I confess that I do get a little tired of this - no matter who the "recalibrated big guns" are.
George Fox Seminary had a gathering of some recalibrating emerge-church-publishing "big guns" this past week and Peter Walker has been reporting on the event. I find his irreverent responses rather appealing. And would have loved to hear Dr. MaryKate Morse in the midst of the testosterone-fueled others. (Imbi and I interviewed MaryKate at a missional church event in the summer of '06.) From Peter's notes,
Morse begins talking about her book Making Room for Leadership: Power, Space and Influence, introducing it as a recalibration of the concept of power. She uses the example of kids playing in a sandbox to begin: “no matter how much fun all of the kids are having, some other kid comes in and takes it on themselves to smash what everyone has been building. Why does that happen? How does that happen in the church? I think it has to do with Power.”
She continues, “the problem is, we have a hard time getting along with each other. We can talk about theory and think about things, but we need to get our heads around power. Make this organic community a place where it really can thrive!” [emphasis added]
One of the questions I would have asked of the assembled big guns is "How is this worked out in your own lives? Tell us about your involvement in local Christian community?" My fear is that only Dr. Morse and Dan Kimball would be able to tell us.
