Davison's Doodle

What CC(DOC) is Missing?

My brand of Christian witness, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is like many mainline denominations living through a period of contraction: membership, financial, relevance in culture, and ministry focus.  Some of this can be attributed to changing culture, but of late I’ve wondered if we’ve forgotten how to be in relationship?  This means that the dysfunction of our political system, our polemic culture, and hyper consumerism has reshaped Christianity at large and the CC(DOC) expression of being Christian.  Don’t misunderstand, change is part of living and part of institutional life, but I’ve wondered what H. Richard Niebuhr would have to say about Christ, Culture, and Christianity today.

Enter Seth Godin, a marketing guy, whose words are instructive and worth reflection for local congregations and for denominations as a whole.

Can we talk about process first?

It’s so tempting to get straight to the issue, especially since you’re certain that you’re right.

The challenge is that organizations and relationships that thrive are built to go beyond this one discussion. They are built for the long haul, and this particular issue, while important, isn’t as vital as our ability to work together on the next hundred issues.

So yes, you’re probably right, and yes, it’s urgent, but if we can’t agree on a process to talk about this, we’re not going to get anywhere, not for long.

If the process we’ve used in the past is broken, let’s fix it, because, in fact, getting that process right is actually more urgent than the problem we’ve got right now. Our meta-conversation pays significant dividends. At the very least, it gets us working together on the same side of a problem before we have to be on opposite sides of the issue of the day.