So … I have enrolled in a postgraduate research degree! The college is very much aimed at forming the researcher – yes, content is important of course, but the process leaves one a different person. It’s to form them in the research mindset and to participate in the academy. As far as content is concerned, research itself seems to be quite a stringent process and so needs to be quite focused. I have a mental picture of what this looks like: Current research is a painted wall. To add to painted wall, you need to find that bit of the wall not currently covered with paint – but to do so you need to tap into the vast amounts of scaffolding constructed by past painters, first of all making sure it is sound, adding your own scaffolding and finally painting the little bit that isn’t covered. Scaffolding is the research, and painting is the writing. To try and make the whole process manageable, researches need to focus their research question down to a very specific area. Maybe a thesis a bit like this: “The thickness of varnish on cuckoo clocks constructed in Bavaria between 1873 and 1897”. (Apologies if someone has actually done that thesis.) You know what I mean. In all of that, a person could forget why they started painting in the first place – their purpose and the big picture.
So I thought that I’d tried to write down the stirrings of a bigger picture – what I’d like to participate in, and contribute to. As this blog progresses, it will become apparent that the transformative drive behind all this is the Judeo-Christian scriptures – which drive both personal and societal transformation. This will be what the blog will explore. So the purpose below reflects both the personal, and the role of the “ecclesia” – the collective role of those participating in the ongoing project of human flourishing and new creation. I may use the word “church” to denote this collective role.
STIRRINGS AND POSSIBILITIES: A CALLING TO BE A BRIDGE-BUILDER?
Sometimes I feel a bit like an outsider: someone who spans “worlds”, but not fully at home in them. Maybe this is a gift rather than a curse. And maybe this feeds into my calling – to span these worlds. Spanning worlds sparks uncomfortableness – but this is the space to reach into to try and uncover rich insight. Perhaps my calling is to sit with the tension of these different worlds; to bridge them, not to resolve them, but to seek new insight. Perhaps my calling is to build the bridges that have a catalytic effect on empowering the people of God for the life of the world? (Stevens, p31).
In the following, I try to articulate this Bridge-building. It is possibility thinking – trying to imagine a new future – one that brings into the ‘now’ our future hope.
Build bridges:
- Between those that are catching this vision.
God is at work in the world, and I am sure that I am not the only one that is coming to these convictions and a growing awareness of their implications. My hope is to find and connect with others that are feeling convicted to join this mission and the incarnation of the Gospel. Those that see the possibilities of the ecclesia for the neighbourhood; how the “grammar of design”, built into creation, invites us to new ways of being in the world; and those who are willing to sacrifice and put skin in the game to bring about these new ways.
- Between people in the second half of life and those in the first half.
From time to time, I’ve met in a men’s group in a retirement village venue. It’s a wonderful venue, but a future existence wiling away my hours scares me. I would much rather be engaged in a community that uses its “sacred dance”(second half of life) to support those in their “survival dance” (first half of life) – that helps me go from “aging to “sage-ing”. There is great potential for the neighbourhood to mentor the next generation: to engage elders noted for wisdom and experience who can be sought for advice, help, support and direction. (R. Paul Stevens p17). In what form would a platform take that both helps the older generation navigate the second half of life together as well as mentor ones still navigating the first half of life? How would we engage the demographic that is living older in supporting lifelong learning, as well as linking broad and diverse social networks that enable people to find others that can help them get better faster? Could the Church act as a platform to nurture and develop and share gifts: a nurturing creative community?
Corporations are no longer nurturing people along well-defined career paths. Could the church step into this space and be a hub/platform providing the
- nurturing community
- Linking of gifts – particularly from the old to the young
- Start-up investment
- Incubation of new ventures requiring empathy and love to address issues for a better world?
Can the church be intentional about being a social laboratory for the sake of the world? It has the diverse community, which models the needs of the wider society, and it has the giftings, love and relationships to do so.
- Between denominations
As someone who has worked and participated across denominations, and read widely from authors of all different backgrounds, I am well aware of the gifts and charisms of the western church along with their mirror dark sides. I know less about the Eastern Orthodox churches, but I suspect that their view of the Gospel is closer to the early church view of the renewal of all things – a view that the western church is beginning to rediscover. I’d like to investigate how this understanding of the Gospel might change the game so much that the old “arguments” between the Euro-tribal denominations are not only irrelevant, but unites them in the project of local human flourishing. Each tradition may maintain their cultural distinctiveness (often their strengths) while working together on neighbourhood renewal for the life of their community. What would be the conditions, or model(s) that would support this? Could a case be made to build a hub/platform that partners with all the churches in a defined neighbourhood area that maintains worshipping communities, but also allows/support these churches in co-creation within the neighbourhood?
The hub (drawn from the combined churches in a neighbourhood) could draw on methodologies that facilitate local social innovation an transformation such as Asset Based Community Development. Using concepts articulated by Peter Block: The hub could model the future hope in the way it convenes, so that the very way it gathers has transformational power, as well as cultivating the soil to prepare for social transformation. Every time we gather becomes a model of the future we want to create. The gospel gives the denominations a strong sense of purpose plus a commitment to bring something new into the world. The communal possibility rotates on the question “What can we create together?” Plus the gospel shifts the conversation from one of problems, fear, and retribution to one of possibility, generosity, and restoration.
- Between gifts and needs/mission
In the area of Brisbane I live in, there are many talented and gifted people. How are these gifts and talents discerned, documented and nurtured and deployed for the life of the community? How are they married to a community of possibility, and amplified by a community of collaborative maturity focussed on the question, as above, of “What can we create together?”
- Between the academic world and the general population
I grew up on a cane farm. My father emigrated from Italy when he was 23 and had very little education and has never read a book in his entire life. My uncles and a brother are landscape gardeners – very much involved in the physical renewal and beatification of our world. How is all this relevant to them? How would they make sense of it? My hope is to be able to span these worlds and translate these ideas and concepts for my friends and family.
- Between the abstract and the here and now
I would like to bridge between theoretical frameworks to the here and now – what does this mean for my neighbourhood. What can we put into practice? According to Peter Block, “Large system change is a useful way to think, but transforming action is always local, customized, unfolding, and emergent.” Grounded research, coming from practical application, will be an important part of the learnings in all this.
- Between the historical worlds and the present
The distinctiveness of scripture is brought into stark reality when compared to the context and prevailing worldviews of the time. I’d like to drill into and understand this distinctiveness (these ‘dangerous ideas’ according to Iain Provan); whether it is the Hebrew scriptures in the ancient Mesopotamian or Egyptian contexts; or the New Testament scriptures and communities when compared to the Hellenistic Greco-Roman world.
I would like to understand how these distinctions resulted in social innovation and changed the world. And to draw out lessons on how this applies to our current context. How does the Gospel change the world today? And how might this manifest in the future? I don’t think that Christianity is at the end of social innovation – I think that there is still much more, and that the church is just starting.
- Between the isolated and community
Last night the ABC News featured a story about the growing levels of social isolation, loneliness and attendant health issues, in our communities. It doesn’t have to be like this – dealing with the problem first requires a new imagination about how things could be. We need to imagine a new way of being community and foster belonging. I believe that economic and social isolation are the root causes of many of the wicked problems we face (see blog #3). Yet I see the models of church (which I think has all the ingredients to address this issue), playing very little if any role in addressing the problem.
How would a neighbourhood church sponsored hub (like a town square) act as a platform to facilitate connection and fellowship across the community, particularly those isolated on the edge? How can we facilitate everyone to be known and loved? Uniting people in shared purpose, I think, helps (particularly men) – what would all this look like?
- Between rich and poor
Shane Claiborne says that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.” How can we move beyond a “welfare” model to one where the community is so integrated that the tags of rich and poor no longer apply – and that neighbourliness means that community life is rich and abundant, and that no one is left to fend for themselves – and again, everyone is known, supported and loved?
- Between the established and new arrivals
In my younger days, I moved quite a bit around Queensland as I followed work. Sporting teams and other such groups facilitated integration into the new community. Wouldn’t it be great if the church was intentional about integrating new people into the community – particularly those from overseas or refugees? This would require that the church first be a community that can welcome people. Many churches are providers of church services rather than being a community where one could belong.
- Between Christian and secular
My growing understanding of the Kingdom of God is a “revolutionary perspective that in effect spells the end to both religion and secularism. It is the invasion of all of life with the shalom-bringing, life-enhancing rule of God.” (R. Paul Stevens) Much has been made about the separation of state and church, and sacred and secular, but as public historical documents, scripture has shaped our world profoundly, so surely cannot be ringfenced off. As such, they inspire the followers of Jesus to view all of life as a “design opportunity”. They have shaped human agency in such a way that has led to the modern world (Rikk Watts).
I’d like to drill into and build on the work of Edwin Judge, Mark Strom, Tony Goldsby-Smith and others in demonstrating and extrapolating the gift that the biblical perspective has been for the world.
- Between the “invisible hand” and the common good
I think the church needs a vision of how it redeems and transforms economics – to continue to evolve it through new ways of being. Thought leaders such as Walter Brueggemann are critical of the aspirations and values of the dominant global culture: “The contemporary American church is so largely enculturated to the American ethos of consumerism that it has little power to believe or to act.” Within the theology of place and neighbourhood, the church can model the integration of the “invisible hand” and common good flourishing. How can the church “incarnate” approaches for dealing with complexity and wicked problems and as foundations for human flourishing? How does the Church, as it expresses the Kingdom into the world, act as an incubator of social innovation and as a platform and catalyst to community and economic transformation?
- Between potential local business and local economy
As a small business owner, I have some knowledge of the pressure that they face. If the Kingdom of God applies to all of life and supporting God’s renewal of creation, then supporting local and social entrepreneurship with investment capital, wisdom and mentoring, along with an incubator community for testing and iteration; all fall within the church’s mandate. What form would/could this take? Could a supportive development hub work to marry capital with educational opportunities for creating business plans and incubator agencies to expand the pool of entrepreneurs?
- Between scripture and management theory
I suspect that there has been a slow evolution of management theory that mimics the journey from the Hellenistic worldview to a scriptural one. For example, a very quick a superficial comparison between an early theory and a current theory shows some evolution:
| Frederick Taylor | Design thinking |
| Efficiency within a static system | Future is created |
| Abstract | Grounded |
| Devoid of emotion (“scientific”) | Starts with empathy |
| Hierarchical | Collaborative/co-creative |
| Low human dignity and agency | High human dignity and agency |
| Deterministic | Experimental |
It would be interesting to define the characteristics of Platonic thought vs the scriptural worldview, and then analyse management theories over time to assess any evolution along these dimensions. Then, using this as a foundation, try to predict further development along these dimensions if there looks like an unfolding direction.
- Between the Gospel and Work
My 30 years of Corporate life has given me a perspective into the world of work. Most people would not know of any connection between their working life and the gospel. I would like to be able to show, building off scripture within the history of ideas, how the biblical perspective has led to human agency, design, creativity and innovation.
I would like to break down any dualism that Christians feel in the workplace so that they understand that all work is part of God’s redemptive activity in the world.
References:
Paul Stevens: “Aging Matters: Finding Your Calling for the Rest of Your Life”
Rob Jones: for the concept of the sacred dance and the secular dance
Rikk Watts: Theology and the “grammar of Design” @ Gospel Conversations podcast
Iain Provan: “Seriously Dangerous Religion”
Peter Block: “Community”