Session #2 !

"Don't step on that new life emerging!

Session #2: "Don't step on that new life emerging! Try this path through the middle!” !Friday: 1:15 - 3:15 !Description: Sometimes we are so good at measuring the past that we forget to notice the new life emerging right beneath our feet. This session is devoted to the local community practices of engaging emergence. Did you know that discerning in community oftentimes asks us to try our ideas that don't give us the results we expected?" This interactive session will feel like a bootcamp for innovators! Ana Hernandez and Tom Brackett will lead us through the disciplines of learning from failure and the practices of being the "Beloved community" in the presence of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and making peace with not knowing.

TITLE of the PRESENTATION PAGE INFORMATION

I love this graphic illustration of the space we are called to inhabit right now. I’m pointing to the odd label underneath this narrow path between order and chaos. The word chaord. The word chaordic is a portmanteau like the word “smog” – it's a combination of two morphemes – two words with their sounds and meanings. Just as smog is the sum of smoke and fog combined, chaordic refers to a way of being with both chaos and order at the same time. Both are present, neither is dominant. The sum of these two words is used to describe an emerging space between the two conditions – it’s often referenced as a chaordic space or a chaordic way of being. !This narrow space between the two is also referred to as the Chaordic minefield. It helps to explain why, when we stray too far over to order, we restrict our field of view too narrowly and we cannot see what is actually emerging. When we get lost in the chaos, we cannot sense the hand of God at work in the world about us, either. There is a narrow path that is not at all straight and bounded. Because of the influence of chaos, this path is constantly shifting - it’s often the kind of moving target that it takes a whole community to discern! This is where over-bearing Heroic Leadership gets us in trouble, as a denomination. So many of us joined because of a proclivity towards ordered worship and an ordered “way of being.”

A n a r c h y

Control

So let’s work through a couple of questions, OK? Given our cultural sensibilities in the Episcopal Church, on which side of the chaordic space do you think we tend to wander off? Our internal culture does not prepare us for being present to chaos. In fact, we often overreact and leap to controlling tendencies. My sense is that, many of us are quite fond of a command and control environment and we experience chaos as intolerable! It is experienced as a disruption of our coherence. Remember the film clip: “For the Birds”

F i v e practices for engaging emergence

Step Up: !

take responsibility for what you love, as an act of service.

Step Up: take responsibility for what you love, as an act of service. Love is the PERFECT antidote to fear . . . “Longings greater than the fear of loss” The answer to “How?” is “Yes!” Lean into the next “yes” that you have to offer, just in that moment. This is joining God in her vulnerability to our “yes’s” and No’s” There is a kind of holy attachment to what we perceive as God’s longings, here. The more this practice becomes our operating norm, the more innovation, joy, solidarity, generosity, and other qualities of well-being appear. The capacities for listening and connecting grow through this practice. !The EMS story - Bruce is living only because Tom didn’t want him to sit alone in his car, while waiting to be transported. The rest of the interaction opened up only after Tom offered his Presence. In yoga we invite people to show us as a YES, on their mats...and then in their lives.  What would it look like to show up as a yes in the church?

Step Up: !

take responsibility for what you love, as an act of service.

“Longings that

match or exceed the fear of loss”

Step Up: take responsibility for what you love, as an act of service. Love is the PERFECT antidote to fear . . . “Longings greater than the fear of loss” The answer to “How?” is “Yes!” Lean into the next “yes” that you have to offer, just in that moment. This is joining God in her vulnerability to our “yes’s” and No’s” There is a kind of holy attachment to what we perceive as God’s longings, here. The more this practice becomes our operating norm, the more innovation, joy, solidarity, generosity, and other qualities of well-being appear. The capacities for listening and connecting grow through this practice. !The EMS story - Bruce is living only because Tom didn’t want him to sit alone in his car, while waiting to be transported. The rest of the interaction opened up only after Tom offered his Presence. In yoga we invite people to show us as a YES, on their mats...and then in their lives.  What would it look like to show up as a yes in the church?

Prepare: !

awaken your curiosity!

Prepare: awaken your curiosity! Take on a hermeneutic of curiosity. Make the commitment to move from Descriptive language to Generative language. Embrace the mystery of God’s “not yet”, choose possibility, and follow the life of the Spirit. How do we bring curiosity to something we think we know everything about?  When you drive the same route to work each day, what are you curious about?  When you come back to your yoga mat and do the same poses over and over again, what can you be curious about?  When you hear the same scripture stories you have heard all your life, what can you be curious about?  Can we create safe space for curiosity for those who don't yet know the way or the stories?  Can we walk alongside them in their curiosity?

Host: !

setting the table for the Feast you have to offer!

Host: Setting the table. Abraham and the three visitors on the Plains of Mamre. Peter has a vision and now he is ready to welcome the Samaritans. Even the host of the Wedding Feast asks, “Who is not here?” Our call is to create “containers”—hospitable spaces for working with whatever arises. Inviting diversity is one of the most time-consuming, challenging, and critical activities of engaging emergence in ministry.

Step In: !

take deep dives into local possibilities

Step In: Deep Dives into possibility To inquire appreciatively is the second game-changing skill of “engaging.”  This is the farmer walking the fields reverently after seed time, looking for evidences of the crop about to emerge. This is the midwife checking in with the extended family to discern their readiness for a new life about to be birthed among them. !The questions we ask determine the answers we uncover, shaping our experience, actions, and outcomes. Typically, the more positive the inquiry, the more life-affirming the outcome. Open to the unknown. This practice is an act of faith. Once open, we can’t go back. It may be the most countercultural practice of them all, requiring the courage to be vulnerable. Reflect, name, and harvest can be sacred acts. They call forth that which previously didn’t exist. The arts—music, movement, painting, sculpture, poetry, film—often enhance the effectiveness and reach of these practices.

Iterate: !

experiment courageously

Iterate: Experiment courageously Try out a community response to that which you believe the Spirit is asking of you. Reflect on the experience and harvest learnings. Re-iterate!

disturbance !

!

disruption !

!

dissonance

Em

erg

en

ce

Getting clear about the evidence: disturbance, disruption and dissonance. Emergence disrupts, creates dissonance. We make sense of the disturbances that emergence creates partially through developing language that helps us to tease out useful distinctions. As the vocabulary to describe what is emerging becomes more familiar, our understanding increases. For example, disturbance, disruption, and dissonance are part of the language of engaging emergence. These terms are cousins, and I often use them interchangeably. Disruption is the most general of the three words. If something involves an emotional nuance, chances are that I call the disruption a disturbance. When conflict is involved or the disruption is particularly grating, with a lack of agreement or harmony, I will likely refer to its dissonance. !Holman, Peggy (2010-09-13). Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity (pp. 17-18). Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Kindle Edition.

The Risks

of Avoidance

When we draw boundaries and insist on loyalties, we actually isolate ourselves from those we need most. !In our fear, we miss the Spirit’s wave of possibilities. (Acts 2) !When we rely on trailing indicators, we starve for the lack of imagination (2 Kings 7). !When we rely on mechanistic approaches, we often make the disruption even worse. !When we rely on hero-based leadership, we seal our fate. !In contrast, engaging emergence uses our differences to bring us together, opening us to creative involvement. !Holman, Peggy (2010-09-13). Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity (pp. 5-6). Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Gal5Fruits

Are the Fruits of the Spirit enough evidence of God’s hand? !Galatians 5:22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Trying on hunches … !

… the practices of testing the waters.

Are the Fruits of the Spirit enough evidence of God’s hand? !Galatians 5:22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Embrace the risk of “failure”

Embrace failure - Stop calling for sustainability! !Tom has the story about babies falling 300 times before 1st step: 350 before first walk !Mary has the story about falling 100 times before you learn to surf. !Are you going to quit at 50?  or 60?  or 75?  You have to see it through. !Falling is not necessarily failure.  Quitting is failure!  Beckett quote:  Fail better!

Lower the cost of failure by harvesting the learnings.

Bet the farm, or sell it?

Betting the Farm versus Selling the Farm. The “ask” is different. !If you love funding the status quo, you’ll probably not fund “Stirrings.”

May I suggest May I suggest to you

May I suggest this is the best part of of your life !

May I suggest this time is blessed for you

this time is blessed and shining almost blinding bright just turn your head

and you’ll begin to see the thousand reasons that were just beyond your sight

!the reasons why

why I suggest to you why I suggest this is the best part of your life

!there is a world

that’s been addressed to you addressed to you, intended only for your eyes

a secret world a treasure chest to you

of private scenes and brilliant dreams that mesmerize !

a tender lover’s smile a tiny baby’s hands

the million stars that fill the turning sky at night !

Oh I suggest Yes I suggest to you

Yes I suggest this is the best part of your life

There is a hope that’s been expressed in you

the hope of seven generations, maybe more this is the fate

that they invest in you it’s that you’ll do one better that was done before

!inside you know

inside you understand inside you know what’s yours to finally set right

!and i suggest

and i suggest to you and i suggest this is the best part of your life

!this is a song

comes from the west to you comes from the west, comes from the slowly setting sun

this is a song with a request of you

to see how very short the endless days will run and when they’re gone

and when the dark descends we’d give anything for one more hour of life

!may i suggest

this is best part of your life !

written by Susan Werner

Can you still imagine your best days might be out in front of you?

What is it that you notice God is birthing in this moment, here in the Episcopal Church in Vermont?

Needed: Time-keeper

Harvester Host

The Rev. Thomas Brackett !New Church Starts & Missional Initiatives Episcopal Church Center 815 2nd Ave. New York, NY 10017 646-203-6266 tbrackett@episcopalchurch.org !

Schedule a phone call or meeting with Tom here: http://doodle.com/TomBrackett

Tom offers a blog at http://5marks.org/blog/

Skype: thomasbrackett

Twitter: @tombrackett

http://5marks.org/