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by Beav on February 17, 2012

It’s been a while since the Lord of the Rings craze a few years back, but we soon we’ll be revisiting Middle Earth again through the release of The Hobbit.

I loved the books and loved the movies for a lot of reasons, but there’s a theme I want to highlight that always stood out to me and that still influences my thinking today. There’s a strong contrast in these books between Mordor and the rest of Middle Earth.

Mordor, the land of the enemy and of most things evil, is driven by power, by the dark side of industrialization, and a general disregard of anything sacred. Sacred resources were squandered and cast aside for the sake of production and control.

The rest of the surrounding lands are often shown to be showing value to their peoples and to creation. The Hobbits and Elves especially are shown operating their lives and worlds around that which is sacred.

So what’s the point of all this?

Ministry has a Mordor.

Now I’m not talking about going green. Ministry, like other contexts, have the same tensions and conflicts related to power, dehumanizing mechanization, and control. And as I continue to reflect on the nature of spiritual warfare, I think these enemies of the sacred, these enemies of souls, are at the heart of much spiritual warfare.

But while the film captures this in black and white terms of what is evil and what is good, there is a sobering reality that there’s a little Mordor in and around all of us. Not all of us see what is sacred or we have far too narrow of a view of what truly is sacred. Others of us see what is sacred, but fail to understand how to order our lives and our work in ways which affirms that which is sacred versus that which is not.

But sense there could be plenty of discussion as to what is sacred, let’s just focus on one thing that most of us would agree is sacred – people.

Here is where Mordor shows up in ministry and in plenty of other places.

1. Mordor leaders only respect power, title or position, or those with talents that easily assist their own increased status and power. These leaders can love God and read the Bible and be respected in a lot of ways because they get things done. The problem is that they often get things done in ways that erode or ignore the sacred.

If you as a leader only listen to or respect those with a title, power, or position – it’s a sign of arrogance, pride, and a power orientation in leadership. Period. You may get things done. But you are leaving a wake of Mordor in your path. Leaders connected to what is sacred to God, treat the things He thinks are sacred as sacred. This means listening, trusting, and respecting people even if the organizational hierarchy doesn’t necessitate it. Not much makes me more sad when I saw people getting dismissed with a “who are you to open your mouth” type of attitude.

Good luck empowering others that way. God sees.

2. Mordor leaders use people to accomplish goals and their ends without awareness of all the rest of the reality which they don’t find useful to their agenda. Again – these people could be great people, spiritually strong, and in general be well respected. The problem is they often only see things through the lens of their own agenda. Therefore, resources (human) are seen only in light of the agenda and much of what is central to what is sacred in humanity goes unseen or unacknowledged.

What is sacred in human resources? Here’s a couple things – identity (including gender & cultural), story, and voice. Yet people are squeezed to fit agendas often with little regard for who these people really are and why THEY AS INDIVIDUALS MATTER.

3. Mordor leaders preserve the hierarchy and their own status within it. The other side of this is that they keep others down. Call it the Mordor ceiling if you will – where control is of such great importance (acknowledged or not) that real change that upsets the hierarchy is unlikely. Ministry will take place and great things may happen, meanwhile everyone must stay in their place. Mordor leaders have a sense of entitled authority that leads to narcissistic environments that often maintain the status quo through fear.

There’s much that has been covered about spiritual warfare, but I’ve grown convinced that an undervalued dimension to spiritual warfare are those systemic patterns like the above that can demean, silence, dis-empower, control, and even intimidate sacred souls. Furthermore, the above types of things often are condoned, approved, and even rewarded. How does this happen? Simply because the values of Mordor show up in a lot of places (power, control, efficiency, productivity) and they blind people to seeing the sacred. The “mission” somehow seems to undermine the sacred because the mission is seen as more sacred than individuals.

The battle is being waged every day between that which is sacred and those enemies which seek to squeeze human beings into the productivity/efficiency machine.

Our leadership can be sacred – in that we organize our values and practices around that which is sacred, much like the Elves and Hobbits in Middle Earth had cultures in which what they viewed as sacred was preserved.

Mordor leadership isn’t always lived out by evil people. Good, well-meaning people can stomp on the sacred without even being conscious of it. But if we never change, we are perpetuating dark patterns that wound that which is sacred.

How do you stay connected to that which is sacred about people?

What are the challenges you face in organizing your practices and values around that which is sacred in people?

16

Why Self-forgetfulness is a Poor Paradigm of Sanctification

by Beav on February 10, 2012

I read an article recently that framed sanctification in the paradigm of self-forgetfulness. See post here for the full article: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tullian/2011/12/05/the-gift-of-self-forgetfulness/

It’s been coming more and more apparent that Christians and maybe people in general have no idea what to do with the concept of the self. Concepts of the self our shaped by so many different cultural and philosophical sources, yet we so often want to simplify the self into one box.

Is the self the embodiment of carnality, selfishness, and pride? Those who treat sanctification and maturing as a losing of self as the life of Christ takes over would seem to take this position. Here’s a couple snapshots from the post above:

“I’ve said this before but let me say it again: there is nothing in the gospel or about the gospel that encourages me to focus on me. Nothing! It’s never honoring to God when we take our eyes off of Christ “the author and finisher of our faith” and center our eyes on ourselves. Never!”

“Any version of “the gospel”, therefore, that encourages you to think about yourself is detrimental to your faith-whether it’s your failures or your successes; your good works or your bad works; your strengths or your weaknesses; your obedience or your disobedience.”

“Sanctification is forgetting about yourself.”

Those are strong statements. And if the self is only that which needs to “go away” or be eradicated or destroyed, all of this would probably be right on.

Only – we need to be careful when we talk about self because it’s not just a theological term equated with depravity and corruption of sin. Self involves identity and the image of God – those things that shape who we are and how we relate to those around us.

Self does not always equate to selfishness, self includes things that can’t and should not be forgotten.To forget yourself in this way actually brings up some associations and elements of eastern religions (such as Buddhism among others) where true spirituality is found through a detachment from self or the world or other things. Sanctification and maturity for the Christ follower is more holistic than the self-forgetfulness paradigm would reinforce.

Now where I agree with the author is that a person’s eyes are to be always on Jesus. And we are not to be self-absorbed and narcissistic in where our focus is. Many would be far better off if they heeded some of this advice to take their eyes off the self and kept them on Jesus.

But it is a logical fallacy that keeping your eyes on Jesus means the forgetting of self. To equate spiritual maturity with the degree to which self is forgotten is really unfortunate and I think it’s destructive and towards the dehumanizing side of things.

We live life out of our sense of self, it’s an existential reality. We can’t do anything outside of that reality that we have a self and it has different dimensions to it that shape our identity. We need not forget ourselves just to keep our eyes on Jesus. It is when we see our selves as our master that we run aground and fail to remember that we can only serve one Master.

Encouraging people that true spirituality is a rejection in ways of who they are where they just lose themselves in Jesus is profoundly unbiblical in my mind and actually unspiritual too. It’s an attractive thought to many and it sounds so spiritual and amazing – except for that it’s not. There’s a lot of movements in the history of the church that haven’t done so well with the rejection of a lot of the parts that make us human. Equating this perspective of self-forgetfulness with the “true gospel” when it’s framed the way it is I don’t think is super helpful to those seeking to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind.

There’s a piece here to where such a philosophy (and it does have philosophical and not just “biblical” underpinnings) is also often ethno-centric. Majority culture folks don’t often think about identity – because they don’t often have too. For evangelicals identity is mostly viewed through almost an exclusively positional lens: who you are in Christ and who you are outside of Christ (which is of great importance). Part of this is because evangelicals haven’t always had to reflect significantly on identity with its majority culture roots so self is simplified into one or two boxes.

That’s one dimension and many are on a journey to find themselves and understand who they are. And I would agree with the author and others that we can only discover who we really are in Christ, but I would add also that it can only happen as we enter into who God has made us and how we have been shaped and what it means to keep Jesus the center out of who we are. It doesn’t help people enter into their God-given identity to establish as spiritual the absolute forgetfulness of their identity.

That – and I’m pretty sure Jesus worshiped out of his human identity, not in spite of it.

It is a beautiful thing that when we are in worship and we enter that space where we are freed from self-obsession and self-worship and narcissism to be in Christ and experience Him as the source and Master of our lives. But those moments are meaningful only in the context of our self, our sense of identity that He has been sovereignly at work shaping and revealing to us.

We fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2) out of our self, our identity, not because we are in increasing measure forgetting ourselves.

So don’t self-obsess, but don’t self-forget. Your worship will flow out of your sense of self, not out of it’s destruction or disappearance.

But I rejoice that we can fully agree that our eyes must be on Christ alone if we are to be anchored in His presence and will. I have no doubt the worship and Lordship of Christ is a shared goal. I’m just pretty sure Jesus wants to bring my self to the party and not leave it behind.

What thoughts do you have? How would you frame sanctification as it relates to “self”?

2

Leaders Help People Become Uncomfortable

by Beav on February 6, 2012

I came across this quote and thought it was genius and very much in line with several recent posts about human anxiety in systems and in general bad and destructive behavior.

“A task of leadership is to help people “become uncomfortable with their inappropriate behavior” and to focus on the possibilities that change presents rather than the pain that accompanies it.”

http://congregationalresources.org/leading-congregation-through-change

At the link above you can access a free pdf download in the arena of leading congregational change.

Leaders set culture not just by their strategic efforts, but by what they allow to take place and what they permit to happen.

Most people who like to talk about culture – all those people today adding “cultural architect” to their job descriptions frequently focus on what they want to cultivate and build into the environment. Culture change is as much about setting limits on toxic, immature, or even just irresponsible or non adult behavior than it is about what you try to positively instill into a community of people.

And just to make the connections to my last post, this is a clear argument that leaders do have the task of helping monkeys grow uncomfortable with their behavior of throwing poo at others.

How do you think leaders best execute this task of helping people grow uncomfortable with their bad behavior? How do you avoid inappropriate shaming, but still help people feel the weight of their behavior or even sin?

0

Anxiety & Monkey Poo

by Beav on February 5, 2012

First, forgive me for this post. I don’t know if it’s the effect of the Superbowl, the onslaught of random ads, or just a brief failure of self-regulation. But consider yourself warned that this post is less than savory due to frequent references to feces – monkey poo in particular.

I frequently post on themes like anxiety and systemic dynamics in which anxiety ends up driving people to behavior that undermines often both logic and love.

When I think of anxiety wrecking havoc, I don’t always think of systemic dynamics. Sometimes it’s just people turning loose their anxiety and/or dysfunction on people in primal and reactive ways.

It makes me think of the monkey cages at the zoo. It’s been documented that some monkeys enjoy throwing their feces at others. I don’t know why. I’ve heard things like it’s about establishing superiority or it’s an expression of reactivity against strangers. Someone else can speak to that. But it is essentially a reactive and hostile expression of a survival instinct in some form.

Sometimes I feel like I’m doing life and I felt like I’m stuck in a monkey cage while monkeys are flinging poo. Since seeing this graphic above, I’ve started to visualize this graphic in specific moments. Now I’m only posting this now because there’s no concrete example in recent history and I can offer a general reflection.

We are so often anxious beings. And while we aren’t working on survival in a real Darwinism type of way, we do operate out of a survival instinct sometimes when anxiety surpasses a certain threshold and then it’s like dysfunction takes over and other people get the brunt of our stuff.

So maybe it’s defensiveness, maybe it’s unwarranted anger, maybe it’s rigidity of thought, maybe it’s being on the wrong end of a major victim or martyr complex, and maybe it’s being judged not because of concrete reasons but because of people’s own insecurities and issues.

Those moments are like taking a stroll through the monkey cages when there’s a big poo fight in the works. They can be experienced in just about any place you can have contact with a human being.

Poo flinging is not just anger. Poo flinging is most often done with a smile on the face. It’s unloading all of your junk on someone else in often creative ways and thinking you are right for it.

Sometimes I feel like maturity is really just like wearing a big rubber suit in the monkey cage where all the poo can bounce off of us and we don’t retaliate by throwing poo in return. Sometimes I feel like wisdom is avoiding the monkey cage as best we can – though it’s not possible if not for any other reason, we sometimes act like monkeys as much as anyone else.

Life is lived in the monkey cage though and we’re all in it. Let’s keep the poo flinging to a minimum and not retaliate. Maturity is important – spiritual and emotional and even social. Let’s keep learning and allowing ourselves to be transformed by God’s grace.

This metaphor has become such a large part of my internal dialogue, I felt like it needed to be shared at some point. Superbowl Sunday is as good of a day as any

2

Stemming the Tide of Scapegoating Pt. 2

by Beav on February 3, 2012

Since the Superbowl is almost here, I wanted to do one more post related to Scapegoating following the AFC and NFC Championship games two weeks ago. My last post centered around the 49ers loss and the young player who made two crucial mistakes that contributed significantly to the loss. I thought it was a great picture of how individuals, and even young ones, can help redirect anxiety into productive and respectful action.

The other game that day had a couple of players who have taken their share of criticism and there’s been scapegoating there as well – but not as much. I can’t help but think part of why is how the team handled itself and in particular how team leader Ray Lewis led his team in the aftermath. This well publicized speech I believe spoke not just to the team, but to the fan base as well. The team’s following I believe was helped to move on even while still feeling the pain.

Here’s the video which runs about 70 seconds:

Here’s the Transcript via The Tucson Citizen:

God has never made a mistake, it ain’t about one play.This year, we did what we were supposed to do, we fought as a team… There will be one Super Bowl champ crowned at the end of this year, that’s it. So the way we feel, somebody gonna feel like that tomorrow, and somebody gonna feel like that in a week. That’s a fact. And the fact is, we gotta come back and go to work to make sure we finish it next time. That’s all we gotta do.

Joe, you played your (butt) off. You hear me, man? I’m telling you, man, don’t ever — don’t ever — drop your head when it comes to a loss, dog, because there’s too much pain outside of this that people are really going through. This right here makes us stronger. Let’s understand who we are as a team, let’s understand who we are as men, and let’s make somebody smile when we walk out of here. We got the opportunity to keep going, men. Let’s be stronger as a team, men. Let’s be who we are.

See a larger article on this here from the huffington post.

There’s great lessons here! For sure it’s charismatic and inspirational – but it’s effective. And similar to the lessons from the last post, scapegoating can be stopped in its tracked by leadership helping create space to grieve the loss maturely, take responsibility like adults, and yes – even think of others while still hurting from the loss! That’s a big part of how leaders can help guard against the destructive nature of scapegoating. (Though I’m not a fan of the God never makes mistakes line)

That one day of football has provided several great examples of how to transform pain into meaningful community experiences and moments as opposed to letting them become destructive and toxic events that damage individuals and community in significant ways.

What do you take away from Ray Lewis’ speech and leadership in this moment?

Review of What is the Mission of the Church

February 1, 2012

I’ve been reading What is the Mission of the Church? by Kevin Deyoung and Greg Gilbert over the last four months or so and just recently wrapped it up. Here’s the bottom line of my take. I think the book raises and important question for the church today and for the future to be worked [...]

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Stemming the Tide of Scapegoating

January 25, 2012

In the Systems & Power Leadership Community I facilitate yearly, one of the dynamics we explore relates to anxiety in groups and emotional systems and one of the things that we explore is scapegoating. Last weekend, we had an epic NFL championship Sunday in which two games came down to the wire and ended amidst [...]

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Maturity is Contextual

January 23, 2012

Have you felt like there were some situations or places where you really felt like you were growing? Strong, healthy, empowered? And then maybe you also find yourself in other situations or places, but you don’t feel like those descriptions are true. Maybe there are places or situations where you find yourself weak, anxious, powerless, [...]

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