Signs of Emergence
I am reading a new book called "Signs of Emergence" by Kester Brewin. I stumbled upon it by chance, I am doing and Advent Sermon Series on Emergence, called "In the Absence of Christ, what emerges?" Of course in my perfect world I would have blended the thought and science behind the Science of Emergence with different Anglican Theology and doctrines to make this brilliant statement of how science and theology are coming together and how are response is to be amazingly brilliant children of God. Then the boiler died, our chimney still hasn't been fixed and many other sordid things that are not making me happy.
Anyway, in reading this book, I stumbled across a little quote that got me really excited: "The only way to consider whether our structures are serving us is to stop and reflect on them. To dismantle them; take them apart piece by piece. Expose them to the air. Lay them on the ground and let everyone walk around them and get a good look at them without the pressures of meetings and deadlines and agendas. This is the beginning of empowerment: we must allow people space and time to return to the deep simplicity of things, and spend time mulling over the fundamentals, the nuts and bolts that interlock to make our complex lives."
Interesting, huh.
My first response is that we are still in the midst of doing this, the BCMS felt they did not have the authority to dismantle or take apart anything, and therefore did not take the time to actually take apart the structures that exist, that is the role of this next committee, I hope. But what it got me to thinking was how ready we are to take apart the Diocesan structure and rebuild it in our own image before we are ready to do the work that must happen in our own congregations in order for people to respond to the great and mighty change the BCMS report is calling us to.
It is clear that most people only care about their church, and the mission their church does. Many people, I have heard over and over again, don't really care about the diocese as a whole, so it is a whole lot easier for us, by us, I mean clergy, to focus our energy on something external to the life of the parish in which we live and work.
That, I think, is why I have such a visceral response to this idea of networking the diocese, it is a great idea, but what have we done in our parishes for members and seekers and others to prepare the great responsibility and effort that will be needed on their part to participate in the networking project.
When I first came to the Garden, everyone had many positive things to say and well wishes for my ministry here. I made a suggestion early on that parishes in the Region see if any of their members would be willing to come to the Garden for one year, one year with their pledge to help the Garden get off the ground. I suggested it thinking it was something that could bring us together, something that could create relationships across the parishes and something that would begin to overcome the competitiveness that exists between places. I suggested it because I thought it would be a great idea for us to begin creating relationships not just among clergy but also among laity. I suggested it because the sooner Gethsemane could get off the Diocesan Grant and move into a place of being able to sustain ourselves, the more money from that grant might be available for other places in need.
To say the least it fell flat, clergy said there was no way people in their parish would do it, clergy said that church members were not ready to do such bold mission. Clergy said it was a dumb idea. Now we want to do just that, connect our parishes and network the diocese so we can move forward.
I wonder though if we shouldn't have a year of implementing the BCMS report in our own parishes before we move into the bigger picture of the Diocese. Yes, we are doing that work here and let me tell you, in the short 7 years of ministry I have not experienced anything as amazing as the transformation I am seeing here in the Garden because of the honest and open conversations that are having about mission and how we do mission in the world.
Are we ready to implement the BCMS report in our Diocese, I suppose, are we willing to implement it in our parishes, I am not so sure. I wish we could have regular reports about how people have taken recommendations from the BCMS and begun to discuss and form ideas about how they demand local changes in mission and ministry. I wish we could have some sort of regular report from the Total Ministry parishes that tells us of the struggles and joys they have in learning how to be a networked ministry team. I wish we could hear from the Native Parishes about their work in the communities that are dealing with such great challenges, and where mission is simply assumed in their work and so much more than the building where it resides.
I like the idea of taking the time to really look at the structure we live in and I would suggest an Advent exercise with leaders and any other interested parishes in all of our parishes. There are 4 weeks in Advent, there are four goals. Talk about them and talk about how they are relevant or not to the work we each do as parishes in the Diocese of MN. Find ways to internalize and actualize the recommendations so in early 2008 we could make some reports about what is working and what is not. That would be soo cool to hear and see.
Talk about getting ready to transform the Diocese, if we, as parishes were in places of preparedness where we could see the BCMS goals and recommendations coming alive in our parishes, nothing could stop us from being sure that the next Bishop would have as the core of his or her work the vision of the BCMS. That toothless, empty vision with so much potential for vigor and new life.
Just some crazy thoughts from reading a fun book. I recommend it, if only for the chance to get some fun ideas about what we can do together.
Be well,
A+
Anyway, in reading this book, I stumbled across a little quote that got me really excited: "The only way to consider whether our structures are serving us is to stop and reflect on them. To dismantle them; take them apart piece by piece. Expose them to the air. Lay them on the ground and let everyone walk around them and get a good look at them without the pressures of meetings and deadlines and agendas. This is the beginning of empowerment: we must allow people space and time to return to the deep simplicity of things, and spend time mulling over the fundamentals, the nuts and bolts that interlock to make our complex lives."
Interesting, huh.
My first response is that we are still in the midst of doing this, the BCMS felt they did not have the authority to dismantle or take apart anything, and therefore did not take the time to actually take apart the structures that exist, that is the role of this next committee, I hope. But what it got me to thinking was how ready we are to take apart the Diocesan structure and rebuild it in our own image before we are ready to do the work that must happen in our own congregations in order for people to respond to the great and mighty change the BCMS report is calling us to.
It is clear that most people only care about their church, and the mission their church does. Many people, I have heard over and over again, don't really care about the diocese as a whole, so it is a whole lot easier for us, by us, I mean clergy, to focus our energy on something external to the life of the parish in which we live and work.
That, I think, is why I have such a visceral response to this idea of networking the diocese, it is a great idea, but what have we done in our parishes for members and seekers and others to prepare the great responsibility and effort that will be needed on their part to participate in the networking project.
When I first came to the Garden, everyone had many positive things to say and well wishes for my ministry here. I made a suggestion early on that parishes in the Region see if any of their members would be willing to come to the Garden for one year, one year with their pledge to help the Garden get off the ground. I suggested it thinking it was something that could bring us together, something that could create relationships across the parishes and something that would begin to overcome the competitiveness that exists between places. I suggested it because I thought it would be a great idea for us to begin creating relationships not just among clergy but also among laity. I suggested it because the sooner Gethsemane could get off the Diocesan Grant and move into a place of being able to sustain ourselves, the more money from that grant might be available for other places in need.
To say the least it fell flat, clergy said there was no way people in their parish would do it, clergy said that church members were not ready to do such bold mission. Clergy said it was a dumb idea. Now we want to do just that, connect our parishes and network the diocese so we can move forward.
I wonder though if we shouldn't have a year of implementing the BCMS report in our own parishes before we move into the bigger picture of the Diocese. Yes, we are doing that work here and let me tell you, in the short 7 years of ministry I have not experienced anything as amazing as the transformation I am seeing here in the Garden because of the honest and open conversations that are having about mission and how we do mission in the world.
Are we ready to implement the BCMS report in our Diocese, I suppose, are we willing to implement it in our parishes, I am not so sure. I wish we could have regular reports about how people have taken recommendations from the BCMS and begun to discuss and form ideas about how they demand local changes in mission and ministry. I wish we could have some sort of regular report from the Total Ministry parishes that tells us of the struggles and joys they have in learning how to be a networked ministry team. I wish we could hear from the Native Parishes about their work in the communities that are dealing with such great challenges, and where mission is simply assumed in their work and so much more than the building where it resides.
I like the idea of taking the time to really look at the structure we live in and I would suggest an Advent exercise with leaders and any other interested parishes in all of our parishes. There are 4 weeks in Advent, there are four goals. Talk about them and talk about how they are relevant or not to the work we each do as parishes in the Diocese of MN. Find ways to internalize and actualize the recommendations so in early 2008 we could make some reports about what is working and what is not. That would be soo cool to hear and see.
Talk about getting ready to transform the Diocese, if we, as parishes were in places of preparedness where we could see the BCMS goals and recommendations coming alive in our parishes, nothing could stop us from being sure that the next Bishop would have as the core of his or her work the vision of the BCMS. That toothless, empty vision with so much potential for vigor and new life.
Just some crazy thoughts from reading a fun book. I recommend it, if only for the chance to get some fun ideas about what we can do together.
Be well,
A+
Comments
Largely as an aside: "many other sordid things ....are not making me happy." is an excellent line.
Great quote from the book (which I've not ever heard of before your recent mention). Is the book a candidate for the Gethsemane On-line Book group?
Sounds like I better read the BCMS paper again. I've read it more than once...but it's been a long time. How many people do you think are reading it? What percentage of people in the diocese need to read it to have it be able to achieve its desired effect?
I have mixed feelings about that sort of thing just now. I'm taking a class at work that is highlighting the importance of fact finding before jumping to solutions. I can get way into that kind of thing. And my recent attendance of Faith Formation Network meetings increases my sense of value of diocesan level activities. On the other hand part of me feels like I don't care about reports and mucking around in analysis or any number of other things that are great ideas but may or may not matter much where the rubber meets the road.
The rubber does meet the road for me to some extent on Sunday morning at church....so I'm with you on the idea of getting with the program in our local parishes (say like Gethsemane, right?) What kind of networking do we have going on in our parish? What kind of community do we have going on in our parish? What kind of a lot of things do we have going on? (when it comes to "the deep simplicity of things....the fundamentals...the nuts and bolts...."?
..."most people only care about their church"...truth be told, it might be more that we primarily care about ourselves....and I'm not necessarily passing judgment about that...We're just all so busy trying so hard to meet our own needs that there's not time and space to get beyond wherever we're at with that. The idea of people coming to Gethsemane for a year probably posed too much of a perceived risk or loss either to individuals or their churches in which they are personally invested. I would love to spend a year at a succession of churches. Never thought of that before....maybe sometime in my life I will. Main catch would be risk of loosing community with a home church...provided that community had been established to a point that that was relevant enough. For how many people in our parish is that the case or not? Some certainly...but I wonder....
But in any case...what are we all so afraid of? (I know, easy to say in an area I'm feeling confident enough in. Ask me in the "wrong" subject & I'll get defensive right quick. But still, its probably a good question.) A large bucket is sometimes filled one drop at a time. If we each started living however much more out of our convictions we could muster, be that a tiny bit or a lot, rather than living out of our fears...what would happen?
A few more "crazy" thoughts. See you soon for some more!
I hope my response hasn't exceeded the length. of the post!!