Movies and tele­vi­sion pro­grams have rat­ings to let us know what to expect. This com­ment by Wal­ter Bruegge­mann deserves a rat­ing of PD, prophetic and disturbing:

Our soci­ety is marked by a deep dis­lo­ca­tion that touches every aspect of our lives. The old cer­ti­tudes seem less cer­tain; the old priv­i­leges are under pow­er­ful chal­lenge; the old dom­i­na­tions are increas­ingly inef­fec­tive and frag­ile; the estab­lished gov­ern­men­tal, edu­ca­tional, judi­cial and med­ical insti­tu­tions seem less and less able to deliver what we need and have come to expect; the old social fab­rics are fray­ing under the assault of self­ish­ness, fear, anger and greed. (Bruegge­mann, “Conversation”)

We may find our­selves want­ing to chal­lenge or even deny Wal­ter Brueggemann’s prophetic state­ment, but just a brief reflec­tion on our cul­ture makes our argu­ments crum­ble. His bru­tal hon­esty reminds us why prophets have never been pop­u­lar. Bruegge­mann goes further:

Because the church has been inti­mately con­nected with the old pat­terns of cer­ti­tude, priv­i­lege and dom­i­na­tion, it shares a com­mon jeop­ardy with other old insti­tu­tions. Church mem­bers are con­fused about author­ity, bewil­dered about mis­sion, wor­ried about finances, con­tentious about norms and ethics, and anx­ious about the church’s sur­vival. (Bruegge­mann, “Conversations”)

This bold state­ment can­not, should not, be eas­ily dis­missed. We need to wres­tle with its impli­ca­tions for the church and the mis­sional leader.

If Bruegge­mann is right, then we have become exiles and find our­selves in a “lim­i­nal” space. The term “lim­i­nal” has its roots in the Latin limin, mean­ing “thresh­old.” To be “lim­i­nal” is to be in an ‘in-​​between’ state or space. To be an exile, there­fore, is to be in a lim­i­nal space—to be in transition.

Len Hjal­mar­son argues that “lim­i­nal­ity” is “where all trans­for­ma­tion hap­pens. It is when we are betwixt and between, and there­fore by def­i­n­i­tion ‘not in con­trol.’” Hjal­mar­son con­cludes that unfor­tu­nately too many spend most of their time try­ing to main­tain their own lit­tle worlds. Yet as long as we stay within ‘our com­fort zone’ noth­ing will ever hap­pen to change the cri­sis of cred­i­bil­ity and direc­tion which Bruegge­mann describes (Hjal­mar­son, “Forty Years,” 1).

Richard Rohr would con­cur and adds:

Noth­ing good or cre­ative emerges from busi­ness as usual. This is why much of the work of God is to get peo­ple into lim­i­nal space, and to keep them there long enough so they can learn some­thing essen­tial. It is the ulti­mate teach­able space… maybe the only one. Most spir­i­tual giants try to live lives of ‘chronic lim­i­nal­ity’ in some sense. They know it is the only posi­tion that insures ongo­ing wis­dom, broader per­spec­tive and ever-​​deeper com­pas­sion. The Jew­ish prophets … St. Fran­cis, Gandhi, and John the Bap­tist come to mind. (Rohr, in Hjal­mar­son, “Forty Years,” 1)

The fact is that when we hear such prophetic words many find them­selves inspired for a moment, then intim­i­dated or even over­whelmed by the expe­ri­ence of being in the space between “what was” and “what is yet to be.” We might find our­selves res­onat­ing with Dorothy in The Wiz­ard of Oz. Most peo­ple would know the story about Dorothy and her dog Toto who were caught in a tornado’s path and some­how ended up in the Land of Oz. Dorothy is told that the Wiz­ard of Oz can help her return home and so she heads toward the Emer­ald City. Dur­ing her trav­els she meets some mem­o­rable friends and foes. Scare­crow is in search of a brain. Tin Man is search­ing for a heart. Lion is search­ing for courage. Off they go down the yel­low brick road towards Emer­ald city, Dorothy wear­ing her ruby slippers.

The jour­ney is not safe, in fact it is fright­en­ing. They are pur­sued by the Wicked Witch of the West and those nasty fly­ing mon­keys. The woods are full of wild beasts and in her anx­i­ety Dorothy finds her­self chant­ing: “Lions, and Tigers, and bears, oh my!” In one scene, Dorothy makes the astute obser­va­tion: “Toto, I’ve a feel­ing we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

What­ever our mem­ory of Kansas might be, “the way things use to be,” it is just that—a mem­ory. Mis­sional lead­ers, those who are seek­ing to share in the mis­sio Dei (the mis­sion of God) learn to rec­og­nize and embrace this lim­i­nal space. We under­stand that often God’s peo­ple have only really dis­cov­ered what it means to be God’s peo­ple when they were in exile or in a lim­i­nal space.

So how do we cope with life and lead­er­ship in this dis­ori­ent­ing exile? Mis­sional lead­ers are in many ways like Dorothy. They do not travel alone. They see their depen­dency on God, and their inter-​​dependency with oth­ers and will­ingly enter into what Al Rox­burgh refers to as com­mu­ni­tas.

Com­mu­ni­tas is the will­ing­ness of peo­ple to risk enter­ing a new com­mons where they jour­ney together as God’s pil­grim peo­ple in order to dis­cern the future that God’s Spirit might be bring­ing for­ward to them. It calls for lead­ers on both sides of the polar­ity to rec­og­nize the gifts of the other and a readi­ness to sub­mit them­selves as novices to each other. (Rox­burgh, The Sky Is Falling, 111)

As we seek to serve together, and serve well, in this ever chang­ing envi­ron­ment we must faith­fully use the resources God has pro­vided. We need to think deeply in order to dis­cern what it means to be a fol­lower of Jesus in the 21^st cen­tury. We need to wisely exegete scrip­ture, our­selves, cul­ture, and our churches. We need to use our hearts and invite the Spirit of God to nur­ture pas­sion and con­vic­tion within us. We need to have courage and step out in faith that the God of the exiles is call­ing us to move for­ward. We need to have the courage to trust that even though the Wicked Witch and her fly­ing mon­keys may show up their impact on the king­dom work will in the long run melt away.

Most analo­gies are imper­fect. The Wiz­ard of Oz falls short because the mis­sional leader knows that mag­i­cal slip­pers do not exist and that for­mu­las and gim­micks will only lead us down the wrong path. Fur­ther­more, the veil must be pushed aside as we are reminded that the Wiz­ard, the humanly cre­ated solu­tions, lack real power to enable true trans­for­ma­tion. The mis­sional leader also knows that we are not called to lead towards some type of eccle­si­o­log­i­cal Emer­ald City for the answers. Nei­ther are we to lead peo­ple back home (“the way things use to be”). Instead, the mis­sional leader is led by the Spirit and guided by the con­vic­tion that we are called to live and serve in tran­si­tion some­where between “what was,” “what is,” and “what is yet to be” as sojourn­ers and ser­vants in, and for, the King­dom of God.

Bib­li­og­ra­phy

• Brugge­mann, Wal­ter. “A Con­ver­sa­tion Among Exiles.” http://​www​.reli​gion​-online​.org/​s​h​o​w​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​.​a​s​p​?​t​i​t​l​e​=26.
• Hjal­mar­son, Len. “Forty Years in a Nar­row Space.” Thurs­day, June 23, 2005. http://​archives​.allelon​.org/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​.​c​f​m​?​i​d​=​1​9​6​&​a​m​p​;​p​a​g​e=1.
• Rox­bourgh, Al. The Sky is Falling. Eagle, Ind.: Allelon Pub­lish­ing, 2006.