sustain:if:able kiwi

recipes for success? or journeys of discovery?

We tell them exactly how they ought to behave, what they ought to do, how they ought to believe, and what they ought to abandon. We prescribe carefully prepared gospel recipes. But – and this is the core of the problem – only rarely do we allow them to experience all this together with us. They do not go with us on a journey of discovery to search and find together. They are simply being provided with the net result of do this, believe as follows, leave that! They get the ready answer but have not struggled with us in trying to solve the problem. Bosch, 68

This is a quote from David Bosch, A Spirituality of the Road, which I was reading this morning. He is talking about mission and in particular the way that established churches in mission work with the younger churches in mission. But it struck me as having implications for leadership and for education – the tendency to provide ready made answers, the pressure to provide easy recipes. Their is a courage that is needed to keep open spaces for searching journeys of discovery.