Jordon Cooper writes, “There are those that feel comfortable in bringing change from the center of an organization, movement, or denomination but for me, I am more comfortable on the fringes.” That resonates with me. Jordon goes on to draw from Grant McCracken’s Flock and Flow (which I suppose will be published in the near future) and how society changes from:

* Risk to Safety

* Noise to Signal

* Novelty to Form

* Chaos to Certainty

Jordon goes on:

As it moves from left to right, it becomes safer, more watered down, more structured, and in the context of the church, sold by Maranatha or put into a can by Group Publishing and sold across the country. Those that were there when it started and when it was risky generally dislike the final polished product. We see this happening already in the emerging church. The money comes in, repackages it, makes it comfortable and in many contexts subverts the meaning of where it all started from. Most churches start out on the left but move to the right over time. So do most theological movements.

I like it on the left side - with risk, noise, novelty, and chaos. Many are called to the right side - to safety, signal, form, and certainty. God calls different people to different missions and different ways of being (and sometimes, because God has a sense of humor, he puts a left-side person like me and a right-side person like Gretchen together in a marriage and blesses us with four children - endless opportunities for selflessness and grace, and I’m still more often on the receiving rather than the giving end of those than - still working on that).

I’m excited about diving more toward spiritual risk, noise, novelty, and chaos.