riffing on newness 2: the new belongs elsewhere

i have been reading several books by gerald arbuckle. tim dakin, the cms community leader, is a big fan of his writing and particularly his notion of refounding that I'll come on to in a later post. it's tim's enthusiasm that got me reading arbuckle. he draws on anthropology to look at the processes of change in relation to organisations, cultures and the church and the sorts of leadership that might be either required, necessary or a gift in the process of change. one of the simple axioms he uses is the new belongs elsewhere. i don't think this needs too much explanation! but I will give a little…

every organisation has a culture, a status quo. inevitably lots of people like it the way it is either because of vested interests or fear of what change might bring. but unless an organisation or church cultivates innovation it has no future - innovate or die might be an extreme way of saying it. in every culture there are always those who are innovators, who see the world differently, who dream new possibilities and they need to be encouraged to dream their dreams. however if they are put in an environment with the guardians of the status quo, the chances are that they will put a lot of their energies into justifying themselves, and be under constant critique which can sap a lot of energy. that energy would be better served going into the new. so the smart tactic for newness is to create space for the new to grow elsewhere, alongside the old, away form the status quo. in refounding the church: dissent for leadership arbuckle says

The axiom means that a refounding project should not normally be placed in the midst of existing works/structures, where prophetic people would be under constant critical assessment by members of the community and required to waste invaluable energy apologising for what they are doing.

you see this in many areas of life and culture. reflecting on the newness that has emerged in the church in mission it has been a lot more fruitful where the new has been elsewhere - starting a new congregation alongside the old, or on the margins, or in someone's home. alternative worship communities flourished in precisely this way. beth keith has done some research into pioneers experience in the church and this bears this axiom out in startling fashion. and yet in many places the church is doing precisely the opposite especially when it comes to those who are ordained as pioneers. they are very often being put into structures and positions that require them to do lots of the old in those structures and the new out of that. this is a really hard ask. i won't say it's doomed to failure but I have huge questions about it. i assume it's for reasons that are to do with a mix of economic and imagination. last week i met lots of the guys involved in venture fx, a project in the methodist church to recruit and fund around 15 innovative projects in mission over 5 years. i loved the people and they seem to have got this right. their guys are being set free to do the new elsewhere. the c of e could learn something by watching. this axiom is also why together with cms i have sought to create a pathway for training pioneers that is in a different space, elsewhere and i believe that tactic is enabling us to create something genuinely innovative (i hope anyway - we're certainly not having to spend our energies fending off critique).

of course jesus had something to say about his in his story of old and new wineskins - the new belongs elsewhere...

this does of course raise a question. how elsewhere is elswhere? i'll say more about this in future posts. but I am not suggesting this means leaving organisations or cultures or denominations though that is a possible tactic. in my experience the track record of that trajectory is depressingly familiar with those who leave proclaiming themselves as the new prophets/radicals who twenty years later often look rather dogmatic and controlling, and is really ony a last resort. though I appreciate certain contexts may leave little choice. rather the elsewhere is about space to dream the new on the edges of what already exists.

Comments

[Dave Bull]

Hi jonny,

really interesting post - thanks! It's set me thinking: what should be the nature of the connection between the 'elsewhere' and the 'already'?

there's a danger that 'new' can be unstoried - it denies the 'adjacent possibility' from which it grew. on the other hand, if there is no discontinuity then it's not really 'elsewhere'.

your last paragraph hints at an answer, but I'd love to know your thoughts...

[Richard Passmore]

Thanks for the Arbuckle heads up I really liked his stuff. I think the space to dream is important, but needs to go hand in hand with practice/experimentation which also connects well into your hunches concept about where ideas come from. I found Arbuckles typology of church particularly interesting and have just ended up reworking this based on some of our experiences and hunches. http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=2970

[jonny]

rich thanks. i'll look forward to chatting further about arbuckle with you! on the dreaming, i called the talks last week 'dreamers who do' which is a term in arbuckle to precisely say that we need the dreaming and the practice. i have a bundle more posts to come when i get round to it which i hope will say a bit more in response to your question dave.

[Richard passmore]

Does arbuckle have a similar chapter to the one on leadership for authority dissenters but for pathfinder dissenters anywhere?

[jonny]

Not directly Rich...

But in many ways a lot of his books focus on inculturation which is really what I think he would see pathfinding dissenters doing. The book that most clearly lays that out is Earthing the Gospel: An Inculturation Handbook. I particularly like the last chapter of that on a spirituality of inculturation which complements the one by Bevans and Shroeder in Prophetic Dialogue rather nicely.