The longer you are part of the status quo, the more you will want to defend it.
There. Finally said it. Been wrestling with this for months now, and I finally got out the tension/struggle/principle in a single sentence.
Here's what I don't like: I actually do struggle with wanting to defend the status quo. Which is a hard confession. I've always thought of myself as a bit of a renegade. Bucking trends, changing things up. Some of that is self-deception I'm sure, but there is a track record of change.
It's easy to point fingers at the establishment and say that they've fallen in love with the status quo. But what happens when that establishment is you? To a certain extent, we all represent the establishment of something. You are the 'establishment' in your business, your ministry, your department, your shift, your family, your book club, your whatever. And you'd basically love to perpetuate what got you there.
Connexus is eighteen months old. I love this church. I had a role in creating it. But at 18 months a church ought to be transitioning. Thinking and rethinking. Great ideas will stick. Bad ones will fall by the way side.
How do you fight this tendency? For me, it's a question of constantly exposing myself to ideas I didn't think of, view points I don't agree with, and initiatives I didn't have a hand in birthing. The more I am open to the contributions of others that are forward thinking and innovative, the less I will tend to defend the status quo. I also find that the older I get, the more ideas from younger leaders seem 'weird' to me, which means (guess what), I might be shoring up the status quo. Gotta stop that. Now.
The longer you are a part of the status quo, the more you will want to defend it.
In what ways are you defending practices that are a window to the past, to the way things were done, not to the future and the way things ought to be done for emerging generations?
Carey,
I was just discussing this last night. It is an interesting question & one that doesn't have easy answers.
Posted by: Laurie McNair | July 03, 2009 at 08:29 AM