One leading cause of the leadership failure today is our inability to see the major nature of the paradigm shift in our culture. Most of our so-called leaders are still stuck with the old paradigm and really are geldings when it comes to helping to change things. I believe today we are witnessing the third major spiritual paradigm shift in the history of the world since the time of Christ.
The First Paradigm Shift
The first paradigm shift is recorded in the Bible in the book of Acts. The Acts story looks, to a casual reader, as the history of the early church. More accurately, it seems to us as the story of the birth of the Church. The book of Acts, however, is much more than that. A birthing is always traumatic, and this one certainly was.Unlike other books in the Bible, it was written by a Gentile to a Gentile.
Acts is the story of a major paradigm shift. the book begins with the disciples seeing and living into a vision of a political kingdom of which Jesus would be King and they would be the top guys with Him in ruling this kingdom (Acts 1:6). Then we see the Gospel bursting out of the Jewish wineskin and spilling out and moving over the entire world, to Jews and Gentiles. Not even Rome could stop it. Even Peter had to have some rather traumatic experiences to understand this (Acts 10:9-16).
The communications vehicle for propagating the news of this paradigm shift was basically oral. Jews from all over the world were in Jerusalem for the Pentecost, another name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Acts 2:5-12). As these men returned home, they began sharing the Pentecost experience and news of the risen Christ with people in their own countries. The birth of the Church had begun. Luke records very little of the history of that early Church or the lives of the Apostles. What we do see, however, is the beginning of the paradigm shift. The Gospel was breaking out of its “Jewish” box.
The Second Paradigm Shift
The second major paradigm shift in the Church began as Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses, on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. The paper was in Latin and targeted to the church leaders. Soon it was translated to German and the Gutenberg Press (the vehicle for the transmission of information this time) used to print copies that soon flooded the entire country and beyond. Most the people could not read or write, but the message was soon clear to everyone: The just shall live by faith, not indulgences. The Press was used to print many papers to fuel the Reformation. In addition, the first book printed on the Gutenberg Press was actually a Bible. A massive awakening soon swept all of Northern Europe. It affected the art (I have a Rembrandt copy of his St. Paul in my home), the music, architecture, and even the political systems. It was a major cultural and spiritual shift, and the early settlers of America were driven by the spiritual freedom that was birthed from this Protestant Reformation.
The Paradigm Shift Today
Today, a new and major paradigm shift is emerging. All of our cultural systems are failing (political, business, economic, education, medical). If you think the last election in America was a wake-up call, wait until you see the next one. Even the church institutions are failing and church growth leaders are well aware of this. Of the millennial generation (age 29 and below), Reggie McNeal of the Leadership Network says only one in ten is in the [institutional] church today. Even the Southern Baptist Convention denomination, the largest Protestant (and previously the fastest growing), is in decline.
Whereas the driving communications vehicle for the last shift was the Gutenberg Press, in the new paradigm today the driving vehicle is the Internet. And most people trying to use this media are still trying to use it from the old paradigm.
Let’s look at another example. Most of the time, change in a city or community is driven by hierarchical structures and what the citizens really want is not even heard – except at the voting booth (never forget that in America you can – and should – vote).
The people leading the planning of major changes in Oregon’s Science Museum in Portland called me. They had invited Robert Theobald, a well-known futurist, to come lead a planning meeting for the new museum. It would be at a nearby resort. I was invited to attend at a cost to me of $25. I would get a weekend at a nearby resort, great food, and see Bob again for $25. Not bad.
There was no keynote address. He was “fishbowling” with us the whole weekend. Familiar with that strategy? There were about fifty of us. As we entered the room, I saw 10 chairs in a circle with Bob sitting in one. Another forty chairs or so were in a larger circle around this smaller circle. Some of us sat in the inner circle as we came in, some in the outer. Bob explained the rules – those in the inner circle (including him) could dialog on the current issue. The outer circle would remain silent. If anyone in the inner circle felt they could no longer contribute to the discussion at that particular time, they should move to the outer circle. If someone on the outer circle felt they could contribute to the discussion, they could move to the inner circle if one of the chairs there was empty.
Bob raised the basic discussion issue, kicked off with a question, and we were off running. Bob was very gifted in moving the dialog gradually to higher and higher energy levels. My adrenaline was going wild. As the excitement reached a very high level, Bob got up abruptly, left the inner circle (we were outside with chairs on the grass), and he crashed on the grass outside the outside circle. Then he took a nap.
After Bob left the circle the energy in that inner circle gradually decreased as the discussion continued. Finally someone spoke up and begged Bob to come back. He did, and the energy process went back up again.
Now what was the point of this story? The leaders could have done their re-visioning the museum top down, using the hierarchical methods of the old paradigm – surveys, research, and personal dreams. This method with Bob, however, enabled a large base of local leaders to create and then take ownership on the new vision. The whole process was relational (I met some neat people), bottom-up, and exciting. This is an example of the new paradigm at work. It has high information flow rate and density, is relational, and often radical.
In the same way, other institutions, even the institutional church, must change or they will die. The Church will not die. It will be here until the Lord returns. The way we do Church, however, changes and the way we do missions changes.
Quotes from Bob Theobald:
“What’s startling to me is that when I started talking about ideas like these 30 years ago, they were so new and strange that people looked at me as if I had two heads. In retrospect, I think I was looked on as something of a cultural clown – a “crazy” who was fun to listen to. The reaction I get now worries me a lot more, because what most people say is “Bob, today you’re right, but we’re not going to do anything about it.”‘
“My goal is to create a situation of full unemployment–a world in which people do not have to hold a job. And I believe that this kind of world can actually be achieved.”
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Bibliography
Some good references:
Making Peace with the Sixties by Steve Rabey
The Real World: Leadership Lessons from Disaster Relief and Terrorist Networks by Margaret Wheatley
Want more articles and books by her (this is great stuff): http://www.margaretwheatley.com/writing.html
and don’t forget:
The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer AAker and Andy Smith
What good books and articles have you read on this issue?
A Church is an important tool to facilitate peace Programmes around the world.