Brainstorming
Martin Luther King Jr Day is marked on the Third Monday January – close to his birthdate 15 Jan 1929
He famously said, “I have a dream…”
Not, “I have a plan… an idea… a project…
With the emotion of a dream he led others to action, changed beliefs, ideas, and plans… but it all began with a dream…
What are your dreams… your hopes… for the World, the Church, your nation, your community, your family, your self…
Change
“Tradition is peer pressure from dead people!”
“Tradition – the living faith of the dead
Traditionalism – the dead faith of the living”.
Change
I was looking for the George MacLeod quote ‘Take us outside holiness’ – from the prayer prayed during the rebuilding of Iona Abbey in the 1930’s.
Before finding it, I came across another George Macleod quote
“I simply argue that the cross be raised again,
at the centre of the marketplace
as well as on the steeple of the church.
I am recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified
in a cathedral between two candles
but on a cross between two thieves;
on a town garbage heap;
at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
that they had to write His title
in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek …
and at the kind of place
where cynics talk smut,
and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died,
And that is what He died about.
And that is where Christ’s own ought to be,
And that is what church people ought to be about.”
Lord George MacLeod of Fuinary
Words which the church might ponder again as we seek to discern where God is leading in the post-pandemic world, as we rationalise the building stock, looking to ‘well equip spaces in the right spaces’, and seeking to bring meaningful relevant faith in Christ to the folk who don’t ‘come to church’.
…And then I found the quote I was looking for…. Worthy too of renewed contemplation…
It is not just the interior of these walls,
it is our own inner beings you have renewed.
We are Your temple not made with hands.
We are Your body.
If every wall should crumble,
and every church decay, we are your habitation.
Nearer are you than breathing,
closer than hands and feet.
Ours are the eyes with which you, in the mystery,
look out in compassion on the world.
So we bless you for this place,
for your directing of us,
your redeeming of us, and your indwelling.
Take us ‘outside the camp’, Lord.
Outside holiness,
out to where the soldiers gamble, and the thieves curse,
and the nations clash at the cross-roads of the world…
So shall this building continue to be justified.
George MacLeod (A prayer during the rebuilding of Iona Abbey – circa 1938)
Brainstorming
Socrates is attributed with saying “The unexamined life is not worth living”
And more recently Charles Handy quotes: “It’s like the Irishman Frances Crick once said: ‘How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?’”
Do you take time to listen to yourself..? To reflect and ponder what you really believe and think about life, the universe, faith, God, yourself and everything…
Change
What are you a member of? What groups and organisations do you belong to?
Within the Church we sometimes talk of membership, and we sometimes talk of how some of our most committed folk are not members, and yet many of our members aren’t active in the community of faith.
The understanding of membership has certainly changed over the years. In our post-modern world… are we still ‘post-modern’ or gone somewhere beyond that… there simply isn’t the same commitment to any organisation, or institution, favoring a much more fluid approach – this is part of life’s experience in this season…
I occasionally ponder my commitment to the groups that I belong to.
I am a member of the Church of Scotland, baptised in 1964, and later made my ‘profession of faith’ – I joined the Church in 1981, as a teenager. It is a significant belonging that shapes my living – not least because in 1992 I was ordained a minister in the Kirk. I am deeply committed to the Church and cannot imagine life without that sense of belonging
I am also a member of the local Rotary Club – and therefore a member of Rotary International. I regularly share in the weekly Rotary lunch meeting – although attendance has slipped a bit recently when online meetings have often clashed with other commitments. Occasionally over the years I have attended Rotary meetings elsewhere and appreciated that sense of belonging and welcome in the world wide family of Rotary, but only very occasionally have I engaged in anything beyond my local club, and when something else crops up I won’t manage the local either.
I am also a member of the Incorporation of Tailors in Glasgow. One of the Trades associations now steeped in the history of the city and continuing to do much benevolent work in the City. It is many years since I have been actively engaged – but I have kept my membership, following the family tradition from my Grandfather to my father to me.
I am a member of Mensa, the International High IQ Society, rather exclusive I know… I keep up my modest annual subscription – there’s a bit of kudos in knowing that I belong, the monthly magazine has some interesting articles, I don’t go to any meetings – although have enjoyed some of the recent online offerings.
Years ago I did some study around leadership and was introduced to the idea of folllowership. Around the Church we might call it discipleship. In the work of Barbara Kellerman – she speaks of a spectrum of followership from isolates to bystanders to participants to activists to diehards. Doesn’t that translate into the Church context?
When I ponder the level of engagement that others have to the Church, any judgement is nipped in the bud when I think of my varying commitments to other organisations – and I realise that others say of the Church:
there’s a bit of kudos in knowing that I belong, the monthly magazine has some interesting articles, I don’t go to any meetings – although have enjoyed some of the recent online offerings
And some say… I have kept my membership, following the family tradition from my Grandfather to my father to me.
Others say… only very occasionally have I engaged in anything beyond my local club, and when something else crops up I won’t manage the local either
And some say… I am deeply committed to the Church and cannot imagine life without that sense of belonging
And that challenges and motivates me to meet people where they are… and to review what, when, how, why and where we do what we do to share good, relevant, transformation news with those whom we encounter – and to nudge folk along that spectrum of discipleship…
Brainstorming
Stephen Covey spoke of ‘First things First’, important things first. He borrowed Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Matrix Michael Heppell and others speak of allocating time to the categories: ‘Me’, ‘Key’, ‘stuff’ – where ‘Key’ projects are the mission critical important ones… yet how often all the urgent stuff pushes out the important. ‘Me’ times – are, well it says it on the tin doesn’t it – times for YOU – and that’s important too.
Change
In our fast paced world when communication can be instant there can be the temptation to react swiftly with an email reply. Remember though the slightly older technology that facilitates full duplex synchronistic conversation – the telephone – and its modern counterparts the Voice call or video call. You can engage much better, reach a full solution rather than just the next step… and there’s less opportunity for misunderstanding.
See also: Before you click SEND, think TRACKS
Change
Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints at its simplest says ‘No system is operating at maximum potential, if it were there would be infinite and perfect output, there will always be at least one limiting factor, or constraint, be it machinery, a person, policy, belief, behaviour or whatever. Any system is only as strong as its weakest link. To improve efficiency focus on overcoming the most significant constraint, work on that until it’s no longer the biggest bottleneck. Identify new biggest constraint, and repeat.’
Goldratt also said that many constraints are unwittingly set up when we change a part of the system but omit to undo the rules required to uphold the old process!
Wikipedia has a good overview of TOC
In the context of your Church experience what are the big bottlenecks? Can you think of times when old rules are carried into new processes?
Change
What will you start today..? Something you’ve been putting off… something you think you won’t do well..? Something you’ve been worrying about doing..? Whatever it is – just start it?
Change
Mmm… I’m not so sure about that one… you see some things are are working just perfectly as they did fifty years ago… but are they fit for purpose now?