because they don’t know…
Thursday, 1 March 2012
[When] asked if he wanted to do market research, [Jobs] said, “No, because customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.”
I’ve said this same thing in regards to the structure and style church worship services. If people haven’t been shown or taught a different way, how can they be expected to desire anything more than what they’ve seen?
It is the responsibility of the leadership not to simply give the people what they want, but to further propel them into something which creates new experiences, which draw the people into a new seeing and a new way of living.
I’m reminded of Peter Rollins’ thoughts on our dreams and aspirations: we shouldn’t be trying to fulfill our dreams but rather to dream new dreams.
No. 1 — March 1st, 2012 at 12:26 pm
But if we are always dreaming new dreams and never fulfilling any dreams isn’t that like hope lost?
No. 2 — March 11th, 2012 at 10:54 am
I wouldn’t say it is a loss of hope, but actually the opposite. The process of dreaming new dreams is a avenue of re-imagining the world and what is im/possible. Take the ‘American Dream’ of a house, two cars, 2.5 kids, picket fence…etc. That dream is a reflection of what? Possibly it hides are fears of insecurity, a desire for safety and certainty. If we redefine what the ‘American Dream’ is, then we are able readjust the way come at the world. Also through that realigning what is underneath, the fear & uncertainty are exposed allowing them to dealt with in a way that doesn’t hide or avoid the problem.
If we think about this in relation to Christianity and the church, the model of church–numbers centered, big buildings, program centered–and instead of imagining how this church will fulfill that dream we need leaders who change the paradigm of what church and Christianity is. If that leader’s vision of a different church is compelling people will follow. We see this in the tech industry with Steve Jobs’ Apple. Could we say the same about the emerging forms of church taking root across the world?