Paradigms

Off Road Disciplines by Earl Creps
Chapter 1 Death: The Discipline of Personal Transformation

I was intrigued by Earl’s use of the term “paradigm crashes”. It is a good description of my personal changes over the years. I am afraid I owe Brad a public apology for my reference to his age at our first session. My reference was not meant to refer to his youth or inexperience. Rather it was intended to illustrate the long journey I have taken and the difficulty I have in trying to understand and communicate with the current generation. I have had many “paradigm crashes”, though mine have been more gradual or less spectacular than Dr. Creps’. My current paradigm as it relates to the church is very thin and incomplete. I keep trying to draw in more of it but keep finding I am really copying a piece of an old paradigm. Paradigms are not bad, in fact they are necessary to our sanity and function within family, community, and culture. They are usually in the background where we are unaware that they are guiding us in our interactions with things and people. Without them we would spend enormous amounts of emotional energy as we navigate those interactions. Over the years a small but essential part of my religious paradigm has changed very little. That is the part about who Jesus is and why he came. We say change is inevitable but we seem to hang on to our paradigms until they are no longer useful and perhaps have not been working for some time. In Business there is an axiom that there is a need to change the organization every 5-10 years. People work better and are more comfortable when they know the organization and how it suppose to work to support the business. But when it stays in place for too long it becomes corrupt and begins to serve those in the organization more than the company. It is then it needs to change. I recall a conversation I had with Brad about needing to get everyone on the same page, which is kind of like trying to get everyone’s paradigm adjusted so that they at least resemble each other. Then I remarked that that is precisely what the modern church had done. Now I am not saying that this is wrong, but we do need to be aware when it is time to turn the page, or maybe we need to learn which pages need to be primary and stable and which need to be temporary and be willing to replace them

His reference to the Brownsville revival brings back memories of three different kinds of people who attended. First there were those who wanted to know what they were doing so they could replicate it. The church even created a school to teach those how to do worship. Then there were those who were curious about the phenomenon and went to be spectators. They returned home unchanged and unimpressed. Then there were those like Dr. Creps that were moved by the Spirit to begin a process of change.