Malcolm Burson said:
"While I entirely agree with Roxanne that moving toward listening (and
perhaps also inquiry, remembering the importance of balancing this with
advocacy) will help, I believe Richard has another challenge: the
inherent paternalism and stratified structures of Christian churches.
...
Richard, if your congregation is
anything like the ones I know, you scared them to death: the internal
message is, "Well, if _he_ doesn't have the vision, who does?" "
This discussion provides a good example to explain a little bit what I
meant by my 5-points program I suggested before (I copied it below for
reference):
I also believe that there is strong evidence that Malcolm is right with
his comment about stratified structures. So this is can be (but need not)
a rough answer to my point 1.
But usually, the form which these structures take are diffenrent from
church to church and depend very much on the actual situation and
biographies of the members of the church. You won't get an answer on the
situation in your church without listening - this is my point 2.
(These are not two different challenges but they depend on another.)
While this listening process, you will learn about the visions of the
people and you begin to tell them their vision. From the reaction you will
see how good you were in learning.- My point 3.
But telling people their vision is not all. Usually these real visions are
mixed with a lot of elements which scare people, some of them actually to
death. So in interpreting their vision, bring in some drops of faith -
point 4. (The bible is a good instument to find faithful metaphors
(evangelium - the good news), although it is more often used to scare
people - especially children)
Finally, the process can be jeopardized by personal visions from Richard
about what a church should be like - if conflicting with the churchs real
needs. Listening would not be open and talking would not be talking to the
people - therefore I added point 5.
I hope this helps to clarify my former suggestion.
Regards, Winfried
I wrote before:
>1.) I think you should know of all "influential people" what they believe
>about why it is better to have the church than not to have it.
>2.) To get this knowledge, listen also with your eyes - what is important
>for these people, how did the church support them in the past. Be
>interested in the people - care about their biographies.
>3.) In this process you are not a teacher, you are a learner. The system
>will react according to the lessons you have learnt.
>4.) Be faithful - "Thy will be done".
>5.) Besides: What is your personal vision of your church?
>My vision (regarding chuch) is: Bring in some light where darknes is.
>Faith is medicine against fear.
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>