Vox populi | emergent nerves

… turn it over to the young

I

’m seeing a wave of dialogue with young people in the Canada and Bermuda Territory in relation to future leadership, training in discipleship, and what is needed to move forward. There are focus groups, conferences, and questionnaires asking for the input of young adults.

Here’s the rub… I don’t get to speak into this because I’m 43. I am officially old, but isn’t it possible I have something to say about this stuff? I know about emergent village, and PoMo (hahaha, that probably just showed my age), but seriously, what wisdom, knowledge or experience do the 20-somethings have in relation to direction for future leadership development? From my perspective I find that most are willing to complain and criticize, but not willing to engage in the process of change. Sounding old again, huh? So, I’m faced with my own questions linked to the motivation behind these movements. Or perhaps I ask these questions from the perspective of being part of a system.

What do they want to change anyway? I guess that’s the point of the dialogue. I’m not sure about your part of the world, but in my short time in The Salvation Army I’ve seen a lot of conferences, programs and discussions about fixing what ails us. We need to focus on rural ministry… let’s focus on church growth… we need to have visioning exercises… and we need to have integrated mission, to name a few. We have IM, NCD, CG, NAACP, and most certainly we have ADHD. But while the binders look impressive on my bookshelf, does all of our meeting, conferring and symposing ever effect true change? Does it bring about missional change that utilizes relevant cultural forms to live out our mission? The tough part is, we can’t even agree what that mission looks like. So what could all of these young people possibly tell us about direction for the future?

• What would happen if we let go of the leadership reins and let the young leaders take the machine for a run?
• Do we trust them enough to allow their insights and critiques to affect change in the way we do business?
• Would their efforts result in policy changes and would they have review proceedures built-in, or are they just opportunities for hanging out together?

While my grey hair may affect my thinking about the possibilities youth bring to the table, when it comes to mission advance I think they are on the right track. In their non-institutional ways of doing things, and their experiential framework for verifying truth, they have something to teach us about being a missional church. Do we have the nerves to let them lead the way?

Vox populi appears every Friday on theRubicon. Find past Vox populi posts and a bio of Capt. Rick Zelinsky here.

2 Comments to Vox populi | emergent nerves

1. I think you’ve posed some good questions Rick, but I think before we ask anyone to take over the ‘leadership reins’ we’ve got to have a solid understanding of what it is we’re asking someone to lead. The ever-quest for the right person / program / chorus / you-name-it is somewhat moot if we don’t understand organizationally what are our non-negotiables. Yes, we have a mission statement. Yes, we have core values. But what does that really mean to us organizationally? How do those statements affect everything we do? What are the behaviours that are associated with those statements/values? Are we willing to even begin to articulate what that would/could/should look like? If we’re wanting ‘take the machine for a run,’ then we’d better be pretty confident the machine has a solid chassis to support the trip.
Sharon on February 26th, 2008

2. Rick:

   thanks for this…when we’re in the middle of filling out a stack of forms, fiddling with spreadsheets and compulsively saving every five minutes so we don’t lose our work, it’s really easy to be anti-institutional..but institutions are what maintain continuity/collective memory, accountability frameworks so what I think you’re really objecting to about institutions is bureaucratization. Fair enough, but I would not chuck out institutions and their capacity to preserve order, protect us from superficial flux, just because they like anything human need periodic refinements and revisiting.

   As for youth and experiential learning. Experiential learning requires experience which in comparison to those of us of a certain age, youth do not have much of, yet. Getting together and talking about ideas does have merits. It allows those of us to take learning back to whatever we’re doing at whatever level we’re doing it. That’s good, but it’s only one part of leadership development.

   Thanks again for raising this issue.

   Andrea
Andrea614Regent on February 29th, 2008

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