Being the Last “Buggy Whip Salesman of the Month” | [D]mergent

This past week Merlin Mann said “Being the last ‘buggy whip salesman of the month’ is great in the short run, but then what?” The point, of course, is that if you haven’t been paying attention all along to the changes taking place in the world and making adjustments, what looks stable and safe today will eventually be only a historical footnote.  Being the Last “Buggy Whip Salesman of the Month” | [D]mergent.

Finding Excuses to Die: The Problem with Thinking It’s about Everything Else | [D]mergent

 

“The fact still remains that if you think the culture of your church is going to change for the better if you wait long enough for everything to fall into place before you do the difficult work of transformation, you’re always going to find an excuse to die . . . “ Finding Excuses to Die: The Problem with Thinking It’s about Everything Else | [D]mergent.

Laying Brick in a Brave New World: Why the Church We Live in Isn’t the Church We Think We Live in | [D]mergent

 

An article about the way a rapidly changing world appears to change the nature of work, and why the church must be more nimble and creative in seeking to come to terms with that change.

Laying Brick in a Brave New World: Why the Church We Live in Isn’t the Church We Think We Live in | [D]mergent.

The Church Won’t Die (But Our Unhealthy Attachment to Institutions Must)

 

An article about how the threat to the institutional church can be helpfully illuminated by reference to Disruption Theory.  The technology used to accomplish ministry inevitably changes.  The church should neither be too quick to dismiss old ways of doing things nor too quick to enshrine them.

The Church Won’t Die (But Our Unhealthy Attachment to Institutions Must) | [D]mergent.

Fighting the Last War: Churches with Bad Habits

 

Fighting the Last War: Churches with Bad Habits.

Why Holding on too Tightly Is a Bad Idea

 

Why Holding on too Tightly Is a Bad Idea | [D]mergent.

Developing Young Leaders: The Church’s Need for Good Grandparenting Skills

 

Developing Young Leaders: The Church’s Need for Good Grandparenting Skills.

Making the Time to Be Scared of More Interesting Things | [D]mergent

 

 

 

 

Make sure to read the other articles in this series on church organization: Killing Church Committees and Other Reflections on Church Organization, Killing the Whispers and Other Reflections on Church Decision-Making,  Crack Addiction and Church Transformation,  On Neediness, Dating, and Congregational Transformation, and Death of a Salesman . . . Please?

 

 

The Chihuahua Brain Revisited

 

I was listening to Merlin Mann the other day (someone you should really check out if you haven’t yet). He mentioned that his big goal in life right now centers on “making the time to be scared of more interesting things.” I love that.

 

What does that mean?

 

We humans–having only recently (at least by the standards of evolutionary time) reached a period where we don’t constantly have to be on the lookout for saber-toothed tigers–still carry around in the oldest parts of our brains a vestigial, reactive fear mechanism. I’ve written about this before, calling it “the chihuahua brain.” Basically, we have highly sensitive threat sensing detectors that are tripped much more frequently than the true danger in our environment warrants. Fight or flight is a helpful response in the face of rampaging mastodons, but not so much when confronting a job interview or a contentious committee meeting.

 

When this fear manifests itself, it’s like a little siren in our systems that ceaselessly directs attention to the possible fall-out from facing the threat, leaving decision-making in a simple binary format–fight or flight.[1] When we’re afraid, creativity takes a vacation. Your imagination, when your body tells you it’s in danger, extends only to a preoccupation with what you taste like to something larger than you are.

Continue reading at  . . . Making the Time to Be Scared of More Interesting Things | [D]mergent.