Complexity and Love

Cellular Complexity - J. David Sweatt

I wrote this as a journal reflection last Tuesday after my final Ministry Among the Marginalized class. That was the last Urban Mission course I'll attend in my grad school career. Pretty bittersweet!

As tonight’s discussion drew our course to its close, we reflected on standing in the tensions. How does this rising generation of urban ministers reconcile our deep dissatisfaction with the structures we are inheriting to the call of grassroots neighbor loving? Where can macrostructures be transformed by local relationships? What steps can we take to move our theories down from 30,000 feet into practical, actionable initiatives in neighborhoods filled with real, complicated human beings? How do we lead others both to the mountaintop for a better view and into the streets for palpable change? How do white males like myself do these things in solidarity or allow others to lead?

These questions mark our age. They represent some of the key tasks for Christians seeking God’s shalom into the coming decades, and they must be answered in recognition of the pivotal moment in history at which we live: stagnation and gridlock in national politics, financial instability and soaring inequality, compounding traumas among the alienated poor, a globalized market system that increasingly shifts power to a shrinking elite, structuralized ethnocentrism, worldwide ecological degradation, increasingly isolated individuals lost in a technological milieu and fractured from genuine community.

Today’s problems are increasingly complex and increasingly interrelated. However, they find their nexus in every neighbor and neighborhood. As we come to see each person, family and community as a system nested in systems that are nested in yet larger systems, we can better grasp the global while discovering hope in the local. An ongoing dialectic exists between the micro and the macro that allows influence to spread virally from any point in the vast network of relations that form our society. God has created a world where a remnant can indeed be magnificently powerful. The Church has an opportunity to re-story our world, to change the destructive narratives that shape the systems while simultaneously transforming the systems that keep us stuck in the same old narratives. Shalom, relationship, abundant life, these stories of the Kingdom are the ones we all yearn to hear and to experience. Space exists for them in the vacuousness of current public debate. The time is ripe for change if we will just keep asking the questions, opening dialogue with unexpected tablemates, and exploring new (and old) ways to be humans together on the earth.

Our approach to leadership in the midst of such complexity, possibility and fragility demands empathy, clarity and sensitivity. 

With empathy, we come to see all as enslaved to the principalities and powers, whether oppressed or oppressor. We seek out the story of the other for how it has shaped them toward their actions today. And we remember that we, alongside all others, must equally fall at the foot of the cross, that it is only by grace that we can take the bread and the wine and that it will likewise only be by grace that transformation ever finally comes.

Clarity can only come as we continue to examine the multivalent contexts that shape our reality and which gave birth to the marginalized in our midst. The time for relearning, for re-examining, and for reflection is never finished for the wise leader. We must be people of praxis, continually moving back and forth being action and contemplation, between engagement with the world and dialogue around what we encounter.

Finally, leadership today requires utmost sensitivity. This is first toward ourselves, recognizing our gifts and calling, embracing who God made us and finding our role within the Body while remembering that a person made of only thumbs won’t last long. Our sensitivity is secondly toward the other, recognizing when a strong prophetic word is needed to shake the culture's stronghold versus those moments when pastoral comfort most appropriate. Once again, we must stand in the tension, remembering that no single disposition is sufficient. Too often we make a false dichotomy of our options. Leadership toward shalom is not a matter of being right pastorally or being right prophetically. Shalom is a far richer end than mere correctness. It is also joy and delight, friendship and freedom. As my professor reminded us, people are far more apt to be transformed by the light we radiate than our condescending values.

If God can be called a leader, then leadership, in the final analysis, is a matter of love. And only by our love--the love stories we tell, the love systems we cultivate, the love neighborhoods we build--will the marginalized cease their misery, the apathetic cease their callousness, the oppressors cease their injustice. Only through this Christ-like love can all finally become one.

How I'm Trying to Read the Bible

Leadership is a practice based in biblical study and theological reflection. It has to be if it is to be "Christian." The bible and the ideas we draw from it provide us with the worldview, the vision, the character, and the means of leading toward the common good--shalom for all people.

But there are about as many approaches to interpreting the bible as there are interpreters, so I thought I would use this post to lay out a few of my presuppositions when it comes to biblical study--more focused on the "what" than the "why" or the "how." This has been a gradual process for me (an unending one I hope) but my thoughts took on much greater clarity (along with a whole new set of questions) this year. 

I'll start somewhat snarkily with this claim: a verse cannot be understood by studying it. 

What I mean is this. When I was being taught how to study scripture, probably starting around Junior High, I was taught to focus on a few verses at a time, asking the “when, what, where, why, who?” questions. I might need to look around before or after the verse to figure out what the "therefore was there for," but for the most part once I answered those questions and prayed about it, God would help me understand what this text meant--usually skipping straight to what it meant for me. 

Now these are by no means unimportant questions. We have to keep asking them, but that does not mean we can stick with Junior High bible study methods and expect them to allow our minds to wrap around one of the most complex books ever written in multiple literary genres, by multiple authors, speaking multiple languages, multiple millennia ago in cultures radically different from our own.  

These four hermeneutical pre-commitments represent the way I am trying to approach the text these days...

1) We are incapable of approaching the text from outside our own sociocultural location. This does not mean that we have to read our contemporary meanings into the text, but that our worldview is fundamentally shaped by our context. As exegetes, we must acknowledge up front that this affects our interpretive ability. Therefore, to write “Theology” as though we are objective readers is simply more than we should/can ever claim. It is possible to become a “border crosser” by gaining experience in other cultures, developing our cultural intelligence (CQ), and even by immersing ourselves in the biblical world, but we are never fully capable of reading scripture from its author’s perspective. I have already said a good deal about this here, here and here, so I'll stop repeating myself.

What is beautiful about this is that it means the act of reading scripture draws us into community and gift sharing with the body of Christ. My contextual lenses help me notice certain things in the Bible that others may miss, but in order to see all that God has provided in this incredible book I need to also listen to the insights of men and women from Asia, Africa and South America, of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and of different life experiences. Together our theology will be far richer than when we form conclusions on our own.

2) After acknowledging our context, we must come into an encounter with scripture recognizing that it is predominantly literature written as narrative in a historical context. Therefore, I cannot only ask the “w” questions of a text, but must also ask how it fits within the grand narrative being told through the entire bible, the salvation history of God’s activity in creation. Biblical scholar Sylvia Keesmaat describes the story like a 6 Act play:

“Act 1 is the creation of a good world. Act 2 is the distortion of that world by sin. Act 3 is the calling of Israel to be a blessing to this fallen world. Act 4 is the coming of Jesus, where sin is decisively dealt with. Act 5, scene 1, is the early church, where the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are grappled with and lived out in the lives of the first Christian communities. Further scenes unfold, from the apostolic era, through the patristic period, and so on to the present. Act 6 is the coming consummation, when Jesus will return and we will join him on the new earth at the resurrection of the dead.”

We come to the text as sojourners living in the story it reveals--still in Act 5, awaiting Act 6

I must also ask what the specific historical context of the verse is, what the author’s lifeworld means for the text, and how it fits within the literary context of the book or letter that contains it. Deeper study into the bible's historical, economic, and sociological backgrounds is never a waste of time.

3) Jesus is the key point of departure for biblical reflection because “Jesus Christ is the self-disclosure of God in history” (God Our Savior, Norman Kraus). All verses only make sense in the light of his story. And that means including the whole story stretching from pre-existence with the Father to fully human incarnation in a stable, to his childhood, adult ministry, betrayal and unjust trial, crucifixion, death and burial for three days (and whatever was happening on the other side of the grave!), resurrection, time spent on earth in his resurrected body, ascension to the right and of the Father, giving of his Spirit, presence through the Church as the body of Christ, and eventual return to remake creation and rule on the new earth with his people. 

One caveat to this. Jesus makes no sense except against Old Testament, Roman and Second Temple Judaism backgrounds. So while I am saying that he must be the starting point for biblical interpretation out of one side of my mouth, I am also acknowledging that he requires a good bit of interpretation. Sorry, but we aren't benefitted by shying away from the complexities.

4) A quote from Professor of New Testament Tim Geddert can sum this one up: “Theology is important not because it is “Truth” or certain or final, but because it helps us move closer to that which is far more important still. The bible is more important than theology. The triune God is more important than the bible. The goal is to encounter, relate to, and follow God. Don’t get it backwards.” 

The goal of biblical interpretation is not--contrary to what is often portrayed--about formulating the right doctrines. Theology matters. I am deeply committed to it. But if our convictions about what the bible means begin to take precedence over actually knowing and following Jesus our Lord and God we will wind up in all kinds of mess. Biblical study is about entering into relationship with God, learning to be his disciple and learning to help others know and follow him too.

Book Recommendations: Looking at Our Contexts

I've talked a lot over the past few weeks about contextual awareness and the importance of thinking theologically about our contexts. So, today I thought I'd throw out a few book suggestions that can take . This will be the first time of many that I share book recommendations, so if you're into that sort of thing, get excited. Today I have six for you, each in a different genre. Every one of these has helped me for peel back the layers of my own identity and the nature of this complex world. Enjoy :)


Being White: Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World,  Paula Harris & Doug Schappe (Christian ethnic studies)

Most white people I know who have struggled with "our place in a multiethnic world" pass through a few stages in this journey, moving from ignorance, to shock, to highly self-critical, and hopefully at last into a stage of rebuilding. This book was a significant gift to me when I was trying to move through these last couple stages and recapture the good in my white identity. 

Harris and Schappe wrestle with what it means to be white when it is white people have been the perpetrators of much of the world's colonization, exploitation and oppression over the past several centuries. What does it mean to have this history and yet be made in the image of God? What things must we leave behind about our heritage, and what things can we celebrate? Their treatment of these questions and others is splendid--a very healthy blend of the prophetic and pastoral.



A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present,  Howard Zin
(History)

The English historian Thomas Carlyle claimed that history is the biography of great individuals. Zinn disagrees. He thinks that it is not history itself, but the stories of history we have been telling about history that are about so called "great individuals." And it's time we tell better stories. 

A People's History tells each era of America's past from the perspective of the powerless: the indigenous peoples, African slaves, women, Chinese immigrants, and so on. It is often a sobering account, revealing how expansive the oppression that sullies our nation's history actually is. But they are stories we need to hear in order to honor those who have been trampled by "great individuals," to gain a more accurate and less romantic view of the United States, and to fight against repeating these injustices in our generation.



Churches, Cultures and Leadership: A Practical Theology of Churches and Ethnicities,  Mark Lau Branson & Juan E. Martinez
(Multicultural Christian Leadership)

Branson and Martinez lay down a substantial challenge to church leaders. They call us to consider what the call of the gospel is for the Body of Christ that has been fractured for so long on ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic lines. They do a great job of melding theological reflection with the social sciences in the effort “to help men and women in our churches to see differently and to gain the skills and competencies needed for multicultural contexts.”

I was particularly helped by their identification of the founding myths of American culture. As the authors point out, “majority-culture evangelicals do not have the proper tools to understand the dynamic of race relations in the United States.” This book is a powerful effort to make up that gap, not only through its own contributions but also through the wealth of outside resources they point to.




Encounter God in the City: Onramps to Personal and Community Transformation,  Randy White
(Christian Community Development)

Randy White is one of my professors at seminary--a large part of why I chose the seminary that I'm at--and someone to whom I am greatly indebted both personally and educationally. In this book he challenges his readers to "see" the city with new eyes, to see it with the love of God and to acquire God's vision and hope for its future. 

One of the best parts about this book, and the reason why I am including it on this list, is actually in the appendixes where White lays out a comprehensive strategy for assessing the characteristics of urban contexts. No matter how long you have lived in a place, follow his steps and learn more about the world around you than you ever imagined exists.



The Gospel in a Pluralist Society,  Leslie Newbigin
(Missiology)

This book is amazing. Newbigin--who is famous for returning from years as a missionary in India and taking a missionary's eye to Western culture--accomplishes more with greater brilliance in each chapter than in most books I've read. I took it one a solo camping trip last May, staked up by a river and totally lost myself in his writing as my paradigms were blasted over and over.

Part contextual analysis, part philosophical treatise, part apologetics, part theological system, part missiological imperative for the modern church--buy, steal or borrow it and learn something amazing.

Learning About Theology from the Third World,  William Dyrness
(Contextual Theology)

For most of the Church's history, theology was written within the fairly culturally homogeneous confines of Western Europe by white men. Over that time, the generally accepted sources of theological reflection were scripture, tradition, reason and religious experience, weighted in that order within Protestantism. As the Christian faith has spread to every nation on the planet we have had to realize that culture has a significant impact on our interpretation of the bible, allowing us to "see" or miss various messages from the same stories.

 This book has contributed to my beliefs on how to "do theology" (which I talk about here) more than any other. Dyrness identifies four different ways that people use Scripture and context together to generate theology, and offers what I have found to be a highly insightful approach which allows us interweave the two while still giving a healthy prioritization to the text. The end result is a theological process that offers critique to both cultural forms that err from the ways of Jesus and overly parochial theologies that fail to speak into the lifeworld of particular peoples.  

We're (Not) All the Same

In my last post, I critiqued a major stumbling block in American culture--the idol of success. Today I'd like to address a couple other factors that get in the way of effective shalom work. 

I was recently introduced to an inspirational quote by self-help author Marianne Williamson that seems to fairly accurately represent the middle-to-upper-class ethic of leadership in the US. She says:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This sounds so good, so inspirational, and borders enough on truth to be convincing. I don't know much about Marianne. She seems like a nice, well intentioned person who has made quite a career off of self-help spiritual writings. I don't mean to pick on her, but because this quote captures two key elements of American mythology based in the same erroneous theme, I'm going to use it. 

The problematic idea both elements grow out of is this: we're all the same.

Who Are "We"?

Like a good motivational speaker, Williamson makes use of the universal "we/us/our." She generalizes that everyone essentially has the same fears, desires, and destinies.

Part of the American narrative is the expectation to conform. Even though the cry of personal liberty has been on our lips since the earliest days, the melting pot metaphor held great sway over our corporate imagination and continues to influence our expectations for cultural deviants. There were always founding American ideals that all were expected to align.


But all people are not the same. Even though we want them to be, there are huge difference among us. Differences in cultural, ethnic, religious, gender, and even experience are fairly obvious, and I've talked about them in the past. However, in her opening words, I think Marianne is trying to point to something about human nature that transcends these things.

The problem is that she gets it wrong. She speaks as though all people essentially want the same things and fear the same things. But this simply isn't true. The Enneagram is perhaps the most helpful tool for identifying the variety of deep yearnings and fears held by people with different personalities. If you have never looked into it, I strongly encourage it.

Ironically, though Williamson thinks everyone is really just scared of their own power, as a Enneagram Type 1 personality my deepest fear literally is that I am inadequate!

What does this mean for leaders? It means that we must honor difference. Diverse elements functioning together in synergy is a universal principle for vibrancy and effectiveness. This shows up everywhere from city planning (The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs is the bible of progressive urban planning and is totally based around this idea) to healthy ecosystems (check this out).  It's even in the bible (Rom 12:4-5).

We cannot impose our vision or aspirations on others. We have to create collaborative environments that draw out the dreams of all and foster contexts in which all are able to connect with God and draw on their gifts to overcome their personal fears, freed to follow Jesus in community.

How do we Get There?

Williamson declares that we are all meant to shine as children do, that this is not something only a few a meant to enjoy but that it is intended for all. Amen! That is a beautiful line and very reminiscent of the vision of shalom I am trying to paint with this blog. 

But, how does she suppose this will come about? And is this the same way Jesus put forward? This is most often the point at which a Christian worldview diverges from the secular world. We may all agree that world peace or any other form of justice is a great thing, but our methodologies stem from radically different sources.

The first principle she offers is to embrace our power and exercise it. Is this good? Well, yes and no. Power is sticky language. Power is exactly what the marginalized have had stolen from them and what needs to be redistributed. However, it is also the misuse of power that generates oppression. It true that all people are meant to shine. However, there is a degree of self-aggrandizing triumphalism in the approach to this end which ignores the fact that our society’s power differentials and systematized oppression have created an uneven playing field. 

Once again, we cannot act like everyone is the same because power is not evenly distributed in our world. Everyone--to our shame in this instance--is not the same.

For many, the call to embrace their power and stand tall may be an important and true message. Many have been oppressed, silenced and dismissed. Though there are times when this is not possible because of tyrannical injustice, it is a beautiful thing when people can embrace their dignity and the inherent power they have as a human being to regain their rights. This was the story of women's suffrage and the Civil Rights movement, for two examples. 

However, our culture is rather adept at stockpiling power (in a variety of forms) in the hands of the few. For the powerful, this is not a message for them to embrace. Let me explain why after pointing out the other side of Williamson's methodology.

Her second strategy for helping everyone shine comes through these words: 

"there is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you...as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

To claim that if I just pursue my own success others will naturally be lifted with me is--sorry for being harsh--a gross lie wrapped in a silver lining. A rising tide, as mountains of data confirm, does not lift all boats because we live in a world where the people with the best ships have built retaining walls around their neighbors’ boats so that the water cannot reach them.

We must not forget that it is far easier for some to stand tall than for others. As a man, I have to realize that I have been socialized to assert my opinion in public settings more naturally than many women. The "brighter" I shine, the more I may intimidate them into silence. As a white person in America, I have to realize that I am awarded inequitable privilege that my friends of color are deprived of.

Jesus taught that self-sacrifice is the way of the Kingdom. Leadership for the Christian is not about naively seeking our own welfare in the belief that our success will be other's
salvation. Verse after verse drives this message home. The gospels alone are enough to unsettle our whole conception of how to live in this world:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit...those who mourn...those who hunger...who are persecuted." Matt 5:3-10 

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matt 5:44 

"Whoever becomes like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matt 18:4 

"My Father, if this cup cannot pass by without my drinking it, your will be done." Matt 26:42 

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." Mark 8:34-35 

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." Mark 9:35 

"Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate." Luke 6:36 

"For all who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted." Luke 14:11 

"Father, I commit my life into your hands." Luke 23:46 

"I can do nothing by myself. As I hear, I judge, and my judgement is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." John 5:30 

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:24 

"The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work." John 14:10 

"When you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go." John 21:18

The lens of Christ's life, the ethic of the Kingdom of God, flips the world's wisdom upside down and shows us the true way for all to shine. How exactly to hold these two themes of empowerment and servanthood in tension, when to know which should apply and who it should apply to, I am not sure. I only know that this is what God is asking us to do.

A Word of Agreement

There is one thing I want to strongly affirm from Williamson's quote: she has an abundance mentality. 

Most of us bring a scarcity mindset to the table. We see limited resources and just try to figure out what the best way is to distribute them. As leaders we can do better. Look for ways to reject power mongering attempts to slice ourselves the biggest piece of the pie and instead divvy things up more equitably is great, but let's not stop there. Most things in the world that relate to wellbeing are not fixed assets--love, for example. Abundance minded leaders are always exploring ways to bake bigger pies. 

Success-ism

In her typically poignant way, Mother Teresa said: "We are not called to be successful, but faithful." 

That's powerful stuff, but when I hear that from her I want to say, "Ok, Mama T, that's good and all, but you still ended up being a pretty dang big deal. Even though you might say you weren't successful because Calcutta is still in rough shape and all, you have personally been canonized as a saint and are basically a celebrity. I'd call that pretty darn successful."

I have all the love in the world for Mama T, but this quote meant more to me when I heard it restated by a ninety year old pastor who had ministered in obscurity among the poor of Bryan, Texas his whole life, at times preaching to no one but his wife and kids on Sunday mornings. Speaking about himself, he admitted that, "I am called not to be great, nor to be successful, but faithful."

Honestly, that's the harder piece for me. I can accept that I may not be successful in accomplishing my goals (eradicating all pain and injustice is honestly a bit out of my pay grade), but so long as people know who I am and think I'm awesome I would be fine. Being thought of as great is all the success I need. At least that's what insecure Nathan thinks. And unfortunately I'm not that unique. 

We live in a world where from the time we're a baby (see picture) we are told that not succeeding is failing and if you're failing you're worthless. If the company's profit margin doesn't expand you're out of a job. If the nonprofit doesn't have huge numbers to show the funding dries up. If the church doesn't grow the doors might as well close. If you're single you're obsolete. If your kids don't get A's you must be a terrible parent. And in these and too many other ways our culture shames us. 

One of the problems with a focus on success is that it tends to grow out of a need to appear impressive. We are constantly comparing ourselves to the next person and terrified they won't think we are special. 

My fiancée went to Yale where she made some VERY impressive friends, by most any standard. They work everywhere from Wall Street to Capital Hill, and honestly do some awesome stuff. Every time we are about to meet one of her friends, I'm terrified. I go into Mr. Inadequate mode and start stacking myself up against them: grew up in small town Nowheresville, went to a state school, grades were only so-so, haven't worked anywhere anyone's ever heard of, broke, etc. These folks are consistently as sweet as could be, but because American culture tells me they have been more successful than me, I usually just want to crawl in a hole. 

Worthiness--that sense of deep acceptance and love for one's self--is a precious commodity in our culture. Few of us have it and most are fighting to attain it through the misconceived notion that it lies "out there" somewhere. But it doesn't. It is right here, present in the beauty of who God created us to be and in the unconditional, unshakable love he has for us. We are already worthy but are terrified to live into it, wounded too many times by those around us who can't see this glorious reality.

It's not hard to see why leadership gets messed up when we're constantly on the lookout for our next best shot at feeling worthy. Steven Covey said great public leadership begins with the intentional leadership of one's own life. A life led by insecurity, always driven to gain acceptance, be enough, fit in, and gain respect or love simply can't discern the correct decisions that will provide long term benefit for others. If we want to lead toward shalom, we have to accept the paradoxical truth that success is not our goal. Following Jesus is.

The cross--God's strange strategy to allow his own murder so that the world he so loved would be saved--is the greatest critique ever leveled at a life strategy aimed at greatness or success. Read the opening verses of Philippians 2 again and think about how success as our culture defines it jives with the example of Jesus:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 

who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I'll conclude by throwing a few quotes your way from Father Greg Boyle*, a man who continues to walk through life alongside gang members in LA:

"Salivating for success keeps you from being faithful, keeps you from truly seeing whoever's sitting in front of you...If you surrender your need for results and outcome, success becomes God's business." 

"Can we stay faithful and persistent in our fidelity even when things seem not to succeed? I suppose Jesus could have chosen a strategy that worked better (evidence-based outcomes)--that didn't end in the Cross--but he couldn't find a strategy more soaked with fidelity than the one he embraced." 

"Sr. Elaine Roulette, the founder of My Mother's House in New York, was asked, 'How do you work with the poor?' She answered, 'You don't. You share your life with the poor.' It's as basic as crying together. It is about 'casting your lot' before it ever becomes about 'changing their lot.' Success and failure, ultimately, have little to do with living the gospel. Jesus just stood with the outcasts until they were welcomed or until he was crucified--whichever came first." 

*quotes from Tattoos on the Heart

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. 

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