Thursday, June 29, 2006
Roxburgh, A.J.(2005)The Sky is Falling - Leaders Lost in Transition
Many of these people are no longer willing to jump through denominational hoops in order to be recognised as leaders. They believe such hoops no longer make sense in today’s world. For them, seminary (or “cemetery” as some mockingly refer to it) education is suspect. It seems so distant and abstract. It demands that students be uprooted and placed in an unreal, disassociated, ivory tower environment for several years – only to end up serving in settings where, once again, they have no previous relationship. Pp21
In the biblical accounts, exile was a hopeful moment in Israel’s life. Hosea used the metaphor of the desert and exile as a symbol of God acting like a lover, intent upon wooing and winning back a love that had turned to others for solace and satisfaction. Exile is a symbol of God’s Gracious preperation, not God’s abandonment. Babylkon was the place in which yje Israelites had to fundamentally rethink their understanding ion g God and thet teradition they had taken for granted. Only out of this long process would a new imagination – a new identity as God’s people – began to emerge. Pp 74-75
It is not sufficient to simply experiment and then move on to other experiments. This only postpones the inevitable creation of new sets of confusion and pain to somewhere down the road instead of honestly facing them today. .. the best way to counter this moment is for the emergents to reconnect with the Liminals and start talking these issues through. Pp 83
When people experience discontinuous change they respond by moving in one of two directions to recover their sense of control and stability. They will either:
1) attempt to return or recreate the organisations prior traditions, habits and way of life, or
2) abandon the old and create a new future to quickly escape the confusion of this in-between place.
Liminality describes what happens to people separated from their known worlds eg Robinson Crusoe pp94
Characteristics of Liminality
1) people always experience it sd loss
2) you can not rush people through transition. It is a place where people have to live for a time. You must accept that the season must run its course before you will enter the next
3) The majority of people have no idea what they are experiencing
4) It is an emotional state ,. The confusion, disequilibrium and inner impulse to recapture what has been lost cannot be switched off by information or images of an exciting new world.
5) Leaders too often make the mistake of assuming that strategic plans or more information is all that is required to move on to the next change phase. This is a serious mistake.
6) It Is a time of either regression or opportunity, depending on how it is addressed. Pp 96-97
Communitas – the potential for people to discover one another on a very different level of identity and role than from the previous period. Pp 109
Liminals and Emergents. The formeris largely composed of those whose imagination and leadership skills were formed by the frameworks and practices of the church in the last half of the 20th c. Their experience, world and loyalties lie with church systems that flourtished in the past… they know that a wolr dhas been lost , but have no sense of how to lead or function in the place where they now find themsleves. Pp 143
The emergents, on the other hand, represent an amorphous collection of younger leaders who have little sense of loyalty to the denominational systems of the past. They are deeply suspicious of the value of the educational systems of the past. They are deeply suspicious of the value of the educational systems set up in the 20th c to prepare leaders for the church and have an almost reflexive reaction to anything the identify as the institutional church pp144
Abbot/Abbess – a leader with the capacity to unify diverse and divergent leadership styles around a common sens e of missional vision for a specitfic community` pp 155
The development and training of leaders requires more than traditional seminary programmmes pp 157
Even though the current levels of change alone are profoundly dis~ ruptive, they can only be understood within a larger framework. To lead congregations and denominations effectively through them leaders need to:
Grasp the nature of this larger framework of change and transition. Without a basic grasp of their dynamics, leaders will continue feeling out-of-control and driven by tumultuous change into constant disorder.
Recognize how and where change and transition are at work in the lives of the people in their churches and communities.
Discover the appropriate images, stories, and narratives that communicate what is happening to the people among whom they live and minister.
Connect people's experience with the biblical narratives in ways that invite them into a new understanding of what God may be up to in their world.
Develop skills in cultivating dialogue among people about what they are experiencing in the midst of discontinuous change and how it shapes their Christian lives. pp41
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In the biblical accounts, exile was a hopeful moment in Israel’s life. Hosea used the metaphor of the desert and exile as a symbol of God acting like a lover, intent upon wooing and winning back a love that had turned to others for solace and satisfaction. Exile is a symbol of God’s Gracious preperation, not God’s abandonment. Babylkon was the place in which yje Israelites had to fundamentally rethink their understanding ion g God and thet teradition they had taken for granted. Only out of this long process would a new imagination – a new identity as God’s people – began to emerge. Pp 74-75
It is not sufficient to simply experiment and then move on to other experiments. This only postpones the inevitable creation of new sets of confusion and pain to somewhere down the road instead of honestly facing them today. .. the best way to counter this moment is for the emergents to reconnect with the Liminals and start talking these issues through. Pp 83
When people experience discontinuous change they respond by moving in one of two directions to recover their sense of control and stability. They will either:
1) attempt to return or recreate the organisations prior traditions, habits and way of life, or
2) abandon the old and create a new future to quickly escape the confusion of this in-between place.
Liminality describes what happens to people separated from their known worlds eg Robinson Crusoe pp94
Characteristics of Liminality
1) people always experience it sd loss
2) you can not rush people through transition. It is a place where people have to live for a time. You must accept that the season must run its course before you will enter the next
3) The majority of people have no idea what they are experiencing
4) It is an emotional state ,. The confusion, disequilibrium and inner impulse to recapture what has been lost cannot be switched off by information or images of an exciting new world.
5) Leaders too often make the mistake of assuming that strategic plans or more information is all that is required to move on to the next change phase. This is a serious mistake.
6) It Is a time of either regression or opportunity, depending on how it is addressed. Pp 96-97
Communitas – the potential for people to discover one another on a very different level of identity and role than from the previous period. Pp 109
Liminals and Emergents. The formeris largely composed of those whose imagination and leadership skills were formed by the frameworks and practices of the church in the last half of the 20th c. Their experience, world and loyalties lie with church systems that flourtished in the past… they know that a wolr dhas been lost , but have no sense of how to lead or function in the place where they now find themsleves. Pp 143
The emergents, on the other hand, represent an amorphous collection of younger leaders who have little sense of loyalty to the denominational systems of the past. They are deeply suspicious of the value of the educational systems of the past. They are deeply suspicious of the value of the educational systems set up in the 20th c to prepare leaders for the church and have an almost reflexive reaction to anything the identify as the institutional church pp144
Abbot/Abbess – a leader with the capacity to unify diverse and divergent leadership styles around a common sens e of missional vision for a specitfic community` pp 155
The development and training of leaders requires more than traditional seminary programmmes pp 157
Even though the current levels of change alone are profoundly dis~ ruptive, they can only be understood within a larger framework. To lead congregations and denominations effectively through them leaders need to:
Grasp the nature of this larger framework of change and transition. Without a basic grasp of their dynamics, leaders will continue feeling out-of-control and driven by tumultuous change into constant disorder.
Recognize how and where change and transition are at work in the lives of the people in their churches and communities.
Discover the appropriate images, stories, and narratives that communicate what is happening to the people among whom they live and minister.
Connect people's experience with the biblical narratives in ways that invite them into a new understanding of what God may be up to in their world.
Develop skills in cultivating dialogue among people about what they are experiencing in the midst of discontinuous change and how it shapes their Christian lives. pp41
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