Pinholes and Paradigms

The future site of Mustard Seed Associates building -
a center for Christian innovation in sustainability, social entrepreneurship - and TBD!

One of my favorite parts of this summer was hanging out at the Mustard Seed Associates Celtic Prayer Retreat on Camano Island this weekend. Sure, I brought home two spiders that crawled out of my wallet at Starbucks this morning, but I also brought home a huge smile, a renewed sense of inspiration/encouragement… oh, and a “click” that I’ve been waiting for about the concepts of social entrepreneurship.

Walking along through the patchy scraps of yellow light glimmering in the trees, I saw MSA staffer Cindy Todd and her daughter staring raptly into the woods. “What is it?” I asked. “Did you see the pinhole?” “What’s a pinhole?”– and then, “Ohhh, THAT’s a pinhole!” as Cindy pulled me into position to see – among the dark alders against the evening’s last yellow light – one spot of gleaming, glowing orange that changed the colors of everything. Through the forest, we could suddenly see not just the light, but the sunset.

That to me is a paradigm shift. Coming into alignment with that hole through the forest, I saw something that changed the colors of everything.

In real life, I resist paradigm shifts tooth and nail, so I am a little charmed when they happen to me anyway.* The last major paradigm shift that I still talk about constantly was Theology of Work (see my post “If I were a pastor” for a sample), and that was thanks to Lowell Bakke and Gwen Dewey and all the crazy phone conversations I got to overhear at BGU. This one comes out of the Social Entrepreneurship class that Forrest Inslee taught, and also this MSA retreat crystallizing things for me, with Tom Sine and his friends sharing their vision for a center where innovation can be incubated…

So for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, social entrepreneurship (SE from here on out!) refers to starting businesses with a social purpose. To borrow a great definition from my professor, it’s “the practice of using entrepreneurial principles to address social problems in ways that are innovative, reproducible, and systemic in their impact” (from a course PowerPoint presentation, 2013). I came into the class this summer not exactly anti-business (because I’ve occasionally thought about starting one, although it isn’t really “me”!) and actually fairly enthusiastic to learn about how this fits into the overall vision of development. What surprised me about the class was how much variety we were cramming into those two little words. It seemed a little helter-skelter. I wanted to define it first and break it up into different kinds, get right to application, see where it’s efficient and inefficient… But you know what… Today I realized that there’s more dreaming and visioning that can happen - that needs to happen - before that’s really possible! That’s my paradigm shift for the summer: it’s GOOD that this SE term embraces and creates a hunger for everything that is innovative and sustainable. Especially innovative. We need new ways of doing things. We – and here I mean the Church – desperately need to think creatively!

This is a paradigm-shift in progress for me. So a little scary to write about. Stay tuned! :) I do know I’m not talking about opening up a church coffee shop so we can all stop giving. (In case anyone actually thinks like that. Hopefully not. And probably just trying that would cure them of it.) I am talking about intentionally seeking ways to be creative - desperately creative, filled with the creativity of God’s Spirit – about everything we do, especially in connection with the Church.

I also realized through this that Church is a key area for me when it comes to paradigms. Somehow most of my important pinhole moments line up through that lens. It must be close to my heart. I do care deeply about the Church and am often frustrated by the difference between what I would like to see happen and what is happening. I may not even know what I would like to see happening, but my intuition (and common sense) tells me it’s not always happening. Of course, I’m not talking about MY church here (though I suppose it isn’t perfect either, but I still love it) – I’m really talking about the worldwide Body of Christ. (Oddly, this soft spot for the Church is a huge part of why I care about higher ed. But perhaps that ties in first to the TOW pinhole/paradigm shift.) I'm unsettled until I find that new way of seeing things that provides a window of hope for the future. Whenever I see something that will make the Church come closer to that image of beauty and maturity and radiance that we in the Church would call the Bride of Christ - that’s a pinhole. A paradigm shift. And it pours the golden-orange light of hope in my path.

Here’s to more innovation, more hope, more pinholes, and more woods lit up with orange!

MSA Staffers Cindy Todd, Tom Sine (in chair at middle), and Andy Wade, with other retreat friends

* Of course, by real life I mean my internal life… because I’m an intuitive, for those of you who like Myers-Briggs... although those of you who like M-B could spot that a mile away anyway.