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Christopher Alexander is an architect who advocates building in process and not from a plan. He argues that this is the ancient way and that the modern and mechanistic approach demonstrates our lack of spirituality. (Interview CBC Radio IDEAS).
Alexander relates that one of the fundamental problems in architecture arises when the building is going up and the designer must make simple choices. For example, should this column be 5" or 6" in diameter? He talked about how the designer's own ego could get in the way of constructing the right building. The question he would finally ask is: "which choice is a greater gift to God?" He continued,
"You can build a building that everyone says is wonderful.. a success.. but does that make it wonderful or a success? No... You can build a building that no one says is wonderful or a success.. but can it be wonderful and a success...? Yes.."
When we reduce truth to formulas or success to size, we are far along the road of idolatry and the worship of technique. We have sold out to the evil Empire, and forgotten that we are strangers and aliens here. Walter Brueggemann has continued to remind us that we are in fact living in times that parallel the exile. In “Finally Comes the Poet,” he calls us to a new kind of speech to square off against the reductionism of the age. "To address the issue of truth greatly reduced requires us to be poets who speak against the prose world... Poetic speech is the only proclamation worth doing in a situation of reductionism…. This offer requires special care for words, because the baptized community awaits speech in order to be a faithful people." i
Around the time of Constantine the church which had lived in the heart of its people passed control to managers, most of whom were lackeys of the Empire. It became dangerous to talk about beauty or write poetry after this time, because Beauty and Poetry can inspire dreams of a different world. The rulers of the age knew what the poets had long understood: the pen is mightier than the sword, and a simple idea can inspire revolution.
All people dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night,
in the dusty recesses of their minds,
wake in the day to find that it was vanity.
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous,
for they may act their dreams with open eyes
to make it possible.
T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") ii
Since that time the mainstream of Christendom has been dominated by managers, while the mystics have been marginalized.
"When I meet a Buddhist monk, I meet a holy man. When I meet a Christian pastor, I meet a manager.." A Chinese Businessman traveling in America
Occasionally, mystics become managers, giving in to the temptations of power. At other times managers arise who are also mystics. Some of these dreamers are marginalized, but some leave their mark on the church by bringing renewal to an old wineskin, or by founding new movements (like John Wesley or John Wimber). Others are marginalized and embrace it, caring for those around them, and transforming their own small corners of society with the love and grace of Jesus. Some of these marginalized dreamers find themselves with followers, and in turn birth movements of renewal that recover lost components of the gospel, like St. Francis and his brothers.
In the past disenfranchised poets and priests had little option but to remain on the margins, voices speaking in the silence, alone and without influence. But times have changed…
With the prominence of the Internet, websites like Ginkworld and the Ooze, networks like ALLELON, a multiplicity of forums, and magazines like Reality, Relevant, and Next Wave – we have virtual watering holes where once was desert. Conversations spring up like mushrooms. Dreamers and marginalized leaders meet and encourage one another. Many of these are involved in innovative efforts that are impacting their neighbors with the gospel, and their combined voices are more than a chorus calling for change: by their example they inspire it.
"If we dream alone, it remains merely a dream. If many dream together, then it is the beginning of a new reality..." iii
“It is this capacity to articulate a preferred future based on a common moral vision that allows people to dream again.."iv
One of the core tasks of leadership is to help the community to dream again. In order to dream together we must be connected. Fritjof Capra, quoting Margaret Wheatley, remarks that, "Facilitating emergence means first building up and nurturing networks of communication in order to “connect the system to more of itself.” v The power of new media to facilitate feedback loops contributes to emergence. Just as a new media empowered the first reformation, new media are empowering a second reformation.
The Need of Mentors
We desperately need a new kind of Christian… one who is self-authorizing, and who looks to Jesus and not to human authority as she moves forward as an apprentice, in faithfulness and obedience to a heavenly vision. Too many gifted people are waiting for permission from leaders who have a vested interest in things staying as they are. They won’t give it. We need to model and teach that, “His anointing teaches you all things.. as you abide in Him” (1 John 2:27)
The role of mentors is to point searchers to God, and encourage their dependence on Him. The role of mentors is to show by example how to walk forward without certainty, but with faith and hope and love. The role of mentors is to lift others up, to serve without consideration of recognition or reward. If we can model this kind of service, we will help to birth a new kind of leader by our example. Lasting change must come from the grassroots; leaders must empower that change so that today’s margins become our center.
i Brueggemann, Walter. Finally Comes the Poet. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1989.
ii Lawrence, T E. New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1991.
iii Elisabeth Fiorenza, quoted by Rosemary Neave in “Reimagining the Church,” Women’s Resource Center, NZ. Study Report Leave, 1996.
iv Frost, Michael and Hirsch, Alan. The Shaping of Things to Come. Massachusetts, PA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003. p. 188
v Op Cit. p.122
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