Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Using the Polarity Lens for Envisioning the Emerging Church

I am attending the 2014 Polity Conference of the PC(USA).  This gathering of middle council leaders is dynamic and painful as we face the realities of the church today!  Everyone in the room knows the church that we have known and loved is dying.  This is NOT the elephant in the room, at the Polity Conference but front and center.  Philip Bergey, a Mennonite who works now with Design Group International, was recruited to name the 21st century trends, and then facilitate a conversation on the 221st General Assembly mandate to reduce the number of synods to 10 to 12 from 16.  The group expressed a frustration with this technical change when an adaptive change is needed.  Our very name Middle Council smacks of middle level bureaucracy in an age in which hierarchical, command and control is dead in the water.  Instead of rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, ie, reducing the number of synods, we need to identify the best of what we have been, and regenerate that for the 21st century.

What came to my mind in the midst of listening was what we in Lake Michigan Presbytery have learned from Barry Johnson this past year.  He encouraged and helped us move from EITHER/OR thinking to BOTH/AND thinking and gave us a new lens to see polarities and how they work in organizations.  Polarities are as natural as breathing in and out.  Neither can be done to the exclusion of the other.  They are part of life.  They DON'T go away!  Getting rid of them is NOT an option! Polarities are not bad things.  They simple are.  They are present in every organization.  He also pointed out that not all problems are polarities.  However, polarities which are at work in an organization are not problems to be solved but realities to be recognized and managed well!  Those who do, thrive!  There is an energy path that cycles around the upsides assets of one pole and the downside fears of the other.  They feed off each other either in an aspiring cycle toward the organization's greater purpose, or in a vicious cycle of decline.  Barry's gift to Lake Michigan Presbytery was the lens to see polarities at work in congregations, and providing a strategy for managing them and spending as much time as possible on the upside/asset side of both toward our greater purpose. The number one strategy is to affirm the upside of the pole that is being threatened first, and then affirming the upside of the other pole necessary to balance the organization.  

In our adaptive work of regenerating/re-envisioning the church for the 21st century, I wonder, are there polarities at work, which will never go away?  Are we caught in the vicious downward spiral toward our greater fear?  Stuck in the downsides of both poles? And if so, how can we refashion the church's life to better manage them?  Barry's organizational thesis is, that those organizations that thrive don't get rid of polarities, (an impossibility) BUT see the polarities and manage them well.

My musing is, what are the polarities at work in our PC(USA) organizational life that we are not seeing or managing well.  What are the deeper fears that the two poles?  Here are the polarities I hear in our denominational conversation.

1.  Connectional Nature of the Church     AND     Freedom/Autonomy:
  Most PC(USA) Teaching Elders trumpet their love and appreciation of our connectionalism, of their fear of independent thinking of congregationalism.   We are not alone, but part of the body of Christ, and accountable to our colleagues. More on this below. The other pole is the aspiration for freedom and autonomy, and claim the wisdom and seek the power to join in what they see God doing in their particular context.  Their deeper fear is being bound by the actions of others on from following their conscience!    

The Polarity Question:  How can we refashion our denomination to better manage this polarity to honor the upside of both poles and relieve the deeper fears?  An historic Presbyterian Principle that worked for our fore-bearers expressed in our Foundations is Forbearance.  This is different from tolerance, but recognizing the gift of another part of the body, which may not be my particular thing.

2.  Diversity    AND    Affinity"
I hear a lot about the gifts of our diversity.  We celebrate this at every ordination and installation service by reciting Paul's words describing the church as the body of Christ needing all parts of the body.  We see the beautify of diversity in God's creation in nature.  Fred Rogers, one of our heroes, told the story of the Purple Planet where everything was the same, purple...  Presbyterians celebrate diversity.  And we are leery of too much like mindedness.  On the other hand, there is an undeniable sweet blessing of koinonia/fellowship of kindred spirits.  There is a comfort and joy of being able to worship with the same language.  Difference threatens that sweet communion, and we fear and will do almost anything to keep from loosing koinonia.  

The Polarity Question:  How do we fashion a people which leads to both the celebration of diversity AND the fellowship of kindred spirits?

3. Power/Authority: Hierarchical    AND     Flat/Shared
The reformers of the 16th century rebelled against the authority and abuses of the pope and bishops. They re-balanced power by sharing, spreading it in Sessions and Presbyters both teaching and ruling. Today hierarchical power is suspect.  Trust in institutions lost.  Cultural trend today is toward open source, flat organizations where decisions are best shared broadly.  The community self regulates.  This challenges another one of our historic Presbyterian principles, that the higher council reviews and has authority and power over the lower council.  This has brought order and clear lines of authority to bring order to the sometimes chaos in which we find ourselves.  Without it we fear chaos!  On the other hand, we are learning and our Book of Order states that mission is best carried out by those closest to the ministry context.  e may be on the down side of hierarchy and may need to recognize the gift of the shared power of people who have access to all sorts of tools and information.

The Polarity Question:  Is their another way to hold persons and groups accountable?  How can we better recognize the gifts of shared power of people with access to all sorts of tools and information.  The pastor is no longer the only educated person in the community.  Could it be that we are reaping the benefits of 500 years of empowering people to self government through education?

In summary:  most of us celebrate the connectional nature, the diversity, and ordered way of resolving chaotic confusion in the church,  It seems to me that given the cultural trends we are living out the down sides of these polarities, and there is a cry for and deep fear of autonomy, like-mindedness, and a more broadly shared power. How do we adapt organizationally to claim the gifts of all these, and get to the upside of these poles, and relieve our fears?  It seems to me that following Jesus is the path to an church in labor pains to be born anew/regenerated. Will you give your deeper fears to Jesus and risk trusting again?  Will you let Jesus be the host of the table and welcome communion with his other guests?  Will you, like Jesus, set aside authority, position and power to walk with fallen, sinful, broken neighbors and love them, and use power to heal?      

What polarities do you see at work?  
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