“The present moment finds our society attempting to negotiate the most difficult, but at the same time the most exciting transition the human race has faced to date. It is not merely a transition to a new level of existence but the start of a new ‘movement’ in the symphony of human history.” -- Dr. Clare Graves
What profound words from Dr. Clare Graves who proposed over 50 years ago a groundbreaking “Value Systems” theory of human development that describes how humans are able, when things get bad enough, to adapt to their situation by creating greater complexities of thinking to handle new problems.
Spiral Dynamics, as it is known today, is an intriguing way to view the results of our most recent national election and the ramifications for the mainline church. In particular, the similarities of the Republican Party and the increasing irrelevancy of the church.
The Republican Party has now *lost* the “popular vote” in the past five out of six presidential elections. During this same time period the mainline church has experienced rapid decline; yet the number of people who say that they are “spiritual but not religious” continues to increase particularly among the under 30 crowd.
The political pundits have done a marvelous job at directing our attention to the changing demographics of our country. No longer could the evangelicals or conservative white voters garner enough votes for the Republicans to make a difference in the outcome of this election. Whereas the Obama campaign built a grass roots coalition of Latinos, women, liberals and young adults. As Tom Brokaw said, the outcome of this election came down to the difference between a traditional and post modern campaign approach.
Karl Rove recently said that the reason that Mitt Romney lost this election had nothing to do with the changing demographics of the electorate but rather the negative campaign tactics of the Democrats. This argument is not unlike many mainline church leaders who blame the demise of the church on the insistence of atonement theology and strident judgmental attitudes propagated by evangelicals.
Just as I have listened these past several days to comments indicating the Republicans’ inability to understand that they need to change in order to be relevant, so too, I hear mainline church leaders assuaging their grief and anxiety over their growing irrelevancy by reacting to matters of ultimate inconsequence rather than helping people to awaken to the realm of God in our midst.
In the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus instructs his disciples to seek welcome in communities in which they were the stranger. And he says,”Take nothing with you.” In other words, “Leave your baggage behind.” Interesting that this was a deal breaker for Jesus.
So if we took Jesus’ words to heart and left our baggage behind, what could we learn about this “start of a new ‘movement’ in the symphony of human history”?
According to Spiral Dynamics, more of us in the U.S. are moving into a new value system, a Vmeme, that is currently reflected in our voting patterns. Don Beck writes in his book “Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change,” “A meme code is a bio-psycho-social-spiritual DNA- type script, a blueprint that spreads throughout a culture, and plays out in all areas of cultural expression, forming survival codes, myths of origin, artistic forms, lifestyles, and senses of community.”
We find this new post-modern meme code armed with the pluralistic ideals of multiculturalism, egalitarianism, and inclusiveness. Sounds almost Biblical doesn’t it? But at the same time, it is this combination of zealous eclecticism, flattened hierarchy, and broken metaphysics that make us feel like we are swimming in an inconsequential ecclesiastical soup. And that is scary to anyone who is counting on pension and benefits!
However, Spiral Dynamics postulates that our spirituality is capable of growing and maturing right alongside every other facet of human development, including our cognition, our values, and our aesthetics. It is entirely possible, therefore, to be a rational Christian, following the universal teachings of Christ but without having to insist Christianity is the only exclusive path to God, and without having to literally believe in the pre-rational myths of virgin births, parting seas, and satanic fruit. At the same time, it is entirely possible to be a post-modern Christian calling into question the pit-falls of the ego-boosting ‘path of least resistance’ spiritual grazing of new-age consumers.
--- Which leads me back to scripture...Luke 10 to be exact.
Once we trust enough to leave our baggage behind, Jesus tells us to seek people and places that will welcome us. He says in a nutshell, “Listen to their stories, eat with them, laugh with them, weep with them. Be a healing balm in the midst of their brokenness. And then before you go, tell them that together you witnessed the unfolding of God’s realm right before your very eyes.”
Now that is what I call the start of a new movement in the symphony of human history! Shall we begin?
3 comments:
Hi Beth,
as one who has benefited from your hugs I wish you all the best is sharing them - and more - with others.
In my own churches I find a real reluctance to go into these communities in which we are strangers. This reluctance comes from not knowing how to go without baggage. In one church I encouraged the members not even to take a Bible with them, but speak of their own experiences of faith....but they do not feel that they have had any training or support in doing this.
A funny aside: I was speaking to a member who transferred his membership to one of my churches because he and his wife retired to our town....he mentioned that the whole purpose of the church bulletin/notice sheet was so that pastoral visitors would have a reason to go and visit....how funny to think even the pastoral visitors need a crutch to cross the threshold.
So good to hear from you Beth! It sounds like life in England has been good to you.
There was an interesting study done by Martha Grace Reece a few years back that I think was eye opening for many churches. Her statistical study included 150 mainline, non-southern, primarily caucasian churches that are doing the best job reaching people with no faith background. She found these churches by looking at 30,000. Interesting to note that less than 1/2 of 1% of the 30,000 churches fit the criteria of 5 or more adult baptisms a year over 3 year period-- hence the 150 churches she studied.
What she found was that the key difference between churches that are growing and churches that are stagnant or in decline is that people in thriving churches are excited to share their stories of faith.
So you are onto something. As mainline protestants we need to ponder what difference Christ has made in our lives and be able to share that difference in our everyday life through our practices, conversations and behavior.
We are not called to convert, we are simply called to get to know people and share our stories in a natural way. We are called to be real! I have a hunch if we are really open to listening deeply to our neighbors that our conversations will naturally flow to matters of deep meaning. It is that heart to heart connection that people long for anyway. It is then that we discover the Christ in each other.
It would be interesting to practice this kind of sharing in your churches. I know of one church that did this through sharing "testimonies" as part of worship. The simple question could be, "How have you experienced God this week?"
Do you know that that question was one we were to ask ourselves for a while at DHUMC? And use the answer as the devotion for church council....
My answer was riding in a Miata to Simpsonwood during rush hour traffic in ATL and being scared to death - surrounded by 18-wheelers - only to have the HOV lane come into view! It was a safe haven and I was thankful!
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