Complex Rigidity

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I like to think of myself as a person who has great intellectual flexibility.  Often times I am very creative when it comes to problem solving.  I even like change.  I thrive on change.  Change is a good thing in my mind because on the one hand it makes a jingly sound in your pocket and on the other it keeps divine bovines to a minimum.  I also like to think that I handle complexity well.  Again, it's something that I face with a certain level of confidence and joy.  That is, until complexity meets me outside of my comfort zone.  When this happens well, it is not pretty.

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The Forgotten Ways, Part 7

As I sit here at home I have just finished the book! So we are on the home stretch with only a couple of posts on The Forgotten Ways remain. This chapter was one that I was not particularly looking forward to.  As a result it took a while to chew through it.  However, it turns out that "Organic Systems" are actually pretty cool things!  Who knew? I think that the best way to understand the concept of "Organic Systems" in Hirsch's mindset is to think about a spiderweb.  The whole web is connected to itself.  There are multiple nodes and lines.  The whole thing is interconnected.  This is what an organic system is all about. Consider our body.  There are multiple little systems like the nervous system, skeletal system, or epidermal system, but each one by itself does not a body make.  They all come together and create a body. This is what the church ought to look like. The church, Hirsch argues, is a living system.  This means that it is marked by certain elements that set it apart from a static system. A static system represents something solid.  Consider a chair or some other inanimate object.  It is assembled and when finished does not change. No matter what room it is in the chair remains exactly the same. Now, consider a living system.  It is always growing, adapting, and changing.  Think of a plant.  If it is in a room where a window is to its left the plant will grow towards the light and have a bit of leftward orientation.  If you move the plant to the other side of the window then it will change its orientation to the light. It is liquid and not solid. Hirsch makes a compelling argument that the church is to be like this plant.  It is to be liquid.  The church is to be ever changing as it pushes forward into new cultures and times and people groups.  The manifestation of the church must look different for each context within which it finds itself. To achieve this it must have a system that is liquid and not static. This means that there must be a movement ethos within the church itself.  A movement ethos is that mindset of being on mission with Jesus towards the ends building his kingdom for his glory. Leadership within this system is decentralized and spread out.  Hirsch points to Al Qaeda as a picture of how this works in reality.  Each individual cell has the DNA to reproduce the entire movement.  This is why all the armies of the first world cannot stomp it out.  This is why the persecuted church grows with such rapidity.  The leadership is not centralized in one person or in a group of persons. The church must be constantly birthing new cells with their own leaders who can and do embed the mDNA.  This is very different from the way the institutional church plants.  Hirsch argues that the Christendom model is cloning as opposed to birthing.  In a clone the new church seeks to look just like the parent church.  In birthing there is a combination of different factors that bring about something new (not to mention the fact that making a baby is more fun than cloning one). Hirsch uses the example of Willow Creek and Saddleback to paint this picture.  A church plant from these places will have difficulty in reproducing the level of programming and excellence that the original brings, because by its very nature it does not have the critical mass to do so.  However, if you birth a new church it will take the mDNA of the parent and combine it with a new context thus creating a whole new church that belongs in the family of the parent but is itself a unique embodiment of the mDNA. This is what organic systems are all about.  He argues that organic systems grow by hyperbolic multiplication as opposed to linear addition.  The example he cites is Pay it Forward the film that protrayed the story of a boy who is assigned the task of changing the world.  He devises a plan where you don't pay back someone for doing something good but you pay it forward. The effects were deep and lasting. The arrangement was that you pay forward two good deeds when someone does something good to you. This rippled to the other side of the country. Hirsch argues that it is this hyperbolic growth that saw the Chinese church grow from 2,000,000 to 60,000,000 in forty years.  The picture is quite simple.  Each individual covenants to lead two people to trust Christ and disciple them sending them out to do the same.  Each church covenants to plant two churches and pushes them to do the same.  It would not take long to reach the whole world with the gospel. This chapter is simple spiritual multiplication.  It is something that most of us have known about for years and years.  However, most of our churches have not embraced this.  We have moved into a fortress mentality where bigger is better and safer.  We pull people in and out of the world as opposed to discipling them and sending them out. What would happen if our church, your church, grasped and applied this principle of hyperbolic growth?  Are we willing to change?  Are we willing to push leadership to the edges?  Are we willing to send, send, send?

The Forgotten Ways, Part 2

As it turns out chapter 2 is all about the role of Christendom and institutional Christianity. Who knew? So, again I will outline the chapter and then give you my thoughts on it. Hirsch begins by arguing that the natural way of things is to default back to that which is comfortable and known. He quotes the great philosopher Bono from U2, "stuck in a moment and now [we] can't get out of it". Whenever we seek to try something new we invariably default back to what has proven to work. This is especially true in Christendom where the institutional concept of what it means to be a Christian is so deeply ingrained in our minds and limits our imaginations. Therefore, the way that change can come about is by not simply adjusting the programs but stepping into the very heart of what it means to be the church. Hirsch provides a great illustration, that of the the computer. It goes like this: programs (interface with user) -> operating system (mediates between programs and machine) -> machine language/hardware (basic code). He then parallels the church: programs/ministry -> theological ideas -> ecclesial mode. His argument is simple. If you simply change the software on an out of date computer you don't actually fix anything, if anything you make it run SLOWER. However, if you change out the hardware (improve the processor, RAM, HD, etc...) that's when real change has taken place. This is the same with Christianity. We must speak to the central issue to provoke real change. The missional church is one that doesn't simply change behavior or programs to become missional one must change the very understanding of what it means to be the church (ecclesial mode). This central core is called the Systems Story. Basically, one must step in and change the entire story that a community is operating on to bring about any kind of change. This means the very heart and motivation of what it means to be the church has to change in the heart and mind of those IN the community. When the story or the driving concept of what it means to be the church changes then a community is freed up to imagine a new (old?) paradigm. Hirsch then argues that the Christian faith was never intended to be an institution, a Christendom but that it was always intended to be in "holy rebellion" against the elemental principles of this world. He argues that Jesus, Paul, and God the father himself are all holy rebels. This he says is the heart of "prophetic religion". He quotes C.S. Lewis to summarize the section, "there exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. So we must strive very hard, by the grace of God to keep the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it." The chapter closes with a look at the state of the Western church using a model of missionary engagement, m0, m1, m2, m3, m4. These markers represent the barriers that exist for a people group to authentically engage in the gospel. m0-1 represents people who can understand the gospel, speak the same language, are of the same class, nationality, and so on. These are people who are most likely your friends. m1-2 is the average person who doesn't know Jesus. These people run the gamut from being somewhat spiritually interested to not at all. But have some experience, good or bad, with the church. Hirsch says that you should stop by your local pub to meet these folks. m2-3 is the group of people who have no idea about Jesus or have been severely marginalized (i.e. the gay community). This group of people is definitely antagonistic. m3-4 is the group of people that are ethnically or religiously opposed and seriously hinders meaningful dialogue (i.e. Muslims or Jewish people). The central question of this chapter is simple: If the world has changed since 313 when Constatine came to power (and it has) why does the church engage with the world as if it hasn't? Many will say that they church has changed over the years. But, not really. It's just gotten bigger, bigger, and bigger. The promotion has gotten better. But the western church really isn't that different from what it was 50, 100, or 500 years ago. It is institutionalized religion where nothing radical for the most part happens. We live in a new world with new rules and an emerging culture. Francis Schaeffer spoke about this reality in his text, The God Who is There. The amazing thing is that this book was written in the late 60's. The book is relevant for today. Please read it. I for one want to figure out what it means to be the church instead of how to do church. ---------------- Now playing: Coldplay - God Put a Smile Upon Your Face via FoxyTunes

The Forgotten Ways, Part 1a

So, I realized that there was one other thing running through my mind from the introduction and first chapter. Hirsch begins to make a distinction between Christianity and Christendom. This is what he calls the difference between institution and organic growth. The thing that caught my mind was the role of the institutional church. Doug and I were talking about this on Wednesday at the Bean and then reading Hirsch some thoughts began to crystallize. This idea of the institution is pretty powerful. Around 310ish is when the Church went from underground to large and in charge so to speak. Then something happened - an institution was born. I run in some different parts of the Christian sub-culture and one in particular is a large parachurch organization. A favorite phrase is, "a movement becomes a monument overnight". I think that there is some truth to this. Almost that fast the underground church became an institution. The faith that was demonstrated by a crucified and resurrected messiah became an empire. I am beginning to think that this empire brought about many of the struggles that we are facing today because no matter how hard we try we are unable to throw off the shackles of this empire. Hirsch explores this in his story about his church in Melbourne, the most recent edition of Leadership Journal describes this in relation to The Next Level Church in Denver, it can be seen drastically in the Methodist church (could you imagine what Wesley would think of the current configuration?). I don't have any answers about this but, I am really beginning to be aware of the deep seeded institutionalism that pervades the church. Alright, that's it for now.