The Culture Which Gave Rise to Mark Driscoll, Part 4
Part 1: "We Are Not ABANDONED"
Part 2: "Under the Bus" and "Off the Map" - The Out-of-Control Bus That Runs Over Sheep
Part 3: The MegaChurch Transit Authority and How it Operates
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| Mark Driscoll in the aftermath (Source) |
"Even though it is painful, it is important for the vision community to be willing to allow them to leave the group or even to find another congregation where they can continue to serve God. Failure to do so will weaken the vision and will result in more significant challenges down the road."
~Leading Congregational Change, p. 60[1]
"My guiding principle in building this team comes from the Jim Collins’ principle:
“First who: Who’s on the bus.”
~Bob Buford, Leadership Network[2]
“First who: Who’s on the bus.”
~Bob Buford, Leadership Network[2]
“Change is a constant in the knowledge society. Knowledge is very perishable. The knowledge worker must act as an entrepreneur and exercise personal management. Knowledge workers must become accustomed to the process of 'creative destruction.' They must become change leaders, active in the pursuit of change, rather than becoming victims of change. This compels the knowledge worker to engage in continuous learning.”
~Peter Drucker[3]
It was Leading Congregational Change,
published in 2000 by Jossey-Bass as a "A Leadership Network
Publication," that paved the road for painful bus trips
scheduled for the decades that lay ahead. Authors Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem and James H. Furr detailed the
program, outlining systematic methods of off-the-bus tossing. They even
published a companion Workbook, complete with charts and assessments,
that mapped out the strategies to implement the visions of the bus
driver/"change leaders." Leading Congregational Change (hereafter referred to as LCC) was closely modeled after an earlier
book the authors say was "profoundly influential" for them -- New Age management
guru Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline.(p. 11)
LCC provided bus driver training for Driscoll's disastrous bus route. It gave bus driver pastor-leaders tools to create road maps to their own "vision" of the future. The authors brag in the opening chapter that their "learning on leadership... led to the birth of a significant ministry named Young Leaders."(p. 11) Young Leaders was a precursor to the Emergent movement founded by Leadership Network,[4] which featured Mark Driscoll as a prominent young leader-in-training. The authors of LCC divulge that they trained these Young Leaders in "transformational leadership":
LCC provided bus driver training for Driscoll's disastrous bus route. It gave bus driver pastor-leaders tools to create road maps to their own "vision" of the future. The authors brag in the opening chapter that their "learning on leadership... led to the birth of a significant ministry named Young Leaders."(p. 11) Young Leaders was a precursor to the Emergent movement founded by Leadership Network,[4] which featured Mark Driscoll as a prominent young leader-in-training. The authors of LCC divulge that they trained these Young Leaders in "transformational leadership":
Young Leaders became the place where we began training them to exercise transformational leadership. The program includes the content of this book and is based on a commitment to learn leadership in the context of community.(p. 11)
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| Peter Senge was frequently featured by Leadership Network |
The influence of Leadership Network in promulgating this "under the bus" mentality to church leaders cannot be underestimated. Through the Jossey-Bass book publishing empire, classy conference circuits, viral marketing, and exclusive training sessions this organization gained unique access to pastors. Leadership Network also capitalized on creating a mystique of elite leaders -- good looking, upper-middle class, well-groomed, airbrushed men who were marketed with a name brand image, set up on book tours, and placed on the stage in front of large audiences. Utilizing state-of-the-art advertising tools, Leadership Network marketed "buzz" downline its viral networks to campaign for new "innovations" and theologies.
Our first experiences with bus troubles occurred during the rise of the megachurch movement in the 1980s when we were adversely impacted by Leadership Network, both directly and indirectly. We were motivated to research because we were simply trying to find out what had happened to us... and why. So we searched for answers. And some of what we found was very disturbing. The worldview that has been promoted by Leadership Network has largely been unchallenged by the evangelical world. But it should have been questioned from day one. It includes elements of spirituality that come from outside of Christianity. Much of it was repackaged in management-sounding terminology. And this isn't the only deception. The following information may be difficult, but read it slowly and come back to it again after you've had some time to digest it.
Our first experiences with bus troubles occurred during the rise of the megachurch movement in the 1980s when we were adversely impacted by Leadership Network, both directly and indirectly. We were motivated to research because we were simply trying to find out what had happened to us... and why. So we searched for answers. And some of what we found was very disturbing. The worldview that has been promoted by Leadership Network has largely been unchallenged by the evangelical world. But it should have been questioned from day one. It includes elements of spirituality that come from outside of Christianity. Much of it was repackaged in management-sounding terminology. And this isn't the only deception. The following information may be difficult, but read it slowly and come back to it again after you've had some time to digest it.
Earlier Bus Routes
The first generation of sheep tossed under the bus had been riding on the Purpose-Driven and Willow Creek bus routes. These were Leadership Network's two most prominent megachurch networks that paved the road that lay ahead. These rapid growth mega-networks enabled other bus drivers to gain great traction, and led the way to pre-canned outcome-based destinations for churches. The authors of LCC admit that they were "deeply influenced by Bill Hybels and Rick Warren."(p. 5)[5] Both of these men were personally mentored by Peter Drucker, the management guru, whose influence is described below:
Peter Drucker first came on my radar screen when I was researching Rick Warren, the popular evangelical pastor who authored the bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life. I learned that Drucker, known widely as a business “guru,” had mentored Rick Warren. I discovered that Drucker invented the term “knowledge capital” to refer to human value (“human capital”), an assessment of economic worth based on one’s education and training. Drucker promoted a futuristic vision for society based on German mysticism (his parents were a part of the Vienna Circle), which included community, society and family performance-based standards and outcomes. I was shocked to realize that Rick Warren’s term “purpose driven” meant “outcome-based”!... Thousands of evangelical pastors were trained by Drucker through an organization known as Leadership Network during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s....[6]
During the past decade many articles critical of this sheep-tossing process have been published. Among the writers has been noted author Berit Kjos of the website www.crossroad.to. She wrote "Dealing with Resisters" which was Part 9 of a whole series "Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven?" This article is especially helpful in describing Mars Hill type methods of tossing church people under the bus. Her series details a bigger picture, placing the church transformation movement in the context of global community agendas and education reform. This wasn't just happening in the churches. In this broader context more light is shed on the methods of manipulating people. Berit summed up the big picture:
...church leaders are being trained in the latest management theories. They envision a unified community where all members participate in the required "lifelong learning" and facilitated consensus groups. No one would be exempt from the continual assessments that measure cooperation, monitor compliance and provide leaders with the feedback needed to periodically adjust the process....
The popular church management manual, Leading Congregational Change (LCC), promoted by Bob Buford's Leadership Network, offers a well-used plan. "This is a book you ought to read before you change anything," said Rick Warren in his hearty endorsement. Ponder its definition for resistance and the tone it sets:
"Address Specific Pockets of Resistance. Resistance is the 'opposite reaction' to change.... [It] can come in many different forms—confrontational or passive-aggressive, from known troublemakers or loyal supporters, as a result of a specific change or of an incorrect perception." [pp. 90-91]Since change agents must be totally committed to their strategic mission or purpose, they must also view dissenters as wrong. While some issues can be negotiated, this is not one of them. Successful transformation depends on persuading the vast majority to share their single-minded focus. Those who disagree with their manipulative strategies are viewed as intolerable barriers to the ultimate goal: a new way of collective thinking, being and serving.
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| Havelock's The Change Agent's Guide, p. 137 |
In her article, Kjos explained how pastors and leaders were being trained via the LCC book and Workbook to deal with dissenters. She summarized 6 key steps. Anyone who has ever been tossed off the bus will recognize one or more of these methods:
- Identify resisters
- Assess resisters and determine the degree of resistance
- Befriend, involve and persuade borderline resisters
- Marginalize more persistent resisters
- Vilify those who "stay and fight"
- Establish rules, regulations, laws and principles that silence, punish or drive out resisters
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| advertised in NEXT, Nov-Dec 1998 |
Bus-Tossing Methods
This 6-point method of identifying resisters has a fascinating but disturbing history. It originated from outside the church walls, and was originally influenced by a marketing method known as Diffusion of Innovation, developed and perfected by Everett M. Rogers during the course of over half a century.
Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) method was later adapted by Ronald G. Havelock in his The Change Agent's Guide, "under contract with the United States Office of Education in the late 1960s and early 1970's."[7] Many parents first experienced Havelock's change agent tactics at the hands of state and local education administrators who had been trained to use this method on citizens. It is a rude awakening to realize that the U.S. government trained leaders in order to effect desired outcomes for the transformation of society, especially education.[8] Worse, one can read all five editions of Rogers' book Diffusion of Innovations and see how his methods were used to experiment upon on Third World peoples, without their knowledge or consent, often to their ruination.
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| Leadership Network's NEXT, Jan-Mar 1999, p. 8 |
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| Leadership Network's NEXT, Jan-Mar 1999, p.1 |
Wagner teaches that "apostles and prophets have been resurfacing" in a "Second Apostolic Age" that "began in 2001" to take "their rightful place of leadership among the churches that are on the cutting edge of the current exponential growth of Christianity in many parts of the world."[9] He claims that God is making a "new wineskin" structure for the church - a downline networking hierarchy for leadership authority. His change leaders are men (and women) who believe they are specially anointed with superior spiritual power to act as modern-day "apostles and prophets" to launch a vast reorganization of the church that will build the kingdom of God here on earth. Wagner advocates a structural change from old-fashioned denominations to the new authority structure of mega-networks headed by mega-leaders:
From what we have been saying, it is obvious that one of God’s prominent new wineskins for this season is the NAR. The corresponding old wineskin is traditional denominational Christianity....
In the sweep of history, the New Apostolic Reformation represents the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation.... [F]undamental changes in the way the church has been organized and has operated for the better part of 500 years are being implemented.
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| Bob Buford's "Umbrella Mission" for Leadership Network, which includes Diffusion of Innovation, lower right corner |
Wagner, considered to be an expert in global missions, first adopted this method of change agentry as a substitute for biblical missionary work. Wagner and his cohorts frequently use the word "exponential." This term has particular meaning in change agentry. Exponential growth is achieved via marketing that diffuses an innovation across a spectrum, as illustrated in the exhibits in this post. When enough people "buy in" to the new theology it will shift the paradigm. Peter Wagner called these "converts," but Peter Drucker referred to them as "customers."
Leadership Network teaches that the easiest way to diffuse new innovations is via the structure of downline networks. It overlaid its empire of networks on top of existing denominational structures. Wagner's "new wineskin" article in NEXT cleverly spiritualized this process.
This downline network marketing structure, by the way, is also an extremely effective way to garner more monies for church coffers. The off-site sheep in multi-site networks tithe upline to the mother church, a very profitable system of accumulating "exponential" monies. This system gave pastors a monetary incentive to restructure.
During the decades of the 1970s and 1980s Wagner and his contemporaries at Fuller Theological Seminary concocted new doctrines and new practices.[10] They based their new term "missional" on a new social gospel message that the church should be changing culture.[11] To reinvent salvation, they employed yet another clever technique of manipulation: finding consensus or common ground. Here is how it works: Using sophisticated psycho-social methods of group dynamics, a "people group" in a Third World country could be persuaded through peer pressure and other pressure-cooker methods to become "converted" collectively in a group "decision" for "Jesus." This process may have numerically added to their kingdom, but the reader should remain skeptical concerning genuine repentance.[12]
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| Leadership Network advertising Rogers' book, 8-21-14 |
As an aside, we have studied how Wagner's entire New Apostolic Reformation's Seven Mountains of Dominionism agenda is being built upon the foundation of this sort of change agentry. For example see the advertisement below contained in a May 5, 2010 e-mail from Os Hillman[13] of Marketplace Leaders' (TGIF) who published a book in 2011 titled Change Agent: Your Passion to Be the One Who Makes a Difference. Os Hillman is the founder of this website: http://www.7culturalmountains.org that launched the 7 mountains movement.[14] Note the 7 mountains graphic at the top of his Change Agent advertisement below. Of course this information is disturbing, and it raises questions about the mountainous route that these intermural buses are taking.
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| Os Hillman of 7 mountains fameadvertising his change agent training |
The GPS of "Vision"
Essential to an understanding of this change agentry is the central role that the "vision" plays. In the late 1970s noted evangelical leaders adopted a futurist worldview known as "alternative future scenarios."[15] Futurists taught that mankind could literally alter the fabric of the future by creating a different route to redemption. The biblical endtime apocalypse was seen as too negative, and so a different endtime destination was needed.[16] The mystical and occult methods of "visioning" and "vision casting" created new roadmaps to re-cast the future into a more positive paradise and a new reality.
These "visioning" ideas were also incorporated into business management tools, replacing ordinary organizational goal setting. Visioning was outcome-based and results-driven, with performance standards.[17] In other words, once a leader envisions the future, his "vision" must be attained by whatever means possible.[18]
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| Leading Congregational Change, p. 13 |
"Mental models are the images, assumptions, and stories we use to interpret our world and guide our actions. Mental models are synonymous with paradigms, a concept thoroughly explored by Thomas Kuhn (1970) and popularized by Joel Barker (1992).(p. 113)[19]
Thus, when you hop on the vision leader's bus, his route will take you to a whole new paradigm/worldview. Don't be surprised to discover that the bus route takes you through some bell shaped curves. But stay alert! Much of the language of LCC is couched in terms of "God's vision." The authors use lots of other spiritual sounding words. This spiritualization of the vision ensures that none will dare challenge the change leader's assertion that this is "God's vision." This implication that this is God's bus route provides justification for chucking non-visionaries off the bus.
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| Leadership Network promoting Diffusion of Innovation |
"Creative Tension"
Okay, so you weren't imagining it. If you have felt tension from a church transformation initiative, here's why. The LCC authors advocate a form of dialectic maneuvering called "creative tension." LCC advises, "Change leaders must keep the tension alive as a force for change."(p. 101)
Below are a few key quotes from LCC illustrating the problems with the book. Right off, it is apparent that these methods are not honest, nor truly transparent. In fact, they are downright manipulative. Readers may have experienced firsthand the deceptive nature of one or more of these elements:
- "The church's visionpath (how they will achieve the vision) includes the creation of a contemporary worship service in addition to its traditional 11:00 A.M. service."(p. 71)
- "Removal of barriers is important, but the change process is a long journey with many obstacles along the route.... Wise leaders determine which obstacles need to be moved immediately...."(p. 72)
- "The best way to create [a permission-giving culture] is for the pastor or other change leaders to create a buffer zone around the first few initiatives. This is the extra layer of protection that makes it acceptable to try and 'fail,' that deflects inappropriate criticism away from those who are leading the new efforts, and that ensures that needed resources are available."(p. 75)
- "Systems-thinking skills enable leaders to identify the highest-leverage points for implementation based on a holistic view of the congregation and the vision."(p. 79)
- "...when resistance surfaces or resurfaces... Keeping a traditional staff organization or overlooking nonstrategic expenditures may be possible for the first year or two, but these carryovers of the old structure will eventually need to be brought in line with the vision."(p. 86)
- "Congregational leaders can become more effective by mastering the learning disciplines of transformational leadership--creative tension, mental models, team learning, and systems thinking."(p. 99)[Peter Senge's influence is especially evident in this terminology, ed. All emphasis above is added.]
Leadership Network promoting Diffusion of Innovation
Resisters -- you may be surprised to know that your opposition, criticism or reluctance is actually part of the plan. Your protests can be harnessed to propel the bus forward. How? This process is disarmingly simple: once pockets of opposition are discovered and your arguments unearthed, new strategies can be employed to counter them. Any opposition helps to clarify and intensify the leaders' mission and vision. In this way the leader can more clearly refine and articulate his vision. As a result, your resistance serves as a "course correction" for the road map, enabling the bus driver/leader to anticipate opposition and compensate for upcoming troublesome potholes on the road.
Plus he is trained to cleverly re-cast your arguments in the most negative light. So you get booted off the bus. Resisters are chalked up as old fogies and fundamentalists who prefer to cling to stale, dead traditions. The term "laggards" can be seen on some of the the Diffusion of Innovation charts. Laggards are depicted as the ones who just won't jump over the bell curve into the paradigm shift to a new thing. Thus anyone wanting to appear hip, cool and on the cutting edge will feel self-assured that by joining up with the bus drivers' vision (which often requires signing a covenant) they are on the "right track." This may explain why sheep happily riding on the bus have ZERO sympathy for those who are getting tossed underneath. Laggards are perceived as the dregs and dead weights who are dragging down the momentum on the visionpath.
In case there's any doubt, the authors of LCC insist that this "creative tension" be purposefully generated:
"Creative tension is exercised when change leaders paint two pictures clearly. The first picture is of God's vision for the congregation. The second is an accurate depiction of current reality. It is a great challenge, but when change leaders successfully hold both pictures side by side for the congregation to see, they begin to generate creative tension. Out of this tension, the energy to drive the change process is produced. It is also through this tension that generative learning--defined as learning that increases the organization's capacity to achieve the desired results--occurs."(p. 107, italics in original, bold added)
The Bus's Confessional Booth
The LCC authors also insist, "Healthy congregations have good feedback systems."(p. 104) A "feedback loop" is an assessment mechanism in which the congregants are continually monitored for compliance with the newly emerging mission, vision and values. Feedback loops help to identify the resisters. The LCC Workbook contains assessment mechanisms which assist the change agent leaders in identifying pockets of resistance. How did your name end up on the black sheep list? Did you take a "spiritual inventory"? Did you fill out a questionnaire? Were you part of a small group or team where you shared your concerns openly?
It isn't a surprise that the authors of LCC write that the "single most powerful personal skill in mastering mental models is the capacity of self-disclosure."(p. 117) And - you guessed it! The evangelical church world has reinvented the old Catholic confessional booth: "Small groups of many kinds provide a safe setting for individuals to think out loud about themselves."(p. 118) Tell all, and don't be surprised it comes back to bite you! "Dialogue significantly increases a team's ability to achieve the results that God desires."(p. 142, bold added) Again, note how this is spiritualized to become what "God desires." In this manner those who get tossed are classified as rebellious. You backslider! You opposed "God's vision"!
Another reason for this mandated self-disclosure is that it utilizes "critical thinking," which is defined by LCC as "the process of taking a fresh look at a problem by stripping away the assumptions and constraints that may have been imposed in the past."(p. 120-121) In other words, dumping anything deemed traditional as part of a "team learning" exercise. And here is a noteworthy admission: "In the context of change leadership, learning is not ultimately about acquiring new knowledge."(p. 129) Oh really? What is learning? "For transformational leaders, learning expands a group's capacity to achieve its desired results."(p. 129, bold added) Note that the word "results" was highlighted in the quotes in the preceding few paragraphs. This results-driven, performance-based definition of learning tracks back to B.F. Skinner's behavioral psychology.[20]
The authors of LCC also employ another psychosocial technique. They emphasize "team learning" which they define with a quotation from Peter Senge: "the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire (Senge, 1990, p. 236)."(p. 130) This is
"taking individuals... and molding them into a living unit that is capable of producing far more than the sum of its respective parts. It is about creating a high degree of alignment, so that the team's collective energy is focused in a single direction."(p. 130)
Thus by creating "teams," or small groups (cells), "a common goal is set."(p. 131) Putting people into these small groups and requiring them to attain "alignment" is part of the peer pressure process. It works very effectually to maneuver people into orchestrated consensus and managed change. While team members are nestling comfortably on the bus, happily contented that they are part of a vibrant support group, you, the ornery passenger who can't grasp the "vision," will find yourself booted out the door. Hence, the feeling of being bullied.
The Bus SYSTEM
A controversial matter needs to be addressed. This entire bus "system" is very esoteric.[21] Peter Senge's Buddhist ideas, heavily infused throughout LCC, and part of Leadership Network's training, were also influenced by General Systems Theory (GST). GST is mystical philosophy that originated in Europe during the late 1800s and has become an essential component of the New Age worldview. It holds that the universe is an organic cosmic whole, and that man is collectively evolving to a higher level of consciousness. Collective unity is essential to achieve the transformation of the species. (GST fits very compatibly with Teilhard de Chardin's "vision" of homo noeticus.)[22]
GST became incorporated into many sociological and psychological models that developed during the last century. In this worldview, the bus system must continually monitor its riders' behavior for compliance to the goals of the "vision." This system is sometimes known as total quality management (TQM) or continuous quality improvement, which was widely touted by Peter Drucker. Being a bus rider is not a passive role! Don't lean back too comfortably on your seat! The bus rider must continually make adjustments as the leaders' "vision" evolves. You will find yourself under surveillance to ensure that you are conforming to the "vision" by performing designated duties. (Some of us learned that when we were unable to perform up to par to fulfill our part of the "vision," even including being physically incapable of attaining prescribed benchmarks en route, we were targeted for bus-tossing.)
As another aside, being tossed under the bus has esoteric significance in the New Age worldview. In order to become fully operational the "organism" (team, cell, body, small group, etc.) must eradicate any "cancer cells" in its body, cleansing itself of impurities.[23] It is precisely at this point that one becomes cognizant of the extent to which New Age thinking has permeated and changed the management world, as well as the evangelicals.
Leadership Network's training of the megachurch pastors, along with the generation of Young Leaders who would head up Emergent, was mystical (see Part 1). These leaders were already desensitized to eastern spirituality through the experiential component in their training. So while the outworking of the pragmatic part of the business model results in callous bus-tossing, the inner-working is based upon contemplating a mind-altering "visionpath." This combination was inevitably a recipe for a collision, despite all of the elaborate mechanics described in the Leading Congregational Change training manual.
Take Another Bus Route
There is another bus route. There is another way, "The Way."
Plus he is trained to cleverly re-cast your arguments in the most negative light. So you get booted off the bus. Resisters are chalked up as old fogies and fundamentalists who prefer to cling to stale, dead traditions. The term "laggards" can be seen on some of the the Diffusion of Innovation charts. Laggards are depicted as the ones who just won't jump over the bell curve into the paradigm shift to a new thing. Thus anyone wanting to appear hip, cool and on the cutting edge will feel self-assured that by joining up with the bus drivers' vision (which often requires signing a covenant) they are on the "right track." This may explain why sheep happily riding on the bus have ZERO sympathy for those who are getting tossed underneath. Laggards are perceived as the dregs and dead weights who are dragging down the momentum on the visionpath.
In case there's any doubt, the authors of LCC insist that this "creative tension" be purposefully generated:
"Creative tension is exercised when change leaders paint two pictures clearly. The first picture is of God's vision for the congregation. The second is an accurate depiction of current reality. It is a great challenge, but when change leaders successfully hold both pictures side by side for the congregation to see, they begin to generate creative tension. Out of this tension, the energy to drive the change process is produced. It is also through this tension that generative learning--defined as learning that increases the organization's capacity to achieve the desired results--occurs."(p. 107, italics in original, bold added)
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| LCC back cover |
The Bus's Confessional Booth
The LCC authors also insist, "Healthy congregations have good feedback systems."(p. 104) A "feedback loop" is an assessment mechanism in which the congregants are continually monitored for compliance with the newly emerging mission, vision and values. Feedback loops help to identify the resisters. The LCC Workbook contains assessment mechanisms which assist the change agent leaders in identifying pockets of resistance. How did your name end up on the black sheep list? Did you take a "spiritual inventory"? Did you fill out a questionnaire? Were you part of a small group or team where you shared your concerns openly?
It isn't a surprise that the authors of LCC write that the "single most powerful personal skill in mastering mental models is the capacity of self-disclosure."(p. 117) And - you guessed it! The evangelical church world has reinvented the old Catholic confessional booth: "Small groups of many kinds provide a safe setting for individuals to think out loud about themselves."(p. 118) Tell all, and don't be surprised it comes back to bite you! "Dialogue significantly increases a team's ability to achieve the results that God desires."(p. 142, bold added) Again, note how this is spiritualized to become what "God desires." In this manner those who get tossed are classified as rebellious. You backslider! You opposed "God's vision"!
Another reason for this mandated self-disclosure is that it utilizes "critical thinking," which is defined by LCC as "the process of taking a fresh look at a problem by stripping away the assumptions and constraints that may have been imposed in the past."(p. 120-121) In other words, dumping anything deemed traditional as part of a "team learning" exercise. And here is a noteworthy admission: "In the context of change leadership, learning is not ultimately about acquiring new knowledge."(p. 129) Oh really? What is learning? "For transformational leaders, learning expands a group's capacity to achieve its desired results."(p. 129, bold added) Note that the word "results" was highlighted in the quotes in the preceding few paragraphs. This results-driven, performance-based definition of learning tracks back to B.F. Skinner's behavioral psychology.[20]
 |
| Peter Senge e-mail 10-22-14 |
The authors of LCC also employ another psychosocial technique. They emphasize "team learning" which they define with a quotation from Peter Senge: "the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire (Senge, 1990, p. 236)."(p. 130) This is
"taking individuals... and molding them into a living unit that is capable of producing far more than the sum of its respective parts. It is about creating a high degree of alignment, so that the team's collective energy is focused in a single direction."(p. 130)
Thus by creating "teams," or small groups (cells), "a common goal is set."(p. 131) Putting people into these small groups and requiring them to attain "alignment" is part of the peer pressure process. It works very effectually to maneuver people into orchestrated consensus and managed change. While team members are nestling comfortably on the bus, happily contented that they are part of a vibrant support group, you, the ornery passenger who can't grasp the "vision," will find yourself booted out the door. Hence, the feeling of being bullied.
 |
| Leadership Network frequently trained leaders in Diffusion of Innovation |
A controversial matter needs to be addressed. This entire bus "system" is very esoteric.[21] Peter Senge's Buddhist ideas, heavily infused throughout LCC, and part of Leadership Network's training, were also influenced by General Systems Theory (GST). GST is mystical philosophy that originated in Europe during the late 1800s and has become an essential component of the New Age worldview. It holds that the universe is an organic cosmic whole, and that man is collectively evolving to a higher level of consciousness. Collective unity is essential to achieve the transformation of the species. (GST fits very compatibly with Teilhard de Chardin's "vision" of homo noeticus.)[22]
GST became incorporated into many sociological and psychological models that developed during the last century. In this worldview, the bus system must continually monitor its riders' behavior for compliance to the goals of the "vision." This system is sometimes known as total quality management (TQM) or continuous quality improvement, which was widely touted by Peter Drucker. Being a bus rider is not a passive role! Don't lean back too comfortably on your seat! The bus rider must continually make adjustments as the leaders' "vision" evolves. You will find yourself under surveillance to ensure that you are conforming to the "vision" by performing designated duties. (Some of us learned that when we were unable to perform up to par to fulfill our part of the "vision," even including being physically incapable of attaining prescribed benchmarks en route, we were targeted for bus-tossing.)
As another aside, being tossed under the bus has esoteric significance in the New Age worldview. In order to become fully operational the "organism" (team, cell, body, small group, etc.) must eradicate any "cancer cells" in its body, cleansing itself of impurities.[23] It is precisely at this point that one becomes cognizant of the extent to which New Age thinking has permeated and changed the management world, as well as the evangelicals.
Leadership Network's training of the megachurch pastors, along with the generation of Young Leaders who would head up Emergent, was mystical (see Part 1). These leaders were already desensitized to eastern spirituality through the experiential component in their training. So while the outworking of the pragmatic part of the business model results in callous bus-tossing, the inner-working is based upon contemplating a mind-altering "visionpath." This combination was inevitably a recipe for a collision, despite all of the elaborate mechanics described in the Leading Congregational Change training manual.
Take Another Bus Route
There is another bus route. There is another way, "The Way."
"Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people." -Isaiah 62:10.
J.C. Philpot preached a 2-part sermon at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on Lord s Day Morning, 18th January, 1863.[24] He titled his message "Zion's Gates and the King's Highway" where he expounded on the verse above. In the second part, Philpot describes what good Christian servants of the Lord should be doing:
"Prepare ye the way," [is] a practice in Eastern countries, where there are not, as in our civilised land, beaten, well-known roads in all directions. When kings and princes travel there, especially when they move at the head of armies, roads have to be made for them. The deep rivers have to be bridged, the jungle cut through, the woods levelled, the swamps and morasses filled up, and a clear, clean, broad way made, that they may not be stopped on their route by these natural obstructions. Taking, then, this figure, the Holy Spirit commands the servants of God to "prepare the way of the people"
But how do the servants of God ministerially execute this office? How did John the Baptist prepare the way of the people when he went before Christ as his forerunner? He preached repentance to them. So the servants of God prepare the way of the people by setting before them their lost condition by nature. They preach the law in its spirituality and curse; they set before them the wrath of God due to every sinner that comes into the world under the curse of the original transgression. They tell them they must repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ in order to salvation, as the apostle preached in his day "repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ" Ac 20:21. They tell the people there must be a work of grace upon their heart, that a mighty revolution must take place in their soul, wrought in them by the power of God; that Christ must be revealed and formed in them, the hope of glory, before they can be saved.
Thus by setting before the people their ruin and misery in a state of nature, and showing the curse and spirituality of God s law, they prepare their way, for as the word falls with power upon their conscience they listen to it, and flee from the wrath to come. This is as if a marking out of the way before the people s eyes; a setting it out, which is the first thing to be done in making a road. They prepare the way also by levelling the obstacles and difficulties that lie in the path. They tell them there is salvation for all those who repent of their sins, and believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. They tell them that God is love in the Person and work of his dear Son. They tell them that the sin of all who believe is put away by the bloodshedding of the Son of God; that a righteousness is provided for all who come to him by a living faith; that the Holy Spirit is given to those who belong to Jesus, to lead and guide them in all truth. They set before them the love of God in sending his dear Son, the infinite compassion of his merciful heart, and the way which he devised in the depth of his eternal wisdom of saving sinners, without sacrificing or infringing any one of his holy attributes. But they chiefly prepare the way by preaching Christ as "the way", the only way unto God.
And thus sometimes by thundering the law in their ears, sometimes by preaching the Gospel, sometimes by unfolding the lost, ruined state of man, and sometimes by bringing before their eyes the blood and obedience of the Son of God, they prepare the way of the people, and instrumentally and ministerially go before, and lead them in it. Thus they bridge over the deep rivers, drain the swamps and morasses, cut down the thick forests in which the people might lose themselves, run a road across the jungle which otherwise the weak and feeble of the Lord s family could scarcely struggle through; and thus as good workmen who need not be ashamed, they make the way plain before the face of all who are made willing in the day of the Lord's power....
And then he has, as the last commission given him, to "lift up a standard for the people". As I have lately preached upon this subject in showing you "the banner" which the Lord gives to those who fear him, I shall not dwell long upon it, as it would be but a repetition of what I have there brought forward from the word of truth. I shall merely, therefore, remark that this standard which the servant of God is to lift up is the standard of the Gospel, the glorious Gospel flag, which he has to hold in his hand and wave on high, that it may be a guide for the people to show them the path in which they are to walk. This standard is lifted up in the very beginning of the way to show where the path begins, and it floats all along the road to the very end of the way to show where the path ends: for Jesus is the way, the whole of the way, and every part of the way....
But how do the servants of God ministerially execute this office? How did John the Baptist prepare the way of the people when he went before Christ as his forerunner? He preached repentance to them. So the servants of God prepare the way of the people by setting before them their lost condition by nature. They preach the law in its spirituality and curse; they set before them the wrath of God due to every sinner that comes into the world under the curse of the original transgression. They tell them they must repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ in order to salvation, as the apostle preached in his day "repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ" Ac 20:21. They tell the people there must be a work of grace upon their heart, that a mighty revolution must take place in their soul, wrought in them by the power of God; that Christ must be revealed and formed in them, the hope of glory, before they can be saved.
Thus by setting before the people their ruin and misery in a state of nature, and showing the curse and spirituality of God s law, they prepare their way, for as the word falls with power upon their conscience they listen to it, and flee from the wrath to come. This is as if a marking out of the way before the people s eyes; a setting it out, which is the first thing to be done in making a road. They prepare the way also by levelling the obstacles and difficulties that lie in the path. They tell them there is salvation for all those who repent of their sins, and believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. They tell them that God is love in the Person and work of his dear Son. They tell them that the sin of all who believe is put away by the bloodshedding of the Son of God; that a righteousness is provided for all who come to him by a living faith; that the Holy Spirit is given to those who belong to Jesus, to lead and guide them in all truth. They set before them the love of God in sending his dear Son, the infinite compassion of his merciful heart, and the way which he devised in the depth of his eternal wisdom of saving sinners, without sacrificing or infringing any one of his holy attributes. But they chiefly prepare the way by preaching Christ as "the way", the only way unto God.
And thus sometimes by thundering the law in their ears, sometimes by preaching the Gospel, sometimes by unfolding the lost, ruined state of man, and sometimes by bringing before their eyes the blood and obedience of the Son of God, they prepare the way of the people, and instrumentally and ministerially go before, and lead them in it. Thus they bridge over the deep rivers, drain the swamps and morasses, cut down the thick forests in which the people might lose themselves, run a road across the jungle which otherwise the weak and feeble of the Lord s family could scarcely struggle through; and thus as good workmen who need not be ashamed, they make the way plain before the face of all who are made willing in the day of the Lord's power....
And then he has, as the last commission given him, to "lift up a standard for the people". As I have lately preached upon this subject in showing you "the banner" which the Lord gives to those who fear him, I shall not dwell long upon it, as it would be but a repetition of what I have there brought forward from the word of truth. I shall merely, therefore, remark that this standard which the servant of God is to lift up is the standard of the Gospel, the glorious Gospel flag, which he has to hold in his hand and wave on high, that it may be a guide for the people to show them the path in which they are to walk. This standard is lifted up in the very beginning of the way to show where the path begins, and it floats all along the road to the very end of the way to show where the path ends: for Jesus is the way, the whole of the way, and every part of the way....
Endnotes:
1. Emphasis added. Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James H. Furr, Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey (A Leadership Network Publication), (Jossey-Bass: 2000), p. 60. It was this one quote that started a personal journey that eventually resulted in the Herescope blog getting started.
2. Emphasis added. Bob Buford describing his vision of leadership in a Leadership Network e-mail, "My Next Book...Year 3, Chapter 12...Philosophy of Philanthropy," June 29, 2007.
3. Emphasis added. "Peter F. Drucker on a Functioning Society," Joseph A. Maciariello, Leader to Leader, No. 37, Summer 2005. See also the Herescope post: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/10/creative-destruction.html The phrase "creative tension" most likely relates to a concept taught by Peter Drucker, "creative destruction." This phrase is attributed to one of the primary men who influenced Drucker, Austrian economist Joseph A. Schumpeter. Schumpeter's description of Creative Destruction is "incessantly revolutionalizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one." (Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Harper & Row, 1942).
4. http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/early-networks.html Here is a brief sampling of what we wrote about Leadership Network's formation of the Emergent/emerging movement:
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/11/marketing-emergent.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-leadership-network-created.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/leadership-network-spawns-emergent.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/leadership-network-and-terra-nova.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-leadership-network-established.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/terra-nova-project-vanguard-for.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-create-emergent-movement.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/christian-leaders-go-on-expedition.html
HTTP://HERESCOPE.BLOGSPOT.COM/2006/02/EMERGENT-EVOLUTION.HTML
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/emerging-church-circa-1970.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/early-experiential-emergents.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/06/retro-emergent.html
5. For valuable early history see Berit Kjos's entire article series "Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven?" and follow the links to other articles on her site. http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/news/1-purpose.htm
6. This is a quote from Sarah Leslie, contained in a the Abridged Edition of Charlotte Iserbyt's book the deliberate dumbing down of america: A Chronological Paper Trail (Conscience Press, 2011), in the chapter titled "From the Noxious Nineties through the Terrible Twos," p. 11. See also the monograph The Pied Pipers of Purpose: http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Purpose_Driven.pdf
7. Ronald G. Havelock, The Change Agent's Guide, 2nd Edition (Educational Technology Publications, 1995), "Acknowledgments."
8. Read Charlotte Iserbyt's book the deliberate dumbing down of america: A Chronological Paper Trail (Conscience Press, 1999) and view her websites: www.americandeception.com, abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com and http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com for abundant documentation on this point.
9. C. Peter Wagner, "Where Are the Apostles and Prophets?" Charisma, 2012, http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/church-ministry/15676-where-are-the-apostles-and-prophets
10. Read the following post: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/early-networks.html
11. It is outside the scope of this paper to explore how Leadership Network adopted and marketed this new idea of "missional." But take a few minutes to watch the Eric Swanson video embedded in the post "What Is Dominionism?" at http://apprising.org/2011/01/26/what-is-dominionism/. Read the following Herescope posts for background information: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/04/tinker-with-theology-tinker-with-man.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/07/secret-mission.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/07/cultural-mandate.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/03/networking-mission.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/06/neo-kuyperian-spheres.html
12. The Perspectives Course to train missionaries was developed at Fuller Theological Serminary. It taught missionaries to use a method of group consensus in order to elicit "conversions." See: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/great-confluence.html and also http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/early-networks.html
13. See: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/10/renaming-dominon.html
14. We have written extensively about Os Hillman on this blog. See especially this history: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/12/rethinking-eschatology.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/05/mainstreaming-dominionism.html
15. Significantly Peter Drucker considered himself to be a futurist. See: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/peter-drucker-early-futurist.html and also read: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/07/futurist-worldview.html
16. The amazing story of two evangelical Consultations on the Future head in the late 1970s and sponsored by the Billy Graham Center are detailed in some of the earliest Herescope posts from September and October 2005. See, for example: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/09/willis-harman-consults-with.html. Also see: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/willis-harman-and-marketplace-ministry.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/07/willis-harmans-global-mind-change.html and http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/discernment/1-11-willis-harman.htm and http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/discernment/9-21-harman-theosophist.htm and http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/global-mind-1.htm
17. See the Herescope posts describing this "visioning" technique: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/rick-warren-vision-casting.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/03/worldview-vision-part-1.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/03/worldview-vision-part-2-volatile.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/03/worldview-vision-part-3-congregational.html
18. Our monograph The Pied Pipers of Purpose expands on these points and others made in this article. It is posted at http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/pied_pipers_of_purpose.htm and also http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Purpose_Driven.pdf
19. Joel Barker is a New Age change leader. We cited him on page 28 of The Pied Pipers of Purpose monograph described above in footnote 17. Thomas Kuhn is an important figure to leading New Agers due to his ideas about a "paradigm shift" which they adopted as their description of the evolution of mankind to a new order. Kuhn's "paradigm shift" concept was also incorporated into marketing theory where it became perfectly congruent with Diffusion of Innovation. See more about Kuhn at: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/shifting-emergent-paradigm.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/03/worldview-vision-part-1.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/03/great-heretical-idea.html
20. See the October 2014 series of articles on ABCSOFDUMBDOWN.BLOGSPOT.COM which contains daily B.F. Skinner horror stories. Much of the history of his redefinition of learning is incorporated into these posts.
21.See: http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/community/system-theory.htm
22. To understand this esoteric philosophy study Jeffrey Stamps book Holonomy: A Human Systems Theory (Intersystems Publications, 1980). We've already written a lot about the topics in this paragraph. See, for example: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/03/networking-mission.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/02/networking-peace-part-4.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/02/networking-peace-part-4.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2014/06/evolution-new-age-movement.html
23. See Warren Smith's writings, especially False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care? (Mountain Stream Press, 2011) in which he details the New Age beliefs about "cancer cells" that must be eradicated. The context of this belief is the evolution of the species and the envisioned paradisaical a transformation of the planet. Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation teachers something similar. See: Read: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/prepare-for-future-with-rick-joyner-or.html
24. Part 1: http://www.truegospel.net/Philpot/230.htm and Part 2: http://www.truegospel.net/Philpot/231.htm. These quotes are excerpted from Part 2.