Pimpin' the Buggy...

Something's been bothering me for some time now. Like Morpheus telling Neo in their first encounter in the Matrix that there is "...something wrong with the world... you don't know what it is, but it's there...like a splinter in your mind...driving you mad." I've tried to pick a suitable metaphor to begin to describe it, and am coming up with this. See what you think.

The "Givens": We engage a lot of churches here at GCC, so i know we're not alone in this. All of us are trying to "get it done" in some fashion. The "it" we're trying to get done includes such things as:

* We're all trying to bring Kingdom from Heaven to Earth.
* All trying to reach out to the lost, the hurting, the poverty-striken, the sick, the weak, the lonely, and those who cannot defend themselves or provide for themselves.
* We are all, in our various ways, attempting to be the people of God in our current generation. And we are all attempting to figure out the best way to accomplish that objective.

The Problem (as i see it): Many of us, however, aren't really sure "how far" we are supposed to go to straddle the increasing gap between what appears to be our culture and the faith that we hold. And we think that if we just "add a new program, a new 'edgy' staff guy, a cool new look, or a new service venue", that such will keep us current with our culture, but not require us to really change any fundamental paradigms around which we operate. We say, with great conviction (and consolation to ourselves), that "we're willing to change the method, but not the Message", and we charge ahead with making minor changes here and there that we think will keep us "in the game" with the world around us.

But it's starting to look a lot to me like what i'm now increasing calling "Pimping the Buggy". What would you say if you were sitting at a stop-light, and you heard the clip-clop of horses' hooves beside you. You look over and see a tricked out Amish buggy sitting there, complete with brand-new fiberglass "butterfly" doors, curb-feelers, ground-effects, a huge "whale tail" spoiler on the back, deeply tinted windows, 36" alloy rims and racing slick tires. The horses are decked out with titanium yoke and bridle systems, and each has blinders and accoutriments that match the flourescent pink (with yellow and green flame job) fuselage of the buggy itself. The guy driving the buggy bats the pair of green fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror once as he looks over at you, smiles, and then nods courteously to you. When the light turns green, he takes off like a shot from the lane, achieving a blistering 25 mph in a little over 8 seconds, leaving you to contemplate his vanity plate (it reads "HORSPWR") as you sit there awe-struck.

The Question: When we say that we want to be "relevant" and "innovative" in our culture, what really do we mean? Do we mean that really, we're willing to trick out what is fundamentally at its core an outdated, outmoded means of conveying Good News, or are we really willing to think and explore deeply about what it might mean to completely adopt a whole new model. I think we're all committed to the notion of "transportation" (i.e. Gospel, Jesus, personal transformation, etc), but it seems to me that as i engage people in our culture that much of what the Church attempts to do to gain audience to talk about things that are deeply spiritual looks little more to them than just an attempt to "pimp the buggy". We're scared to buy a car, but we're willing to try to look as much as we can like we have one. At what point are we better off either just a) acknowledging that we like buggies, and we have no intention of either pimping ours or buying a car, and if that means that we lose our relevance, so be it, or b) buy a car, with all of its frightening access to speed, freedom and the potential for much more lethal accidents? I think the way we answer that question will have a lot to do with "what the Church looks like" for the next generation in our culture.

Of course, this is a much bigger question than can be explored here in a single blog-post, but i'm pleased that i at least feel like we're trying to aggressively pursue the answer.

Smart Zombie: WWZD... What Would Zombies Drive?

One of the big issues surrounding how churches, businesses, NGO's and governments interact is the role of each. Everyone is working toward the same goal of transformation for marginalized communities, but collaboration between the various entities seems to be ineffective in most instances because none of us can figure out where we really "fit" within the goal. So i've started to think of collaboration in terms of your average car.

Here's what i mean. In order for a car to run safely on a given road to a specific destination, it needs some critical components: wheels & chassis, engine and drivetrain, components (like steering wheels, chairs, airbags, etc), and a well paved, safely governed roadway from starting point to finish. The same is true for the integration of relevant agencies. Here is what it looks like in my mind.

Churches/Faith Communities - Faith communities are the most "grass roots", prolific organization on the planet. They are embedded deeply in communities as a central "hub" around which activity is generated, and the pastors and leaders have the most intrinsic and vested interest in the health and transformation of their relative environments. They are therefore like the wheels and chassis of a car. They are the part of the car that is closest to the ground, and without which, you can't really go anywhere. By themselves, however, they are little more than "Flintstone" mobiles (run fast, push, and then hop on board for 20 feet... not exactly an ideal way to travel).

Business - Businesses are excellent at being driven by efficiency, focus and an absolute committment to producing a bottom line of profitability and power. They are excellent "engines", providing massive doses of drive, focus, efficiency and revenue to provide the power for any collaborative venture, but their transformative power is limited to its connection to a wheel/chassis organization like a faith community. Without that connection, the engine is "up on blocks", so to speak, cranking out tons of power, but not really "going anywhere".

NGO's/Non-Profs/Parachurch - For the last 100 years, "external" organizations have had to pick up all the slack on short-falls from both churches and governments. They've had to try to deliver the kinds of things that both have historically tried to do (healthcare, housing, education, etc.) and have had, as a result, become exceedingly efficient at it in targeted respects. Habitat for Humanity, for instance, is the world's largest housing provider. World Relief has the premiere HIV/AIDS curriculum. World Vision has unparalleled disaster response. But they are not the complete picture. Their dedication to a particular area of focus makes them ideal "components" to the car, but not the car itself. A steering wheel manufacturer, for instance, does not go to Ford and say, "your job is to make a car that will adequately support and showcase our steering wheel!". Rather, the job of the steering wheel manufacturer is to provide a good, service or component that helps the car get where it needs to go. NGO's, Non-profs and Parachurch organizations are similar. The job of the "car" is not to support them, and unfortunately, many organizations have forgotten that. Rather, it is their job to provide with excellence a particular point of hard-fought expertise to enable the rest of the car to succeed in a given environment.

Government -It's not really the responsibility of government at any level to actually implement transformation. It can't. It's not close enough to the people, and doesn't have, foster or facilitate the kinds of relationships necessary to provide for that kind of change. But what it DOES have is immense system-building capacity. It creates pathways and services, provides leadership, legislation and enforcement. In short, it's much like the roads and signs that are necessary for travel. The road makes transformational movement easier, more fluid, and better marked so that people know where they're going and how to get there. But it isn't the "car". It can't be.

Combined together, you get what i like to call a "Zoombie" (that's a Smart Zombie car... get it? Heheh!). It's a partnership where no one "trips over themselves" because they misunderstand their relative roles and responsibilities. It's a partnership where all the pieces fit where they are supposed to fit, and together, go farther than any one piece or system can go on its own. It's the kind of thing that Smart Zombies are trying to figure out... and that's the ONLY way to travel, baby!