Attitude Dancing

In his book Intuitive Leadership, Tim Keel, pastor of a growing Emergent community in Kansas City, presents nine possibilities for transitions to emergence in the church. He speaks of them as changes in posture, meaning "bearing or attitude." That is, these are attitude adjustments. Below, I will touch on these in brief, from page 228-252:

The transitions mentioned are ~

Learning: From Answers to Questions ~ In the Modern Era, the focus was on finding the answers; but the new frontier is asking questions. This shift of focus is from leadership to community. The attitude change is from trying to mold and control the environment we are in to responding to it.

Vulnerability: From the Head to the Heart ~ This is a shift away from an emphasis on being "right." Being right puts us in danger of our knowledge not only filling us with pride, but blinding us to opportunities or placing us in jails of our own making. We learn to listen with the heart as well as the head, and move into the scary seas of a more intuitive approach to God and those around us.

Availability: From Spoken Words to Living Words ~ Our emphasis has been on what we say, how we say it, meanings, and the propaganda power of words. This transition is moving us toward becoming "living epistles, known and read of all men." Our emphasis is on living out God's words more than explaining them, where a picture becomes worth a thousand words.

Stillness: From Preparation to Meditation ~ We have learned to research and present our message. In doing so, we seek to comprehend God. The shift will be to apprehending God, since he is always beyond our comprehension. This creates a needed humility and a heightened awe of God. But it also increases the connectivity between people, and our desperate need of stillness and listening instead of just speaking and activity.

Surrender: From Control to Chaos ~ Ours has been a controlling age in the church, seeking formulas that work and trying to rein in the beast of unpredictability around us. But in Genesis, the Spirit hovers over the chaos of the waters, and out of it comes life. What seems like chaos to us is the creation of new patterns in the bigger picture. The question becomes "how do I respond to what God is doing?" more than "how do I bring the world to order?"

Cultivation: From Programmer to Environmentalist ~ Programming is an emphasis on efficiency, an industrial approach to Christian-making that is an assembly line. The "environmentalist", on the other hand, is sensitive to the ecology around him. The emphasis shifts from producing a product to being open and hospitable.

Trust: From Defensiveness to Creativity ~ This is a shift from independence to dependence on God. The defensive Christian stance has trained us to always be attacking, not just those outside who are different, but each other as well. It is faith as war. And it breeds suspicion. We are constantly worried about what will happen instead of trusting and resting confidently in the midst of the turmoil of change. Our military precision undermines the possibilities of creative change.

Joy: From Work to Play ~ We take ourselves too seriously. We are grim and utilitarian about the Father's business. Like the bumper sticker: "Jesus is coming back: look busy!" But Jesus is the Sabbath. We aren't resting in him. And it shows.

Dependence: From Resolution to Tension ~ We are constantly seeking to resolve controversies and tensions. And we never do. In fact, they seem to breed like rats around us. Depending on God is like being adrift in the sea. There is tension, uncertainty, even overwhelming circumstances everywhere, all the time. Like we hear people say: "Get over it!" Surrender is not just obeying precepts: it is letting go of the need to control everything. Again, in that brooding sea of turmoil, God is orchestrating something. Get used to the rubber-band resolution and tension of life. Be a friend of flux.

I think Pastor Keel is nailing it here, in practical ways. "Behold, I do a new thing," says God. Will we let him? Even more, will we be along for the ride when he does?