Time for a paradigm shift

She had no intent of making sweeping changes to her church, to any church, but yet the little mustard seed of her comment — what a great tree is growing from it in my mind, and I hope it has the faith to make great changes.

Churches don’t do reconciliation well. They kick the “problem” out before they have a chance to do reconciliation, and thus never learn how to do it. What a simple observation.

And from that observation comes the following point. The reason they kick the problem out is because they see it as an adversary, they view their fellow Christians from an adversarial mindset, an adversarial paradigm.

It is a quite natural thing. We imbibe it like mother’s milk from the mainstream media. But thus is not how Christ intends his church, his bride, to be. Her beauty comes from reconciliation, from a repent, forgive and reconcile paradigm.

Most of us like to avoid conflict when possible. In an adversarial paradigm conflict must be fought, won, and the counterparty overcome, conflict eliminated. But in a reconciliation paradigm, while conflict is not sought, it is also not feared. Conflict is way of growing and strengthening, a way of understanding and affirming one’s brother. You throw yourself into the fray when it comes your way, shoulder to shoulder with the brother whose eye is not eye to yours, confident that while you most likely won’t see eye to eye at the end, you will have found harmony in your diversity. You face your conflict side by side, not face to face, shoulder to shoulder, not light-years apart, both participants on the same team, in the same race, encouraging each other on to face any hardships that are ahead.

And the space between ourselves sometimes, is more than the distance between the stars, by the fragile bridge of the servant’s bow, we take up the basin and the towel.

And the call is to community, the impoverished power that sets the soul free, in humility to take the vow, that day after day we must take up the basin and the towel.