Duke Reconciliation Conference 2009 (June 1st, 2009)

Duke Reconciliation Conference 2009

June 1^st, 2009

 

A mentor once told me that a smart person knows a lot, but a wise person is aware of what they do not know.

 

I have only been at Duke for one day, but it is already abundantly clear that there is so much that I do not know.  I am still an infant being tossed back and forth by the waves.  I have progressed to solid food, knowledge, but I am still shaken and jarred by the ideals of reconciliation and the realities of this world.

 

I encountered so many truths today.  Each deeply profound and many wounding; I am in pain spiritually, intellectually and even physically (although this one could be attributed to jogging outside and not on a treadmill).

 

It is challenging to hold the “Kingdom Now” and the “Kingdom to Come” concurrently.  They are a challenging paradox that is both hopeful and painful at once.  There is hope for the future, but the actualization or manifestation of that hope is not immediate.  People have, are and will suffer.

 

A thought that has stuck with has been:

 

“The word for ‘forgetting’ is MONEY”.—Stanley Hauerwas

 

I see so many young adults throwing away their passion for change, for service, for reconciliation to make a dollar.  We have allowed the stress of college loans and the cultural implications and definitions of status to define our path and directions.  Why?

 

It is because we have forgotten our first master to serve another.  We have forgotten the Lord that called us.

 

Ephesians 4 starts, “I urge to live a life worthy of the calling you have received to be completely humble and gentle to be patient bearing with one another in love…”

 

As followers of Christ we cannot allow our paths to be defined by the ways of the world.  We are to be salt and light.  I understand the need and even want for dollars and comfort, but we are aliens in this world.  This is not our home.  We have an eternal destination, and we want to take as many people with us to that place as possible.

 

So, why do we believe we should/can act in the ways of the world?  There is something wrong with allowing our decisions and future to be driven by the wants and desires for cash and/or status.  As Followers of Christ that is not what we have been called to, we have a higher calling.  This does not mean that those wants and desires will dissipate.  On the contrary living for Christ is a journey, a process of change.  What can change however is the fruit of those truths in our lives?

 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

“Go into all the world making disciples of every nation baptizing them…”

 

“Faith, hope and love.  The greatest of these is love.”

 

The saying goes, “Money makes the world go round.”

 

That may be true now, but money will not save the World.  We are the embodiment, the physical manifestation of Christ, in and to the world.  When will we start acting like it.  Yes, it means sacrifice.  If you know the truth you are obligated to follow it.  Otherwise, it would have been better for you to remain ignorant.

 

Friends, we must change our thinking.  This does not mean that life cannot be fun and joyous.  However, how can revel in my cash and/comfort when half of the world is dieing of overeating and the other half of starvation?

 

“Reconciling All Things: God’s Vision of Beloved Community”

 

1. Relationships alone do not change the social realities.
2. There is not peace without suffering.  This is what we have seen in and through the life of Christ.
3. Jesus and Justice must go hand-in-hand.  One without the other allows us to go to extremes.
4. Peace takes time.
5. Reconciliation is no bigger than the one beside you who is hardest to love.
6. You love Jesus no more than the person you love the least.
7. “Those who come to serve the poor stay because they realize that they too are poor.” –Founder of the L’arche Community
8. What is more important…loving God or loving your neighbor?  NEITHER.  There are far more versus in the Bible about God love us.
9. We as Followers of Christ are to hold in tension the “Kingdom Now” and the “Kingdom to Come”.  (Malcolm, you’ve been saying this all along.)
10. Reconciliation is dangerous because it demands a new reality.  The new reality is dangerous because it calls for us to become new people.
11. What it takes…(Dr. John M. Perkins)
1. You need to sense that you are loved by God.  (This will be your greatest drive/passion to serve.)  (The greatest human need is to be loved.)
2. You need to know God.  (Become a disciple.)
3. You must experience the “calling” that you are to “do this”.  (This sets you up for the journey.)
12. What it takes…(Dr. Stanley Hauerwas)
1. Learn both to be forgiven and to forgive because of there are power conditions and dynamics that this sets right.
2. Recognize we can only do it because of Jesus
3. Reconciliation is difficult because it competes with our revenge and our cultural memory of what we have seen.
4. Acknowledge and address memories and language because they are power.  They impact our actions.  We must seek healing before they can be changed.
13. “The people who are unequal cannot be reconciled.”  Dr. JP
14. “The word for ‘forgetting’ is ‘money.”—Stanley Hauerwas
15. “Why is part of the world dieing of overeating while the other half is dieing of starvation?”

 

“Transformative Leadership through National Organizations”

 

1. Sometimes we become so preoccupied with the external that we forget about the internal.  This is what happens when the urgent and/or immediate are directing the organization.
2. Tradition is that which carries us forward not where we stop.  Taking what has been life giving and adapting it to a new context is how we should use tradition.  We should be allowing people in our organizations to be “traditioned innovators”.
3. The most transformative leaders are people of character who can tell good stories (even if they are not charismatic).
4. The most transformative leaders are those who can hold paradoxes together.  For example, social justice and evangelism.
5. Transformative leaders can think oppostionally without becoming polarized.
6. Transformative leaders can have “meaningful disagreements”.
7. Strong leaders are always dealing with their own in competencies.
8. We are to be “institutional thinkers” not “institutional critics”.
9. Transformative leadership:
1. Initiate people into traditions in such a way as to create “traditioned innovators”.  They do not lock people into a tradition, but instead educate people so that they can build upon them in the future.  (“Staying focused on the mission while enabling creativity/innovation.”)
2. Engage in ministry indirectly while recognizing the direct implications.
3. Think of the organization as overlapping circles not silos or charts.
10. You need to have “thick skin”.  You need to be ready to accept the potential pain of leadership, but don’t be a self-appointed martyr.  You must be able to distinguish between the “suicidal leader” and the leader who is willing to take risks.