BLOG 2/11/17. MAYBE THE CHURCH COULD LEARN FROM ‘HACKERS’
There is a whole, fascinating, innovative, increasingly influential reality emerging out there in the world of business, education, and many other realms, known as ‘hackers’. It is a fundamental rule to the world of hackers to be unafraid to question and challenge the accepted and entrenched behaviors in whatever field of endeavor they are interested in. Hackers have not only been hugely influential in challenging older and prestigious business and educational communities, but they continue to keep the new generation of business institutions (i.e., the Silicon Valley bunch and their counterparts) on their toes. Hackers are always seeking a better, more efficient, and more profitable way of doing things.
Take, for instance, the emergence of the MOOCs (Massive Open On-line Courses) in education. Hackers had learned how to by-pass costly enrollment in expensive colleges and universities, and to access their courses in other ways. Some schools and faculty saw this tide coming and found ways to benefit by it (Stanford early in the game). But hackers are a relentless lot. They look at some commercial need, and look at what is out there, and find ways to set up new entities that are potentially much more efficient, cost-effective, consumer-friendly, and worthy of taking huge gambles to bring them into reality.
The generation of entrepreneurial hackers (as some students of this phenomenon, such as Koulopoulos and Keldsen, have written) are “those of undaunted mind-set, and who recognize the positive impact brought about by the ability to connect people, mobilize communities, and drive positive outcomes that would otherwise be impossible.” The phenomenon is obvious and inescapable in much of the cultural, social, and economic contexts of today. But here is where I have a problem. What do you do with church institutions that are seemingly irretrievably wedded to the ecclesiastical patterns of a world that no longer exists?
Look at the vast church institutions formed by stagnant patterns of yesterday, and yet cling to them as though those patterns were sacrosanct, even though they are visibly non-generative, hardly reproductive, hugely expensive, and inefficient in forming disciples of Jesus Christ who are mature in living out their New Creation/Kingdom lives in the realities of their 24/7 work-a-day lives. Services are held, music is good, perhaps the pastor is a gifted teacher, … but they are less and less a factor in any community. (There are wonderful exceptions to this caricature, such as Redeemer Church in New York City, … but that church has been willing to depart from many patterns and priorities of yesterday’s churches, and to innovate to accomplish Christ’s mission in NYC.)
We live in a culture of urban nomads, always on the move and changing. We live in a society in which one’s office is his/her laptop. We live in that hyper-connected culture in which any ordinary person has access to more Biblical and theological resources on his/her iPhone than is available in the largest of theological libraries in the world. Believers often find one another on-line. One’s company of other believers is casual, but quite intimate. The largest growth edge of the church in the world is in house-churches, and transient communities.
Meanwhile the entrenched ecclesiastical patterns cling to theological institutions that continue to produce academically credentialed institution-keepers, too often trained by academically gifted teachers and yet who have never been tested ‘in the trenches’ of true church leadership and disciple-making. Ordination is not an acknowledgement of tested leadership and maturity in a Christian community, but rather is vested because of an academic degree, alas! Yesterday’s church.
Maybe it’s time for a generation of ecclesiastical hackers to reconceive the church for the world of our present realities, and for tomorrow’s children. And … I see it happening!
