Presence: Part 1

Monte's Book Club

We live in a world and culture that seems to be stuck on separation, distinction and breaking things down into parts that we can get our minds around. Yet in this first part of the book, the writers advance that "the whole exists through continually manifesting in the parts, and the parts exist as embodiments of the whole." p. 6 of intro. Where we see separation we should be looking for integration, synchronicity, inter-dependence, mutuality and reciprocity. Historically it seems that those that are able to step back, to see the big picture, or take in the whole are the ones to voice as prophets, healers, and truth-tellers what the whole is that we live in, what's wrong with it and how to transform it. That's what the authors advance as the most true and essential vocation of leadership. Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, MLK Jr., Gandhi, Amos, and Esther...they are examples of leadership according to presence. Leadership is more about being a being who can see the whole, who recognizes that the whole - or system in which we breath, move and have our being - is a whole that is fundamentally relational.

With the emergence of global culture, instant communication, rampant individualism and as-of-yet-historically-unknown-material acquistion our traditional family, religious and social structures are threatened. We live in a moment where much of what we know is questioned, in crisis, and unsure to continue. Global Warming. The Food Crisis. Global Multinational Companies. The Slow Food and Locavore Movements. We need leaders that are aware of the changes around us - and call us to hope - of course it's one thing to talk about it (like Obama) and another to be what the authors consider living an awareness of the system in which we live, the changes happening and the ways in which to move into the future. We can't just react to change (which merely leads to reinforcing old established habits and affirming empty vague rhetoric, violence and genocidal tribalism), we have to move beyond the escapist tendency to find comfort in habit to seeing uncomfortable and extraordinary clarity regarding what it means to act in the service of what is emerging around us.

We most often think that we fail in changing institutions because we lack visions and noble intentions, when in fact we ail because people can't see the reality that we face. In a sense we live in an almost sci-fi world depicted in the Matrix, Star Wars, Battlestar Galatica and the X-Files. We fail to recognize and discern the synchronistic and interdependent relationships all around us from the quarks that make up the atoms of creation to the ways in which we work together. To be a good leader in an effective and emergently aware way, is to redirect energy to focus on the whole through spiritual practices of mediation, centering prayer, silence and awareness.

It's challenging to see that these non-religious folks go towards spiritual practice as the foundational essence of leadership. It's not about action but about awareness, not about reactivism but presence, not about being distant but about being connected. Yet we continually focus on leadership as about power over others to direct things in ways that we want. It's about collaboration through motivation, shared decision making or if all else fails, manipulation.

I think about the people/leaders/mentors that have had the most impacted me.....they did so more through their relationship then through their knowledge, wisdom, actions, or words. It's a direct challenge for most pastoral leaders, when we base people work leadership on a CEO model in which leaders stay in an office, directing others by staying on top of information...instead of walking the streets, hanging in the cafes and bars, and being present in the world seeking to be aware of what God is doing. The other day I walked through the Dimond District (the neighborhood of the church I serve) in jeans, a t-shirt and my ipod visible. A friend said that no one would ever be able to know my pastoral profession from the way I looked. Maybe I'm on the right path then towards Presence Leadership....

Jesus for President

Monte's Book Club
Entry 2

I just returned from a meeting a friend invited me to tag along to about "Jesus for President" and how the authors Shane Clairborne and Chris Haw are going on a speaking tour this summer, including coming to Grace Cathedral in SF on July 11th @ 7pm.

As we talked during the lunch gathering I was struck by someone's wording of their interpretive take on the book - are we identifying ourselves with our baptism or with our passeport? I know I use one to leave the country and the other to get through each day and as a compass. It doesn't seem provocative to me to challenge being American vs. being a follower of Jesus...but it can be, and is when we confuse things and it gets all muddled up like mix-matched socks in the dryer.... Who said what? What is caesar's? what is God's? So what do we give to who? Where do influence and affluence cross and become the same narcissistic self-serving thing? Where do we cross over from talking about serving the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner to actually doing it - not as a mission trip, but a daily vocation, lifestyle and worldview? Where I live it's every day that I'm faced with this in my neighborhood, at the church I serve, all throughout my city. A friend talked today of the city - seems like a lot of faith communities in the city raise up followers expecting them to go and serve elsewhere as disciples....is there an underlying assumption that no one will stay in the city because it's too poor, too nasty, too -un-pretty, too negligeable,....and maybe too late? I'm looking forward to seeing how the author's talk about this in the book, for they're city-folks....

I was always told to keep faith and politics separate in my words and sacramental actions as an ordained clergy person representing the church community.....yet how can political action & reflection be distinct and disparate from faith if it's the foundational experience of God's overwhelming presence that shapes and gives meaning to all that we do, say and are?

To learn more about the upcoming book tour check out the book website at www.jesusforpresident.org with, outakes & appendixes, and counter propaganda (including this cool amish homeland security t-shirt).

The author's are part of a Christian Community called The Simple Way in Philadelphia & the Camden House in Camden. www.thesimpleway.org.

Video interview regarding the hopes of author Shane Clairborne for the book

Jesus for President
Monte's Book Club Reading
Section 1 of 4 (pp. 1-63)

I love the mosaic-styled cut and paste visual layout of the text interlaced with images and the millenial-inspired vernacular with which the authors write and interpretively articulate their theologically shaped world-view. The best way to experience this is by reading the introduction to the book. The best way for me to share that was to make a slideshow (see below) for you to experience it yourself. [I also included photos of some other pages and the uber-visual bibliography. Buy the book so I don't go to jail for copyright infringement - plus it's good!]

This first section of the book is a brief summary and effective introduction to the global metanarrative of the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible. From the creation narrative to slavery in Egypt, from the Exodus to the Exile to the Prophets the writers lift out the reoccuring motif that the Israelites are called to be the People of God through whom God is liberating the world to truly be human. They are called to remember this unique identity as a people whom God was protecting and redeeming, not because of genetic superiority, moral excellence, or intellectual royalty - but because they stood out as poor, enslaved, despised, overlooked and underestimated - the perfect test-tube demonstration of God's power, purpose and passion for humanity. This whole process of liberation from economic oppression, physical slavery, sur-indebtedness, imperialism, and foreign domination was meant to set them apart (which is what the word "holy" means in Hebrew). Their contrasting calendar, customs and culture were intended by God to remind them of their communal identity as this people of God and to even be a direct confrontation with the customs, powers, and economies of the nations and empires they lived among and under. Their culture rooted in this monotheistic belief in the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham and Sarah, of Moses and Myriam, of Elijah and Ruth, of Sabbath and Jubilee was intended to be a "regularly scheduled revolution" which would embody the plan and hope of God for creation.

The two principal questions they ask in this section (pp. 54-55) and I imagine the entire book as a sort of thesis conversation starter) are:

1. What is it that sets the people of God apart as a "holy nation" for God?
2. How has God branded and marked our lives and communities [today]?

Good questions in particular in our time of revolt against an evangelical-named dominant culture in our nation that has been subverted or hijacked (take your choice) by political parties, economic multinational powers and imperalistic media movements to further other ends. What is actually Christian about us and our communities? What is unique about our worship gatherings founded upon a communal following of Jesus when many of them our shaped by Hallmark inspired holidays, imperialistic nationalism, and/or economic trends? If we're really called to holiness, to be set apart, it doesn't seem (at least in the majority or dominant forms of Christianity in the USA) to be all that visible? And when it is - it's either under the radar - or upfront and centered and twisted around like the ministry of Jeremiah Wright. Time for a revolution. Or at least to address the one that has already emerged.

What do you think?

What I'm Reading -
An Invitation to Read Together
Monte's Book Club
Not as popular as Oprah - but just as good looking

I talked with several friends this past week about books that we've read, are reading and dream of reading. It got me thinking that reading is one of my favorite things, and it's made even better when I get to discuss books with others. The latter is increasingly difficult to do so I thought I'd try to do it with others through the blog.

I just finished Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice. (The second in a trilogy she's writing on Jesus of Nazareth. The first is entitled: Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt). These are amazing books. Yes it's Anne Rice of all the vampire fame and gore. And she's writing a Novel in three parts of the life of Jesus - all in the FIRST PERSON. She's done a lot of research and study. She writes of Jesus as he grows up. The miracle at Cana (John ) takes place at the end of the 2nd novel. So she's been trying to flesh out what was happening to, in and with Jesus as he grew up, and his divinity/mission/purpose emerges in his consciousness and his family system. It's quite good, weaving together the 4 gospel accounts, data from the Dead Sea Scrolls and stuff from the Apocrypha and the Gospel of Thomas on his childhood. Very thought provoking. Very much orthodox. Very human.

Has anyone read it? If so what'd you think?

The question it leaves me with is when and how did Jesus grow up? What influenced and shaped him: his community, his family, the divine presence in and around him? At what point did he choose to accept what he was being pulled to? How do you reconcile your experience or perspective on his humanity and divinity with that?

Next Month - MAY - I'm going to read 2 books:
Get a copy of one or both and look for my thoughts posted in May seeking to invite discussion and dialogue online!

Presence: An exploration of profound change in people, organizations and society by Peter Senge. (recommended by Sheila Denton)

Here's a review from Amazon.com:
Presence can be read as a both a guide and a challenge to leaders in business, education, and government to transform their institutions into powerful agents of change in a world increasingly out of balance. Since business is the most powerful institution in the world today, the authors argue, it must play a key role in solving global societal problems. Yet so many institutions seem to run people rather than the other way around. In this illuminating book, the authors seek to understand why people don't change systems and institutions even when they pose a threat to society, and examine why institutional change is so difficult to attain.

The authors view large institutions such as global corporations as a new species that are affecting nearly all other life forms on the planet. Rather than look at these systems as merely the extension of a few hyper-powerful individuals, they see them as a dynamic organisms with the potential to learn, grow, and evolve--but only if people exert control over them and actively eliminate their destructive aspects. "But until that potential is activated," they write, "industrial age institutions will continue to expand blindly, unaware of their part in a larger whole or of the consequences of their growth." For global institutions to be recreated in positive ways, there must be individual and collective levels of awareness, followed by direct action. Raising this awareness is what Presence seeks to achieve. Drawing on the insights gleaned from interviews with over 150 leading scientists, social leaders, and entrepreneurs, the authors emphasize what they call the "courage to see freshly"--the ability to view familiar problems from a new perspective in order to better understand how parts and wholes are interrelated.

This is not a typical business book. Mainly theoretical, it does not offer specific tips that organizational managers or directors can apply immediately; rather, it offers powerful tools and ideas for changing the mindset of leaders and unlocking the latent potential to "develop awareness commensurate with our impact, wisdom in balance with our power." --Shawn Carkonen

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Clairborne. (Recommended by Ruth Villasenor, Matt Prinz & Mary Glenn)

Here's a review from Amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Here is the must-read election-year book for Christian Americans. What should Christians do when allegiances to the state clash with personal faith? Haw and Claiborne (The Irresistible Revolution) slice through politics as usual and well past the superficial layers of the culture wars with their lucid exploration of how Christians can and should relate to presidents and kings, empire and government. Their entertaining yet provocative tour of the Bible's social and economic order makes even the most abstruse Levitical laws come alive for our era. They also provide a valuable political context for Christ's life, reminding readers that Jesus did not preach the need to put God back into government—he urged his followers to live by a different set of rules altogether, to hold themselves apart as peculiar people. The compelling writing is enhanced by a lavish, eye-popping layout. The pages are a riot of textured callouts, colors, photos and fonts—the perfect packaging for a message that must compete in a world of sound bites. With this second book, Claiborne emerges as an affable, intelligent, humorous prophet of his generation, calling people out of business-as-usual in a corrupt world and back to the radically different social order of the biblical God. (Mar.)
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