Learning at the Speed of Life
Steven R. Mills
Change! It is happening faster than ever before in history. In
their book, Blur, Davis and Meyer say, “Built to last”
now means “built to change.”
I suggest that built to last means built to learn, and our learning
must be done at the speed of life. If we are not learning, growing,
and adapting our methods and strategies at the speed of life, in
a few years we will be ineffective and irrelevant.
We are living in a time of unprecedented dangerous opportunity.
An epic shift is taking place in our world. Some are thriving, while
others are wandering shell-shocked and immobilized by it.
Christian futurist Bill Easum describes today’s dynamics that
challenge our ability to be effective in ministry as “a collision
of paradigms.” He says, “Everything is uncontrollable,
and everything is working both for and against. It’s called
paradox. There is no one way to do anything anymore.”
Easum calls today a time of strategic mapping. You draw the map
as you explore the new territory.
As we go on this uncharted journey, we are forced continually to
innovate, experiment, learn, and adapt. Some of our previous successes
and accomplishments mean nothing. If we don’t continue to learn,
our ministries will become irrelevant to the culture, and we will
miss opportunities God is offering us.
Let’s look at a few fundamental attitudes and skills to be
embraced and developed in the church or ministry team committed
to “learning at the speed of life.”
1. Keep your eyes on God and His purposes.
Preparing to possess the Promised Land, Joshua and the leaders
of Israel admonished the people, “When you see the Ark of the
Covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests…carrying it,
follow them…since you have never been this way before”
(Joshua 3:3,4, The New Living Translation).
The Israelites were about to face issues they had not faced before.
The land they were entering was a different culture from what they
knew. That is why they were told to keep their eyes on the Ark (God).
We lose sight of God’s purposes when we follow routines and
traditions without asking God for new insights. When we keep our
eyes on God and His purposes, then we are able to stay on track
as we adapt our methods to changing conditions. If there are conflicts
over music style or worship times and formats, seek the Lord for
guidance. God’s purpose for His church is reaching the lost
and discipling the believer. This is the unchanging factor by which
everything else is measured.
2. Develop a tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.
Because we operate in uncharted territory, the ability to live
with the unknown is essential. Along with the changing culture we
now experience unprecedented mobility. We must learn to work with
unique combinations in ministry teams. The members come from diverse
backgrounds, with broad ranges in priorities, values, needs, and
preferences. Allowing them to innovate and take charge often becomes
necessary, and this requires courage, confidence, and faith.
As we become convinced of God’s eternal mission and purposes
and comfortable with our own calling and abilities, we gain the
inner strength to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity. Then we can
create or facilitate new ways to respond to exciting and challenging
situations. Repeatedly God tells Joshua to be “strong and courageous.”
3. Value individual differences, gifts, and ideas.
Sometimes a ministry becomes ineffective because of a tendency
to see individual differences as threats or liabilities. We must
learn to see differences as an asset to the team. Joshua recognized
the tribes’ different passions, ideas, and gifts. Because of
their unique needs, two and a half tribes stayed on the east side
of Jordan, but only after their gifted warriors helped the other
tribes to possess the land (Joshua 1:12-17).
If we complain because a person with a different idea or style
challenges our norm, we jeopardize our ability to learn, grow, and
produce as a team. Sometimes a leader acts like a coach who moves
some team members to the second team or the bench, labeling them
“rebels” or “mavericks” because they challenge
the status quo, ask too many questions, or take too much initiative.
Such persons may play a significant role bringing us into the future
and helping us achieve relevancy. We must learn to recognize truly
useful ideas and build on individual differences.
God’s strategy for reaching your community — discipling
and equipping the believers — is directly related to the unique
gifts, interests, and ideas of the people in your church.
4. Learn to capitalize on change.
Change is both a stimulant and a stress. It is exhilarating and
fear-provoking. By anticipating conditions and events, and preparing
for the consequences, you can learn to make change work for you
and increase the effectiveness of the team and ministry. Change
must be embraced with anticipation. Change needs to be seen as presenting
new opportunities rather than overwhelming problems, with each turn
of the road offering a new chance. Len Sweet, at a conference dealing
with the changing church, stated:
“Change itself has changed. The founder of the VISA empire
coined a word to describe the world today: Chaordic —
a world on the border between chaos and order, where you are forced
to lead on the boundary of that chaos and order. It’s a self-organizing,
nonlinear, adaptive, complex system that simultaneously exhibits
characteristics of order and chaos; a system that has both rigidity
and flexibility overlapping, so it can be constantly prepared for
the unexpected and be fast on its feet to adapt to change. We’re
talking about a chaordic church, a church that can be always changing
and always the same. This is a mystery central to the gospel.”
5. Believe in the wisdom and power of the team.
God has put all the members of the team together because He knows
their individual strengths and gifts are not enough in themselves,
but combined with those of others we can accomplish great things
(1 Corinthians 12, 14; Romans 12; Ephesians 4). Joshua learned the
team concept from Moses and used it in possessing the Promised Land.
Jesus demonstrated the wisdom and power of the team with His disciples.
It is impossible to affirm the priesthood of all believers without
also embracing the plurality of leadership in the life and ministry
of the church.
We may say we believe in teamwork, but the test comes when we are
confronted with decision making and problem solving. Do we become
autocratic and make decisions or solve problems when the team gets
bogged down? Do we try to rescue the team and take control when
things aren’t going just as we thought they should?
We must believe we can work as a team to find answers. Our role
is to allow the members to wrestle through the issues and take action
as a team. Accountability replaces control. Team members are encouraged
to identify, develop, and use their God-given gifts.
6. Stay abreast of technological culture shifts.
The Internet, wireless technology, and advancement in computers
and software provide the church with constant challenges but even
greater opportunities in ministry. To continue to learn means that
we must understand, embrace, and utilize technological advances.
Churches are hiring team members whose total ministry role is to
manage media and technology. Sermons and teaching times are becoming
more interactive. To continue “learning at the speed of life”
requires that the church develop and maintain its proficiency in
computer and communications technology.
7. Always, and in all ways, continue to learn.
Joshua sent the spies into the Promised Land to investigate the
situation. He maintained a learning attitude. Churches that survive
and thrive in the 21st century will continually renew themselves
and learn. As individual team members and as a team, maintaining
a learning attitude and developing learning skills is not optional.
“The biggest challenge today is not getting an education, it’s
keeping one....Today it takes only 3 to 5 years for 50 percent of
our skills to become outdated.” 1
Ministry teams and team members must assume full responsibility
for managing their own learning to respond to the changing organizational
and ministry needs. This kind of learning will take various forms.
Rather than a set course delivered by some expert in the traditional
classroom setting, individuals will find and develop their talents
and creativity with personal coaches or mentors and in learning
cohorts, a small group of other serious learners.
Learning will also take place by intentional feedback processes.
Feedback must be invited, used, and given effectively. Keeping a
finger on the pulse of the diverse strengths, needs, struggles,
and decisions of team members requires that the team have open and
clear two-way communication. Team members must know what’s
expected and when they are on and off target. The team leader must
be willing to listen to and accept the same in return.
When problems are observed, quick fixes are not allowed. Continuously
seeking to identify barriers to greater effectiveness or causes
and reasons for ineffectiveness is a constant and open dialogue
among team members. Two-way feedback can both build and benefit
from such mutual credibility and confidence.
1Price Pritchett’s MindShift,
p.39 as stated in an internet article Building
the Church for the 21st Century, A conversation with Bill
Easum by Terri Martinson Elton)
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