Tag Archives: anecdotes

Getting a handle on the themes of the book

I love the process of writing.  I was joking with my friend Carol the other day about the comparisons that people throw around regarding writing a book and child-birth.  As she says “I’ve done both.  They are nothing alike.”

I think I’ll trust her.

And yet, I’ll still use the metaphor.  🙂

Right now, this book is “gestating” in my head and heart.  It’s being formed into the basics of what it is.  Pretty soon, I’m just gonna have to PUSH! and birth this beautiful mess, but right now the limbs and organs are still forming.

One thing that is becoming increasingly clear to me is that there are “churchy” words and ideas commensurate with the themes Surowiecki gives in Wisdom of Crowds (no surprise there, really), but I was not clear on what they were til today.  Now that I’ve identified them, I’m starting to really settle down.

Specifically, here’s what I’m thinking:

Promoting, defending and ensuring diversity (chapter 4) = hospitality

Doing everything possible to ensure that anyone can be a part of the process of mission and ministry is no different than the age-old posture of making sure that “there’s enough room at the table.”  right?

Promoting, defending and ensuring independent thought (chapter 5) = discernment

Facilitating a group in such a way that everyone can contribute and so that no one is shut out or dominates seems to sound a lot like group trying to attend to the will of God in Christ to me.  You?

Promoting, defending and ensuring decentralization (chapter 6) = empowering call/vocation

Getting out of people’s way and allowing them to use the gifts, skills, and passions that God has given them feels like what I see when I watch John the Baptist call out “Behold, the Lamb of God!” and when I read of Paul starting communities and then setting them free to be the church as they need to be in their own places.

So…hospitality, discernment, empowering people in their call… Know of any examples of those?

WANTED: Stories of “open source” ministry

This week I was in Louisville for a reunion at my alma mater , and while I was there I sat down with the pastor who I interned with.

Jud and his then co-pastor Liz gathered people together to form Covenant Community Church as an intentional expression of what an “open source” church could look like.  A lot of my thinking is influenced by what I and my family learned and experienced in that community, so I decide to interview Jud for the book (natch).  I really hope to set up an interview with Liz soon because talking through the “idea” of CCC with Jud really reminded me that an open source model of leadership is a viable one.

Then, at a dinner at the reunion, I sat with a classmate of mine as she shared about her work in the Emglish language Korean-Taiwaneese church she’s serving and – again – I was struck by the pervasiveness of this model.

Do you know of people or ministries that you think exemplify an “open source” approach to being church?  Please tell me about them.  I would like to populate this text with a lot of examples of the ways in which we (the Church) are already living this idea.

Leave ideas here in comments or send me an email at landon (at) landonville (dot) com.