The Glocal Planet

Effective leadership takes contextual thinking, but which context are we supposed pick or at least prioritize? 

For community developers, contextual analysis--what urban missiologists Randy White and Ray Bakke refer to as "urban exegesis"--is the backbone of effective, dignifying justice work. But this world is complex and intimately interconnected, so though stringent attention must be paid to the particular place and people whose shalom we are seeking, we will wind up with misunderstandings and missed opportunities if our focus becomes too narrow. 

Every cultural context is a system with its own players, rules, goals, and "flows" (which can be anything from information to power...more on the leadership/shalom insights from systems theory in future posts!). And every system is embedded within larger systems, and usually contains smaller systems within itself. 

The classic example comes from people: a cell is a system inside an organ, which is a system embedded within an organ system, embedded inside a human being who is a system functioning inside an environmental systems of with other living and nonliving things.

Cultures function the same way--now more than ever.

“We are rapidly becoming one global world in which events in one part of the world immediately affect the rest of the world” (The Gospel in Human Contexts). This process is called “glocalization,” and its effects are everywhere: from the seemingly spontaneous and distributed protests described in my second post, to the fact that even an introvert like me has Facebook friends on every continent, to the cup of coffee I'm drinking made from beans from the other side of the planet. 

Glocalization is the reason why when I was staying with Mongolian nomads in a valley they claimed no American had ever visited the teenagers were listening to Lady Gaga on Mp3 players. Its also the reason why I can walk a couple blocks from my apartment in Fresno and eat at a South East Asian fusion place where I'm the only one who doesn't speak Hmong.

The stories in the "Global" section of the newspaper have a direct impact on my neighbors. And that makes leadership complex.

We must be aware of events on global, national, local, personal and even situational scales and formulate our theology and methodologies against their backdrops. The phrase: "Think global, act local" is at least three fourths right. Local particularities take precedence in our choice of initiative and strategic approach, but we must always do so against the broader glocal backdrop. 

What do you say? How would you challenge or nuance these comments?

----

This is a loosely connected rabbit trail, but it's fun for me to think about. I hold to the perspective that historical shifts such as the rise of "glocalization" are primarily driven by technological advances and economic interests. Globalization began with colonization for economic expansion, and was accelerated by advances in transportation and communications technology. The experience of global warfare and the advent of nuclear weaponry created a shared global consciousness, an integration of human fate to which Dr. King was particularly attuned (see Strength to Love and Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?). The introduction of the internet continues to radically accelerated these trends. Contextual transformations occur first and are only then followed by reflection which produces fresh philosophical and theological thinking, and eventually, worldview shifts.

Context and Theology

The current state of our nation has left us demanding leaders who can see an alternative future to the violence, inequality and prejudice that has plagued our land since it was first settled by Europeans, and who have the capacity to guide us toward more peaceful shores. 

But what does it mean to be a leader in the present context and how should one lead? As Christians, what unique perspective and approach do we bring to the task? 

Cities, home to over 70% of the US population, are compression tanks for the best and worst of human civilization. Those among us who wish to lead in America’s highly contested inner cities must find constructive means for facing our culture’s pathologies head on. 

As I said in my first blog, it is significant for me to bear down with even greater specificity when considering these questions, agreeing with Henri Nouwen that “my life belongs to others just as much as it belongs to myself and that what is experienced as most unique often proves to be most solidly embedded in the common condition of being human” (Reaching Out). 

As a man from the dominant culture, the people group who has been (and is often still) a source of oppression to ‘outsiders’ at home and all over the world, ethical questions abound when considering myself in a role of power. What do the socially constructed implications of my whiteness mean for leadership in diverse urban settings? 

Some commentators question the possibility that white leadership and justice are compatible concepts. Even when ostensibly on the side of justice, our record is spotted as James Cone points out. “From the abolitionist movement of the nineteenth century to the recent civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 60s, whites demonstrated that they cannot follow but must always lead” (God of the Oppressed). 

These are difficult questions that must not be pushed aside.

Our perspective of leadership at any level grows from the soil of each person’s worldview. As Christians, this is necessarily a theological task. Cultivating a worldview that creates a paradigm for Christlike action is the task of theology. And theology is at its best when it “arises from the missionary encounter between Scripture, the Christ of Scripture, and our particular setting” (check out Learning Theology from the Third World). I am convinced that our thoughts on leadership--and, subsequently, the actions which our thoughts produce--will achieve their greatest degree of clarity when developed within a dialogical relationship between culture and scripture. Scripture has critiques and affirmations for all cultures as it sifts through those elements that reflect the will of God and those that have deviated from him. Contextual theology, therefore, will both be shaped by the context and shape it in return. 

Furthermore, this methodology of context based theological reflection is as much about arriving at appropriate ideas as it is about a process of discipleship for the theologian. “The truth of Scripture has to be worked down into the fabric of our lived worlds, and this takes place only through struggle and interaction with the actual problems of life.” 

In the next few posts, I'll look at a few of my own contexts and note ways that I need to be transformed out of them in order to be an effective agent of God's shalom. These may not be the contexts most relevant for you, but I hope as I wrestle with them you will find a model for addressing your own backgrounds with a biblically critical eye. 

Contexts in Conflict

In the past few weeks we have all watched as protests broke out in cities across the United States. The immediate causes began on November 24 when Darren Wilson (the white police officer who shot and killed unarmed African-American Michael Brown) was acquitted. 

A week and a half later, another white officer was set free by a Grand Jury despite his illegal choke-hold killing of Eric Garner in New York this summer. The death was captured on camera, and our internet-ified world accomplished the bizzare feat of sending a murder video viral. 

I watched it. 

Garner’s gasped out plea, “I can’t breath!” has become a slogan of for protesters along with the tragically basic statement “Black Lives Matter.” That second phrase particularly breaks my heart. For an entire group of people to have to remind their country that they are human is shameful. 

Michelle Alexander's whistle blowing book The New Jim Crow published a few years ago was a slap in America's complacent, self congratulatory "color blind" stance toward race issues. The events of the past couple years have forced people like me to recognize what people of color have always know...

...that African American mothers still have to have conversations about staying safe from the police that white mom never thought about with me.

...that our criminal justice system remains a deeply broke institution unjustly targeting, imprisoning and retaining people of color in a permanent under caste.

...that the benefits of our social and economic systems remain tilted away from our nation's historically marginalized peoples.

We continue live in a racialized society. That much is now undeniable. But the US is not alone in allowing our differences to define us in the wrong ways. The majority of wars since WWII have been intrastate rather interstate, sparked by inter-ethnic tensions. Not to ruin anyone's day, but next to outright racial oppression and the violence it precipitates we can place inequality soaring to the highest levels since the Great Depression (i.e., tied for worst ever), the menagerie of social justice issues that routinely accompany this brand of poverty, and ecological destruction and climate change.

[Pause: It is a highly problematic thing for me to engage this subject matter as a white, educated, Christian male from a very comfortable background. I reek of privilege. Though I will be engaging these themes a good deal in the days ahead, for now I just want to acknowledge how difficult, painful and divisive this all can be. Though I yearn to overcome these inequities and stand in solidarity with people of color though the fight, I know I cannot claim to share or comprehend their experience. Only the truth and love of God can guide us to a future that transcends such deeply entrenched injustice.]

So what's my point? Simply to reassert what we all intuitively know: the world is not as it should be. Shalom yet evades us. 

But this is not our story's end. God is at work refashioning beauty out of brokenness, and he has invited us to join his restorative mission by leading others into his New Creation. We are called to be a force of constructive transformation for a world and its people still worth loving.

God is mighty. Our hope is real. A task lies at hand. 

Starting Points

On this blog I will consider what it means to be an agent of shalom--that most grandiose of bible words ever swooping all into its generous embrace. 

Being that this is as broad an intention as it gets, whatever seems relevant to seeking God's best for everyone everywhere (especially you and right here) will be worth writing about. 

I identify as a community developer. In this profession, we devote ourself to a particular place and its people, asking: "Who are they?" "What is happening?" "What needs to happen for each person to experience peace and justice?" You will find me asking and struggling to answer many forms of these questions in the days to come.

As a community developer called to cities I will pay particular attention to how this goal of shalom might come about in urban places. However, it won't take long to realize that I see everything intimately interrelated with everything else. No place, pursuit or idea exists in isolation from others, so to seek the welfare of the city means to seek the welfare of all geography. To consider economics--for example--is to all pose questions to politics, ecology, social systems, cultural identities and a whole host of other topics. Once we begin to tug at the loose ends dangling from the ball of yarn, we suddenly find the whole tangled mess drawing toward us. In no way do I imagine I can unknot much of it, but I hope to begin exposing bits and pieces of its contours.

If that sounds overly esoteric, let me try to focus by saying this: 

Shalom, I am convinced, is the character of the Kingdom of God. Where Jesus is Lord, there is shalom. Shalom exists when all people equitably experience peace and justice, a comprehensive rightness in the relationship between all things. In his book with the word as its title, Perry Yoder says shalom can refer to a state in which well-being, prosperity, abundance, safety, justice and peace are normative for the community. We are provided examples of shalom through the healing, feeding, reconciling ministry of Jesus, in the sharing and mutually caring life of the early church (Act 2:42), and in the eschatological visions of the New Heaven and the New Earth (Rev 21-22). As beings made in the image of God, every single human is meant to experience this abundance of life in synergistic community with others. It is meant for the whole of creation--plants, animals, cities, mountains, rivers and oceans included. Sadly, in our post-911/Trayvon Martin/Michael Brown/Eric Gardner/record domestic inequalities/immigration debate/(fill in the blank with the most recent injustice here) world, we are excruciatingly aware that many if not most of our neighbors fail to experience shalom. Power differentials, marginalization, exploitation, relational alienation and more all contribute to the disequilibrium in our societies. God's mission (and the mission he has entrusted to his church) is to restore this broken world to the shalom he yearns for it to enjoy. 

So, what would shalom actually look like out there in the real world of buildings, families, workplaces and trees? And how does it come about? What strategies might we employ to help it manifest? 

As a starting point, allow me to offer 12 Non-Exhaustive Principles for Leading to Shalom. These bubbled up for my own use, reminders of the Christ-like posture I desire but tend to forget. I put them out there embracing Henri Nouwen's conviction that “my life belongs to others just as much as it belongs to myself and that what is experienced as most unique often proves to be most solidly embedded in the common condition of being human.” Hopefully something universal can emerge as I unpack thoughts of meaning to my own particularities.

In the weeks ahead, I hope to circle around and through these points, expanding on them, exploring their biblical and theological background rationals, and proposing some related concrete practices. Please offer your perspectives as we go. This can only be a success if it is a community enterprise.

Peace n blessings,

Nathan

12 Non-Exhaustive Principles for Leading to Shalom

1. Seek First the Kingdom

Keep first things first. As leaders our top priority is seeking to comprehend God’s will, then seeking his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hint: in the Kingdom, shalom is universal.

Verses: Matt 6:33, Luke 12:31

2. Question What Is

Take nothing for granted. Think critically about everything. Ask: Is this how things would be if God were in charge? Who is being neglected, marginalized, excluded, disinherited?

Verses: Acts 17:11, Phil 2:12, Luke 4:18-19

3. Cultivate an Alternative Identity

This is not about forming a superhero alter-ego. Rather is it about 1) Living in the spirit of Christ, and 2) Living on the borders between your culture and that of the ‘other.’

Verses: Gal 2:20, Rom 6:11, 1 Cor 9:22

4. Lead for Others

Jesus was in all things the one who lived for others. To be great become the least. To lead others become their servant. Do not look to your own interests but to the interests of others.

Verses: John 3:17, Mark 10:44, Phil 2:4

5. Empower the Marginalized

Blessings are to be used for blessing. Gifts are a responsibility. Power is not to be grasped, it is to be stewarded for others, equitably shared and used to lift those at the margins.

Verses: Acts 13:1, Eph 4:11

6. Embrace Finitude

People are inadequate for a reason. Through our weakness Jesus’ power is manifested. Live in grace and the freedom of Christ. Live with whimsy--stop take yourself so seriously.

Verses: Gal 4:13, 6:14, 1 Peter 2:4-11, 23-25, 5:5-10, 1 John 1:8-9

7. Live in Dependence and Interdependence

Resist the myth of independence. We were originally designed then freed by the gospel to live in dependence on the power of God and in interdependent community with others.

Verses: Gen 2, Exodus 20:3, John 15:1-11, 1 Cor 12:27

8. Build Three Dimensional Relationships

Connect across society’s three axises: the power spectrum, all forms of diversity and the sectors. Strategically connect disparate people together for the common good.

Verses: Luke 7:36-50, 19:1-10, John 4

9. Celebrate Difference

Life flourishes in diversity! The call to unity is not a call to homogenization. Leaders draw out the uniqueness of the divine image in every human being for the community’s good.

Verses: Rev 7, Acts 11:19-21, Acts 15

10. Welcome Emotion

Our leadership will bring us and into contact with the extreme ugliness and beauty of humanity. Foster an open, hospitable space for emotion--yours and others--to be expressed.

Verses: John 11:35, Matt 23:37-39

11. Expect Mutual Transformation

Maintain a learners posture. Each person--Christian or not--bears a gift we need. God uses our work to transform others as the means of our own journey of discipleship.

Verses: Acts 10, Eph 1:15-16, Phil 1:3-5

12. Model the Way

Leaders are most effective not when they are mandating, but when inspiring others to action through the content of the story their life is telling.

Verses: John 1:1-18, 1 Cor 11:1, Phil 2:1-11