When Chaos and Order Dance Together...

Listening some time ago to a feature on recruitment for the British army, I found one recruiting officer's comment interesting. 'We're looking for those happy with chaos who can live with confusion but keep a clear head and make good decisions".

Then last night in the Leadership Journal I read:

"In the face of chaos, connective leaders participate in bringing order, and in the face of order, connective leaders participate in bringing chaos. When a faith community knows only order without chaos, they can drift into stasis. When a faith community knows chaos without order, they will struggle to trust their participation in God's narrative. But when chaos and order dance together, dynamic faith rooted in God's story finds hope in the midst of a changing context"

Friesen, D. (2009). Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from, the Internet, and Other Networks Emergent Village resources for communities of faith). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books.

Comments

Anonymous said…
When I saw this 'We're looking for those happy with chaos who can live with confusion but keep a clear head and make good decisions', I thought of "if"

also when you are walking you must loose and gain your balance constantly which is some what akin to this need for chaos and order.

btw size zero font makes the page a bit chaotic
8:38 AM
Gordon said…
thanks anon!

font 0 is under rated it should be used more!!
7:14 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an...
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play...
Read more