Are we there yet, Papa Smurf?

This post is part of Glenn Hager's Revolutionaries Synchroblog. Please see the list of participants at the bottom of this post.

Glenn asks:

"I believe that the church is in the early stages of a dramatic shift, such as it has experienced only a few times in all of church history. Some of you know that I am trying to shape a ministry that would come along side these pioneers and revolutionaries and help them through the transition.

What do these revolutionaries need?"

When Glenn mentioned this to me, my first thought was, "Well, I don't right know."

I ought to know, for I suppose by Glenn's broad definition, I am one. In fact, God spoke to me almost 5 years ago about being a pioneer and how challenging that was going to be. If I remember correctly, God's exact word was "disorienting".

However, I much feel like the explorer who prepares with a passion and energy, to embark on the journey of a lifetime, into the wild...the same explorer who takes one step out of the village, looks to the looming horizon, glances back at the relative comfort and safety of the village, it's ample resources and firm direction, and mutters, "OK, now what?". Or more like, "Have I gone entirely INSANE?" Or even like the child who runs away from home, only to simply walk around the block because it's almost dinnertime.

No one ever said being a pioneer was going to be fun. Oh yes, it's highly romantic, exploring new places, seeing unpolluted sunsets and crystal streams. Going where no one has gone before. That is, until you are pulling splinters out of the soles of your feet, skin peeling from a massive sunburn and completely out of water; waking at the crack of dawn because for sure the sun comes up earlier in the wilderness. In a word, it generally sucks. People don't ask for this, or if they do, they will soon wonder what they were thinking.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. I heard something today that reminded me of pioneering spirits. There is this guy, Manu Dibango. You possibly haven't ever heard of him, but I can almost guarantee you have been influenced by him. It is commonly held that he wrote the first disco song, in 1972, titled Soul Makossa. It's good; look it up on iTunes.

OK, well, makossa means "dance" in Manu's native tongue, Cameroonian. Does that mean anything to you? Hm, well there is this one song, where the refrain at the end goes something like this:

"Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-makossa..."

Sound vaguely familiar? Know it?

Have you ever heard Michael Jackson's 1983 hit Wanna Be Startin' Somethin? Aha! There it is.

Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, that is precisely my point. Pioneering is simply a stepping stone. Few pioneers found exactly what they set out for; often they find something they weren't searching for at all. I'm fairly certain Mr. Dibango didn't set out to invent Disco.

Also, they often don't see the results of their labor for quite some time; sometimes not in their lifetime. And often they don't accomplish anything "big", but rather their efforts build on something someone else did, someone will build on their effort one day, and so on.

Then, to rub salt in a wound, they often don't get credit for what they did accomplish; instead someone steals it, repackages it and makes millions off of it.

But this is how progress happens. What we know always builds on what those who went before us learned. We also benefit from their mistakes, what they learned that doesn't work.

Progress takes time. We didn't learn what we know about the universe in even one thousand years. Knowledge and experience is always in motion, moving forward, making progress. In many cases we will never be "there", because there is no final destination.

I think, in answer to Glenn's question, "What do pioneers need?", I would say something like this:

Pioneers need to be reassured that they don't have to revolutionize the world in a single day; no one expects them to have all the answers or to find all the solutions in any immediate way.

Pioneers need to be reminded that it is not their responsibility to affect change all alone, but only to contribute what they can to the greater wealth of knowledge called humanity.

Pioneers need to know that what they contribute is valuable, even if only a small piece of the puzzle, and it helps shape the future by increasing what we can see of it.

Pioneers need to be protected, because those who prefer the status quo often aim to stop them, to break them down; invalidating their pioneering vision.

Most of all, pioneers need to have a way to network with other pioneers, because when they pool their knowledge and experience, we all get farther, faster.

Small steps, when lined up one after another, bridge long distances.

Over and out.



Please visit my fellow synchrobloggers:

Alan Knox: A Revolutionary? Who? Me?

Barb: My Response

Glenn Hager: Harvey

Jane: Onward Christian Soldier

Jeff Greathouse: So, You Want To Change

Jeff McQuilken: The Great Shift–and My Unwitting Part In It

Jeromy Johnson: A Safe Place To Experiment

Jonathan Brink: Re-Emerging Church

Kathy Escobar: Surviving Spiritual Vertigo

Rainer: A Revolutionary?