Make a New Normal
Ok, Drew – I totally agree with the need for people to stand up to things that are wrong. But my question is, how/when do things actually happen? Any “emergence” things that I’ve seen have been people sitting around talking about how things could be. After a few years (or months) people give up, because no one will step up & do something. They don’t want “authority”, so they don’t stand up – they see that as having authority. They want “consensus”, so they don’t make a move until everyone agrees that it’s the right way to go. I’ve only seen it stagnant. And I know (in my heart) that that isn’t what it’s meant to be. Perhaps I need to look further – any suggestions? (feel free to continue conversation off-blog if it’s easier).
Hi Gennie,
I’ll e-mail you to give you a little of my thoughts and experiences, because I’d love to chat with you about it. I will say that Emergence as the theory is broad, like other theories and finds several of its expressions in emerging church circles. So that is part of it.
The question of ‘how’ really is where the rubber hits the road, isn’t it? It seems that we need to rely on a few fearless people to lead the charge. But even that isn’t enough. You’ve seen the Edwin Friedmann video that we watch in Fresh Start, right? If not, let Bill show it to you. He uses the example of Christopher Columbus being responsible for breaking the centuries of intellectual stagnation. The succeeding decades saw a surge in new developments and kicked off the Enlightenment. But the best part of the example is that one guy did something really stupid, succeeded, and came back, (virtually) on his own. It seems that our progress in this area demands that some be willing to put themselves out there, suffer for it, and then after it is all over with, others are inspired to do it, too. As it is, we seem to have people standing up, and a few more taking risks, but we need more people to come back and declare success before the masses feel safe enough to move forward.
Lastly, another image that makes sense to me is the image of the person getting mugged in broad daylight on a relatively busy street in which more than a dozen people cross to the other side to avoid any confrontation. All it would take is one or two people to step in before the mugger stops and runs away, right? But the personal danger of being the solitary individual who stands up prevents dozens from acting and allows for a thief to victimize someone else. Therefore, the trust is that stepping up individually will have a broader, corporate impact. Our current cultural gatekeepers seem eager to keep us thinking of ourselves as individuals, blind to our wider impact.
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