Len was a mentor and became a friend. I have traveled with him internationally and he has had me speak with him at architectural conferences. This video is vintage Len. And it raises the very issue as to why we need a trek tribe. While I talk a lot about us needing to have a model of spirituality that is post-Gutenberg and more Google, I do not share his optimism as to how the current container we call the church can ever navigate these new waters we find ourselves in. Mention church to the Google person…I DON’T think they light up like Len does. I think they tell you they can Google better content than they get in the church. We need a new transformational trek tribe that is committed to transformative practice and not dispensing information.
We have had an overwhelming response from churches asking for a way for groups to do the ttTribe journey together. Some churches are having staff do it together as way of coming to know and be together in new ways. Some churches are having elders engage the process. Others are actually allowing the trek tribe environment to be their small group curriculum on a monthly basis.
The request for discounted group prices became an obvious need. So let us help you take the trek tribe experience to your own tribe.
Download the 12 page manifesto ttTribe-Manifesto and then if you want group pricing look at the end of the document or here If you really don’t want to take the time with the 12 page detailed version here is a quick 3 page version ttTribe-ManifestoShort
So far we have people from five countries that have already pulled the trigger. Are you next?
“50% of pastors would leave the ministry tomorrow if they could. 70% are fighting depression and 90% can’t cope with the challenge of ministry…..
1,500 pastors walk away from ministry every month because of moral failure, burnout, conflict, discouragement or depression. He was also shocked to find that 80 percent of seminary and Bible school graduates will leave the ministry within their first five years”
Those are the stats Jonathan Falwell, son of the late Jerry Falwell said at their recent ReFuel conference a week ago.
I have been contending in this series of posts that human and spiritual formation have to be integrated if we want to see the church move from a belonging to a transforming system.
The massive exodus we see of people from the church, I think, is due to this very lack. When people leave the church saying “I am not being fed,” (the number one reason stated.) And when people leave not because they are walking away from God but from a system that isn’t any longer working for them or “feeding them,” I think we need to read between the lines.
We gave them the language that “we are here to feed you, come connect and belong, we will feed and fill you.” They come with an empty wheelbarrow at the beginning of their church experience we slowly start filling it. But there is a law of diminishing return whether we like it or not. The first time I hear the story of Jonah it is very interesting but by year 15 and the 24th telling of Jonah I am not that enthralled…my wheelbarrow is overflowing. If I came to the church to belong and be fed (because after all that is what we ’sell’ to them we do) and now things “don’t hit me the way they used to.” No wonder people leave – we aren’t delivering the sell we sold. The language “I am not being fed” is the only language people have. But I think they are saying something quite different. I think people have gotten their fill of information but are trying to put their finger on “why am I not changing?” If I am right about that, and my research is anecdotal though with hundreds of stories and conversations, then I don’t think we have a feeding problem we have a development problem. [read more...]
Human development can go further than the socialized mind. Informing people and getting them to fit in or conform to everything from doctrinal statements to more pious sounding “requirements” so they can be accepted and belong is the doorway in and in some cases goal in many of our churches. James Fowler calls this the “mythic literal” stage of development and a remarkably high number of people stay here their entire lives. They conform to doctrinal standards, think denominational distinctives, to stock answers to the standard questions, if you don’t ask many questions or question the systems certainty or become too independent in your thinking you can belong for a lifetime. This is mythic-literal faith. If you haven’t read Fowler you need to. [read more...]
The church system is stuck. Admission is the first step forward. Informing, conforming and believing are what the modern church system are built on. You know what? I haven’t gotten any push back on that statement? I haven’t gotten one email, tweet or fb comment that people want to challenge the last several posts. But there is pain being expressed because many of us are still neck deep in the modern system and would love to try and make changes. I have heard from several friends, “but what about us Ron do we just abandon ship and all the people on it?” Fair questions and fair concerns. [read more...]
The church as we have it today in the West is largely built around a model of belonging not a model of transforming lives. If you join a club, organization or church and they ask you to believe in this set of values, these doctrines and these rules, at that stage you belong and are now part of the group. You are now part of the “in” group because you have done the things that put you “in.” But is that the point of the church? Affiliation and belonging based on subscribing to a doctrinal or ethical code? Obviously the answer is no! Few churches I know anywhere state their model for changing lives or when questioned can articulate one. [read more...]
Life is loud, busy, hectic and harried. People want a sense of wholeness, wellness, peace, joy, even dare I say a quiet interior space in the midst of it all.
We are all crying out for personal transformation, knowing it holds the key starting point for the larger issues we face of community development and global change. Where can you find this life? What are the practices and rhythms that lead to this sort of peace and joy? [read more...]
Biophila or belonging? These are very very different goals. Are we interested in conforming people to our doctrinal positions or lifestyle statements? Or are we in the transformation business ? I have written a couple posts on biophilia and transformation and the response I have gotten has been overwhelming and positive. Many of us have been schooled in the negative way of spiritual formation, stuck in the purgative and have rarely if ever tasted the illuminative or unitive. I think there is a reason though. The church doesn’t know how to transform lives. [read more...]
I mentioned in my first post that the third thing I am more convinced of than ever is
3. People aren’t craving church, or sermons or bible study…the are dying to be in small community where real dialogue and doing life together happens.
We have done all we know to build membership and attendance figures. But I wonder if we have created belonging mechanisms instead of transformational organisms. And if I am honest I am past the wondering stage. transformational organism
By subscribing with your email here, you will receive Ron's blog posts in your email inbox as and when he posts something... This way, you don't miss anything, you don't have to keep visiting the site (although we like that!) and you can unsubscribe again with a click! Now that's user friendly, right?
About Velocity Culture
VelocityCulture.com is a web and conference based resource brokering the best leadership, cultural and theological resources. Through consulting, conference speaking, learning communities and e-learning all over the world and a redesigned seminary-like learning experience called III:TEXT, VelocityCulture.com is helping bring about deep shifts in the way people live, think and lead.
