Prophetic or professional?
I spent a rather intriguing week in meetings regarding the Kroc Centers for the Eastern Territory. Let me hasten to say that I applaud our leaders for wanting to make sure these centers are built with quality and done with the highest degree of stewardship and integrity. Certainly, The Salvation Army in the United States is both blessed and challenged with the bequest which Joan Kroc left to it.
As I sat in the meetings, I was overcome by the intensity of highly trained professionals who were in the group. Every phase was covered from web design to aquatics to construction to marketing. I have no doubt that everyone in that room wants the best use of the gift to take place.
The subject of the Kroc gift has been debated, dissected and discussed in many forums. The opinions on the Kroc Centers are as varied and diverse as they can possibly be. I believe if we are not careful that The Army could be taken away from its mission of serving the under served. I think the Y is a great organization and has its place. I am not sure The Army should be the Y. This could happen if we are not careful. Although, even a fitness room can be a place of ministry, even if the Gospel is not overtly preached.
As we discussed the business of the Kroc Centers there was mention of quality in construction and programming. I heard very little, although some, about the quality of congregation. I am not lobbying for us to be the next "Crystal Cathedral." I was concerned we heard very little about transformational community. I was very quiet about the fact during the meetings, because I really thought it would surface. It was not ignored. It just did not surface the way and as much as I thought it would.
Here is what I see as the danger and opportunity for the Kroc Centers. They can be prophetic or they can become professional. I know the size of the operations will require highly skilled professionals to run the business. We need to be good stewards and have the best people in these places to ensure our good stewardship. I pray it does not happen at the cost of the prophetic. The best mix will be a combination of the two.
I see the balance here as very tenuous. I cannot help but think that large, glamorous buildings in poor neighborhoods may at first be misconstrued. A beautiful facility amongst devastated homes may be hard for the residents to handle. I also believe it will be very difficult for people of ministry to connect on a very basic level with those entering our centers. The numbers will be staggering. In many ways, we may fall prey to the mega-church syndrome.
The professional will want every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed. The prophetic will want to jump in with both feet and engage in the battle for souls. The professional will want to cover our assets. The prophetic will want to assault the ills of society without regard for protocol. Both at times will be right and wrong.
In many ways, we have become pros at this enterprise of ministry. For many of our number, I fear the prophetic is a fading memory. I don't think it has to be. We can recapture it before it becomes a hazy recollection of by-gone days. It may look different but it can still happen.
How can we strike a balance organizationally? How can we free the prophetic for ministry and still maintain a professional mandate? Are the two incompatible? Can we have the best of both worlds? What will that look like?
What do you think?
As I sat in the meetings, I was overcome by the intensity of highly trained professionals who were in the group. Every phase was covered from web design to aquatics to construction to marketing. I have no doubt that everyone in that room wants the best use of the gift to take place.
The subject of the Kroc gift has been debated, dissected and discussed in many forums. The opinions on the Kroc Centers are as varied and diverse as they can possibly be. I believe if we are not careful that The Army could be taken away from its mission of serving the under served. I think the Y is a great organization and has its place. I am not sure The Army should be the Y. This could happen if we are not careful. Although, even a fitness room can be a place of ministry, even if the Gospel is not overtly preached.
As we discussed the business of the Kroc Centers there was mention of quality in construction and programming. I heard very little, although some, about the quality of congregation. I am not lobbying for us to be the next "Crystal Cathedral." I was concerned we heard very little about transformational community. I was very quiet about the fact during the meetings, because I really thought it would surface. It was not ignored. It just did not surface the way and as much as I thought it would.
Here is what I see as the danger and opportunity for the Kroc Centers. They can be prophetic or they can become professional. I know the size of the operations will require highly skilled professionals to run the business. We need to be good stewards and have the best people in these places to ensure our good stewardship. I pray it does not happen at the cost of the prophetic. The best mix will be a combination of the two.
I see the balance here as very tenuous. I cannot help but think that large, glamorous buildings in poor neighborhoods may at first be misconstrued. A beautiful facility amongst devastated homes may be hard for the residents to handle. I also believe it will be very difficult for people of ministry to connect on a very basic level with those entering our centers. The numbers will be staggering. In many ways, we may fall prey to the mega-church syndrome.
The professional will want every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed. The prophetic will want to jump in with both feet and engage in the battle for souls. The professional will want to cover our assets. The prophetic will want to assault the ills of society without regard for protocol. Both at times will be right and wrong.
In many ways, we have become pros at this enterprise of ministry. For many of our number, I fear the prophetic is a fading memory. I don't think it has to be. We can recapture it before it becomes a hazy recollection of by-gone days. It may look different but it can still happen.
How can we strike a balance organizationally? How can we free the prophetic for ministry and still maintain a professional mandate? Are the two incompatible? Can we have the best of both worlds? What will that look like?
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 6:17 PM
5 Comments:
Larry, you ask: How can we strike a balance organizationally? How can we free the prophetic for ministry and still maintain a professional mandate? Are the two incompatible? Can we have the best of both worlds? What will that look like?
Ken Gire's words come to mind as warning: "The heart of the professional (priest) had long since lost its zeal for sacred things. His hands had long since grown calloused from the daily routines of religious responsibilities."
The question is, does it have to be either/or (prophet or pro), or can we be both/and?
Yes, I believe we can be both, or I wouldn't be at this table.
How do we do it? Here's my list for tonight.
^We have to read Nouwen.
^We must read, look at the skies, sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand (J. Krishnamurti).
^We must learn and say each other's name.
^We pay attention to the space around us.
^We must not depend on consultants to show us how to do the work of the Kingdom.
^We must trust our own hearts.
^We must have 2 or 3 people who will especially be guardians of our basic values of justice and mercy, love and grace.
^We must, as Brueggemann understands, nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. ^We must, as Elaine Heath resolves, "determine to follow the pillar of cloud and fire, not the demands of those they lead nor some misplaced allegiance to a flag. [We must] go to the mountain, hear the voice of God, see the bigger picture for God’s people."
^we must find joy in what we do
^We must not forget - where we've come from, the reason we do this, and who(se) we are are.
^we must show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and release the outcome
^we must laugh at ourselves
^we must do what we have to do within our community
^we must speak for those who have no voice
Having had the opportunity of attending the same meetings i was struck by some of the same observations. I can't say that I didn't expect them right along.
I also noticed however some real rays of sunshine particularly in some of the designs.
I was particularly struck that three of the centers had included a prayer chapel of sorts. a place designed to be set apart in addition to the worship chapel.
While these rays of light offer hope that the Army can and i pray will make every aspect of these centers missional in focus. I am concerned because that should be a discussion that we are wrestling with constantly.
Your post in April (http://questionsforthejourney.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html) generated some relevant discussion to these Kroc centers that was helpful to me. But what makes me a bit nervous is that there doesn’t seem to be much of that type of discussion happening.
While most involved in the process seem to agree that it is important that we remain ‘missional’ in focus. What missional actually means in the context of things like fitness centers and swimming pools is something The Salvation Army in this territory has never had to face. The challenge of making these entire centers missional in their approach should not only be approached in each center but it should be our biggest concern as territorially and something that would benefit from mutual discussion.
We need to be asking some key questions.
1. What makes an activity missional?
2. A. Is what were doing the best for the community?
B. How do we know it is or isn't have we involved them.
3. what is our motivation? (if it is not a sincere love for our neighbors maybe we need to rethink what we are doing)
HS, great list. Thank you.
Apologies up front for the long comment.
While I'll stipulate that the content of the meetings didn't look at this nearly enough, I must question if it was the right environment. Half of the room would have been involved in that discussion and the other half would not have. As a practical point, I think the architects and consultants should have had their own session to drill down on some stuff, while we the ministry professionals (read Officers, other than myself) could have drilled down on these questions.
The forum needs to exist in which we can discuss this and maybe it starts here and stays here. Maybe we need something else. Again, a practical matter, not the heart of the question.
I think a lot of the concerns regarding Kroc Centers and ministry right now focus on whether you can "preach the gospel" in the pool or fitness center and whether that is priority. Larry, you mentioned the health or quality of congregation in these places. I think that's where it starts. If a healthy body of Christ is in the Kroc Centers as their church home and if they actually intend to grow the Kingdom (not just the Army), ministry should be booming and no one, including the professionals watching the budget lines should be able to stop it. If however, congregations draw a line in the sand, intending to protect their territory instead of increasing it, the professionals will have no reason to do anything but protect the bottom line.
As it pertains to stewardship of the gift and of these buildings, I think we need to look at the opportunity that is before us and the opportunities we have every day in centers that already exist in the territory. We are looking to have these centers open an average of, say 16 hours a day. Take Sunday out of the mix and you're talking 96 hours a week. I'm taking Sunday out because I'm not sure everyone has resolved the Sunday question as it pertains to the operation of the whole building.
The point is, how many corps in the territory can come close to presenting the opportunities for Kingdom building represented by a building open 96 hours a week to roughly 1000 people a day? We have plenty of buildings that don't see 100 people a week come through them in the 50 or so hours they are open to the public in a given week? Are we more or less ministry minded in that setting than we will be in the Kroc Centers? Are we better or worse stewards of God's riches placed in our hands with which to serve His people?
In the end, the people, not the places will prove whether we are prophetic only, professional only or both effectively.
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I am most glad that men of God like yourselves are in the mix, you are the good leaven in the dough!
I am really digging on hs' comments here...hopefully in many of the programs (dare I use that word?) there are community-building opportunities, where people have the chance to share story, for story is at the heart of personhood. Moreover, the people that are served are often unheard, living absurd lives. Using a Nouwen analogy: hearing, holding and embracing another's story, guides one out of the absurd (Lat, surdus: deaf) into the obedient (Lat, audire: to hear). This is how I think a priest stands for the people on the side of God, and stands for God on the side of the people.
I am really glad that the priestly types are in the room with the engineers and architects.
By the way, I think if you lay the Leonard Sweet article on them, they will get your drift. I think the article is called "Architecture for a Postmodern Generation".
shalom!
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