Leadership Letter #5

This past summer I have been reading a book called Theory U-Leading from the Future as it Emerges by Otto Scharmer. On the one hand this has been a fascinating probe into the realities of spiritual perceptions. I have taken some of his insights and used them to good advantage in teaching. I will use one of his diagrams in a Christianized version later in this blog to highlight the process of changing one's thinking. However, the other part of this book has been extremely frustrating. The source of this frustration is that I believe Scharmer has "insight extraordinaire" for what we would call "walking in the spirit wisdom". The reason this is frustrating is that there is no claim on Scharmer's part to having received much input from Christian sources, rather his spirituality is decidedly post-modern, a blend of reflective and meditative practices from a wide variety of sources, none overtly Christian (and none explicitly anti-Christian). So, the end result of this is I feel caught in a "place of ambiguity" somewhere between a position of generously orthodox Christianity and contemporary, post-modern spirituality. Intellectually, I can identify I am in this twilight zone, but my feelings elicit all sorts of questions that have no ready answers. Perhaps this unease mirrors the kingdom message Jesus taught. It seems Jesus produced a general feeling of frustration and ambiguity in preparing the disciples for the new work of God in their lives. I have come to the conclusion that the dissonance of this ambiguity is a good place to be, because it fits well into the metanoia model of Jesus. The cognitive dissonance of "metanoia" is what Jesus relentlessly guided His disciples into for the sake of their spiritual growth. Let me apply this insight to two current leadership issues we are facing in YWAM Canada.

National Vision Percolating from the Grassroots

Back in 1992 when Uli Kortch resigned as the Canadian Director of YWAM we meet as a council to determine who would replace him. At the time the more we prayed and processed as the Canadian Leadership Team (CLT), the more we became aware that the position of a national director in the sense of leading the whole nation forward on some common vision had never really been achieved during Uli's tenure. So, were we to put someone else in a similar national role, or could we come up with another way that seemed to offer more regionally sensitive leadership possibilities? We believe the Lord led us to the latter decision, even though we faced some opposition from both the YWAM International leadership structure and from some of our own Canadian operating locations. (In 1992 we only had handful of ministries across the country). At the time we did not have the words to describe what we were attempting to create, nor did we understand the shifts that were taking place both within YWAM and in the broader body of Christ and missions. In a sense we were creating a YWAM hybrid that both was international in YWAM identity and Canadian in a more post-modern, flat and grassroots expression.

One of the new mindshifts in this leadership experiment was to acknowledge that there would be from time to time national vision that would arise either from our Canadian leadership team or from the grassroots of YWAM ministry across the country. Recognition of national vision required a governance style that recognized vision as a gift (charis- a gracelet), and that the Holy Spirit could and does work through all believers, not exclusively through a hierarchy of leadership. This endorsement of the Spirit as a roving initiator and anointer of vision seems to be critically important in launching some of what God seems to have on his mind for us as a mission sodality. Therefore, vision (especially in the national sense of a trans-Canadian vision) could come from anyone moved of the Spirit and able to share this effectively with YWAM Canada. Since 1992 two major events stand out as "national vision": Initiation of our biannual staff conference in Manitoba; and the "Wake Tour" culminating in the Ottawa conference. Currently, the Winter Olympics in 2010 seems to be on track to become a national vision as well. The role of the CLT is to foster a governance model of inclusion and championing of those who are articulating vision through spiritual nurture and strategic inquiry. This type of governance requires of all participants a certain skill set of discernment, emotional intelligence, and collective will for vision to become reality.

Global Vision Trickling Down to Grassroots

In a similar manner there are times that Global Vision from the Global leadership Team filters through the international organizational side of who we are to challenge us as multiple grassroots expressions of YWAM to unite together for a common purpose. This does not happen often, but occasionally there are globally agreed upon words from the Lord that affect the whole mission. Currently, the Call2All Congress is one such expression. In a similar manner as the 2010 Olympics becoming a national vision, the Call2All movement is vying for our attention to be included on our personal agendas as YWAM leaders in our region (North America), our Nation, and our District. To contemplate how this affects us, the same model of discernment, emotional intelligence, and collective will may offer some guidance to the emotional dissonance that precedes "doing new things in new ways."

Metanoia and Recognizing the Challenges of Embracing New Vision

The above diagram is my adaptation of Otto Scharmers's Presensing Diagram. This is my synthesis of the discomfort experienced this summer and how his teachings might be adapted in a Christian environment. The Left hand side of the diagram represents Metanoia, literally the shifting of one's thinking (usually translated as the verb repent). The right hand side is another Greek word, "Maieusis" meaning" to birth the new". The decent down the Left hand side of repentance has a mind, emotion, and will component culminating in an experience with God followed by dynamic action on the Right side. The more I reflect on this process the more I believe this is a rough map describing the human side of hearing from God and moving out in faith. I would like to apply this diagram now to the grassroots vision of the 2010 Olympics as a possible national vision and the Call2All Congress as a global vision for YWAM ministries. In both cases we hear the vision and begin to process with our rational minds. Therefore, our past experiences of either Olympic outreaches and/or evangelism activities immediately colour our perceptions. This could be called download thinking because the past more or less dominates the thinking process. Given the power of download thinking in our lives this might immediately stall the process of shifting our thinking at the rational/mind level. One characteristic of downloading is that the thinking is defined by the past not by what is coming in the future.

One of the ways Jesus addressed this type of thinking in His disciples was to use stories to work around the religious rigidity of thinking in the First Century. One of Jesus exhortations was to challenge the perceptions of his followers by asking simple, but profound questions, such as, "Do you have ears hear? Do you have eyes to see?" Therefore it seems the first hurdle in processing something new is to get by our natural download thinking to a place of at least having ears and eyes open to perceive something new. In a group this is not an easy task.

An excellent Biblical example of this is the Jerusalem Council convened to address the issue of Gentiles becoming Jews as part of the process of becoming Christian. Initially, the discussion ("to verbally beat upon") proceeded in the rabbinical style of bashing each other with word and law-think a parody of "fightin' fundies" Bible bashing, with the winner being the last one standing. Both sides of the Jerusalem Council, the Jewish law keepers, and Paul and Barnabas, argued from their perceptions and experience. It seems that Peter's recounting of Cornelius' households' conversion shifted the council off of download thinking to a new place of being more civil and open to each other's perspective. If I use a spiritual gift analysis of the shift in thinking, it seems that discernment to listen and not trust the immediate rational reaction is crucial for metanoia to lead into God's perspective. Perhaps the rational mind needs to yield to faith, which is future orientated because "faith is the substance of things hoped for…" a desired future reality.

Having an open, seeing/hearing mind does not happen without strong emotions being elicited. Having the emotional intelligence to both profit from emotions and not necessarily be led by emotions is a key part of the metanoia pathway. One of my emotions that is often just-under-the-surface along with new ideas is that of cynicism. I have come to identify this "corrosive sense of hopelessness" as a harbinger of me moving into a reactive stance. By "reactive" I mean a self-protecting, non-creative holding-the-fort emotional distancing from an idea; decidedly, not in the hearing/seeing mode. Emotions are often discounted in our Christian worldview, however, I am not advocating ignoring emotions, rather listening to their message. Feelings are giving us valuable information that needs to be recognized. So, I have come to realize that cynicism is saying to me "protect yourself, this is the same old/same old, this will not work, it will probably end like other past efforts". While there are elements of strategy that might be birthed out of cynicism, likely the strong emotion will simply shut down participation. Cynicism is non-creative; therefore somehow I need to have my emotions shift in the direction of hope, not hopelessness. A listening stance with the heart open is the fruit of many spiritual disciplines. Strong emotions need not be ignored, but converted through grace to invigorate the metanoia journey. In fact most of us will not change without emotions tagging the experience. Cynicism tags experience with strong caution, Hope tags the same process with a sense of wonder and possibilities.

So far, if I apply metanoia to the vision of the 2010 Olympics or the Call2All, there is no possibility of "hearing from the Lord," if I enter into these events in a close minded, cynical state. My natural response is initially closed and cynical. How can I open up my mind and move beyond a reactive cynicism. Essentially, I think being open to listen and participate is a good first step. I can not hear without being willing to participate with discernment. Secondly, an emotional holding pattern somewhere between natural cynicism and Biblical hope, while uncomfortable, is a much more useful than reactive cynicism or naïve biblical literalism. Perhaps God can truly intervene and change, not only me, but the vision too by my non-judgemental participation. It takes emotional intelligence to learn the process of walking in the Spirit, so that natural flesh responses are converted to a proactive place of leadership grace.

As one slides down the metanoia side of the diagram the next level of the process is that of engaging the will. In the leadership context collective will is where hearts are joined together in the sense of discerning together the will of God. One of the issues that arise in moving towards collective will is a fear of losing one's autonomy or a fear of collective failure. Both fears paralyse further action and stop the process short of experiencing God in a new way. The counteractive to fear is love, brotherly love between leaders and agape love from God to all. Thus experiencing God in respect to embracing either grassroots vision or global vision requires Faith, Hope, and Love in an environment of collaborative processing. Once a group experiences God in a dynamic way, moving into Maieusis is often decisive, swift and energizes future potential. In the Jerusalem Council James summarized this dynamic by reflectively saying "It seemed good to us, and the Holy Spirit…". Not every one of our leadership decisions requires us to engage this process to the same degree, but I offer this as a reflective way to sort out vision, whether grassroots or global.

Practically, I think for myself this means I need to be in a place of openness and listening, not reactive or closed off. This further implies that endorsing vision implies some form of participation. Finally, I sense that there should be a greater awareness in our various councils that when we engage in vision decision making that we hover on the brink of new experiences with God. This is a holy threshold and it is not always clear how to arrive at the divine in our actions, but since it a place of wonder, it would be good on our parts to adopt a more child-like posture of holy expectation.

With this background let us hear/see again the breadth of what Scripture might mean when metanoia (repentance) is used:

Acts 3:19 Repent (Change your thinking) therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;

Rev. 2: 4b,5a You have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent (shift your thinking) and do the deeds you did at first;