What's the Invitation?
Reflecting on how reactivity and "call outs" alone won't change the world.
I’ve believed for quite some time now that the Church needs a renovation. Like gut it to the studs and start over type renovation.
I tend to attribute some of this to what Brady Shearer calls the “The Biggest Communication Shift In 500 Years” with the rise of the information overload that is the internet. We’ve entered an era where we don’t need to show up to a local church to learn about Jesus. Which means we aren’t challenged often because we can just go find the internet preacher who most closely aligns with what we already believe.
This has left us with loads of disjointed, disconnected, struggling local churches and a wild amount of echo chambers. Being in a local context means we end up having to get face-to-face with local realities that challenge our ideal bubbles. Being in that community can put faces to the problems and help us grow into more compassionate Christ-followers. And in the last few decades, we are seeing the results of the erosion of this kind of communal formation.
This is exactly why I’ve found myself attracted to para-ministry and post-evangelical organizations who are attempting to reimagine what our souls need in our paradoxical reality of hyper-connection meeting isolation.
Us deconstructing evangelicals are the ones who mostly make up these new spaces, and we were raised to be afraid. We were raised to react. We were formed to be culture warriors fighting the evils and working to be “in and not of the world” as best we could.
And I notice that we carry a lot of those behaviors right into our new spaces.
There are several organizations and creators I’ve had to stop following or limit reading this year because I started to notice how anxious I would feel after reading or watching that content. These outlets have gained a broad audience because the bulk of their energy is spent creating content that “calls out” evils in the evangelical or political world. And it’s all too dang familiar.
I walk away from this content frustrated and anxious because it feels like the problems that are being called out are too massive and will simply always be that way. Now I’m aware of how wrong they are, but I’m left to live with the heavy weight of awareness with little no action.
Some of these voices and organizations are building community and I haven’t been compelled to join in because I’m afraid that inside of those digital walls, we are creating the exact same structure we’ve claimed to leave. One that’s full of culture wars instead of Kingdom building.
Here’s the rub though: we need awareness. We need anger to move us to action (a fact I know well as an enneagram 9). But we also need vision and belonging. We need to understand what could be. Finding that line and the balance of the two is the challenge.
Jesus didn’t become influential in his time because he was walking around constantly saying “LOOK AT ROME! Look at how they are exploiting us! Look at how these Pharisees are complicit!” There were actually other groups doing this and actively trying to overthrow Rome during Jesus’ life.
Instead, Jesus spent his time painting a picture of Kingdom and inviting people to come be part. Jesus spoke the language of the people by using metaphors of farming, shepherding, and baking. He took an intangible dream and put it into understandable stories and then handed people a way to participate.
As much as I hate to admit it, this is kind of what’s happened in MAGA land too. They have painted a picture, spoken the language, and offered participation in very American ways (Buy this hat/Bible/perfume/bitcoin! When you do it goes to the wonderful cause of making America great again!) The way they have tapped into our cultural imagination and consumerism has given rise to the fringe ideas we now see grabbing the throat of American democracy.
And the resistance reacts.
Y’all, we are so triggered by distorted theology, ideology, and dreams that we’ve forgotten how to dream ourselves.
We are screaming “THIS IS BAD!” and forgetting to say “Look what could be! It would be so good! And you can join in!”
Gratefully, I’ve found some leaders and organizations who are dreaming and casting vision toward good. They are small, scrappy, and often underfunded, but they are the dreamers, visionaries, and activists we need.
Here are a few:
Go follow these fine folks. If you’ve got extra cash, donate to them, but my primary challenge is for you to go dream with them.
On a personal level, I’m watching how I engage in the internet. Threads particularly loves a hot-take reaction. I’ve gotten a good amount of attention early in the year from some of my more angry posts. But then it feels icky. That’s not who I am, it was a snapshot of a moment. Now I’m challenging myself to post with good imagination. With vision. With invitation. Like Jesus did.
We can continue to carry our malformed quirks from our evangelical days and feel the same way we did before—not good enough, anxious, angry, and afraid. Or we can look straight at those comfortable killers and ask “What should be here instead?”
How can you work to cultivate:
Wholeness instead of imposter syndrome?
Action instead of anxiety?
Conviction instead of anger?
and Peace instead of fear?
Have you done the work to understand what your brand of fear, desire, and weakness look like? You might be walking around thinking you’ve got it under control when in reality your underlying motivations are driving you toward bulldozing or burnout.
Here’s my invitation toward action as opposed to simple reaction today:
Begin cultivating a practice of self-awareness, reflection, and self-compassion.
Not sure where to start?
If you know your enneagram type, start getting weekly reflection questions for free.
Want to see how you’re doing? Take my new quiz, Are you being fractured or formed?
If you’re ready to invest in learning these practices, I’m available for one-on-one coaching or team development.
Join my monthly Reflection Circle on July 28 (this month we are practicing lament to give space for grief that many of us feel)
Or jump on a free-quick call with me to brainstorm some ideas of where you can get more intentional.
The world needs your creativity. It needs your imagination. It needs your action. You’re holding on to ideas that will change the world for better. Your words may soften the hearts of those who are trapped in fear and bigotry. Your neighbors need your connection. Your church needs your conversation. The path we are collectively walking (or being dragged) down now can change as more of us choose to turn around and walk toward healing, wholeness, and one another.
I’m with you on the journey,
B