"Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without
delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages, we are impatient of
being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet, it is the law of
all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability . .
. and that it may take a very long time."--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
I am not a particularly patient person. From a family perspective, I came by it
naturally and I have probably passed it on.
Therefore, when I read these words I am confronted with the truth that some
things take time to come to fruition and that period of time involved may be
punctuated by turbulence. Passages are
rarely as quick and easy as we would wish them to be. As my grandchildren often ask plaintively, “Are
we there yet?”
Churches face this temptation to rush forward
when a pastor leaves and to get a new person as soon as possible. Organizations are afraid to allow a possible vacuum
in leadership to develop for fear that what momentum there is will be lost. We rush ahead without taking time to learn
during the time of transition and to process that experience of moving from one
way to thinking to another.
My friend Alan Roxburgh talks about a time of liminality—a
threshold between what has been and what is to come. We assume that what is to come will be like
what we have experienced before but we should not rush to that assumption. The liminal time is the nexus between what
has been and what is to come. It is a
place of learning, a place to hesitate, to process the turbulence, to learn
from it, and then to move forward.
Although they may not wish to admit it, moderate
Baptists in the South are going through such a time of liminality. The old consensus began breaking down thirty
years ago. In its place, new structures
and methodologies were birthed, old networks were renegotiated, and some bold
steps were taken. But we have not
arrived yet. We are still in that liminal
space and the passage through it may take a long time. As I read the words of Teilhard de Chardin quoted
above, I have a feeling that there will continue to be some period of
instability and uncertainty before we arrive at a new equilibrium—whatever it
is.
“Are we there yet?” “No.”
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