As we come to the end of what has been a very challenging year, I just wanted to say thank you for being you. Your love and support has been much appreciated. To those of you who have continued to give so sacrificially I extend a very special thanks as it allows us to stay positioned to continue to move on when this is all over, in the direction to which we have been called. It has been an interesting and challenging time for me personally, not least in looking at this situation in the same way that I look at scripture, and Christianity, and ministry.
I will be honest, this has caused me great concern and not in the direction some of you would have probably preferred. I do hold though that the culture of Q, with Quest and Question at its root, is not and was never supposed to be limited to just how we approach the bible, Christianity, faith, spirituality, but a basis from which we view the whole of life.
I know many of you, partly because of personality type, are more comfortable and feel more secure being told what to do and what to think, whether we admit to it or not. I do understand that for you, my current style of leadership will be perceived inadequate. I do not say this as a criticism, it is a part of life, the psychology of individuality, and the makeup of all cultures. But my aim is still to endeavour to teach all how to think not what to think. All leaders know the inherent dangers of this and so mostly only give verbal ascent to the idea without ever recklessly investing in its reality from the place of ‘no turning back’. The idea itself may be romantically attractive but, in reality, it is intimidating as it empowers a level of personal autonomy and the relinquishing of the tools of control and manipulation so often relied upon by leaders, to a degree which both perpetrator and victim can feel uncomfortable, let down and insecure.
This new way of being calls on the barbarian, braveheart, explorer, discoverer spirit divinely present deep on the inside of each of us. This has nothing to do with extrovert or introvert but simply an inner willingness that unleashes, what is yet for many of us, an undiscovered power.
Let me say that agreement over detail is not the goal or objective for which we are aiming, nice though that would be. If it were, we are guaranteed division, conflict and strife. There is a much misunderstood verse in the book of proverbs that says “how can two walk together unless they be agreed”. It does not mean, how can two walk together unless they agree on everything, if it did, any hope of long term relationships and harmony are highly unlikely and polarisation of society becomes the only possible outcome (we are seeing that very clearly right now). It means, how can two walk together unless they agree to walk together. Do you see how the emphasis is now on the agreement to walk together not agreeing over everything? Let’s agree to walk together. That’s the power of community.
At this time when we celebrate a story that has at its heart a series of different but equally important journeys to discover the Christ, I pray that that spirit will pervade your heart, mind and will, and that together we will journey to, in and from the greatest purpose in all of this which is the realisation of the incarnation of Christ in you.
With much love and appreciation,
Anth