, the courage to seek your Kingdom instead controlling the small manageable kingdoms we try to create. Bring us to the end of ourselves and help us to again learn how to be in this together. All for the sake of Jesus. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Leonard Hjalmarson,\u00a0Broken Futures: Adaptive Challenge and the Church in Transition<\/em>, Unpublished, Chapter One.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Margaret Wheatley & Pema Chodron, \u201cIt Starts with Uncertainty,\u201d\u00a0Shambala Sun<\/em>, November 1999.<\/p>\n
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