The State of the Church in America Through the Lens of Contemplation
"Contemplation is a form of prayer, where we still ourselves before God with a fully present, listening, receptive posture – wanting and expecting God to show us both God's presence, and what is, inviting us forward. As leaders of the church in America today, we tend to be people of action. However, we often miss the deeper rhythms of contemplation, the habits which lead us to form emotionally healthy, adaptive teams. Contemplative practices slow us down as leaders, creating space for us to effectively join in with the work that God is unfolding in creation."
I’m speaking on the state of the Church in America through the lens of contemplation.
Let’s start with the basics – of what we mean when we say contemplation.
Contemplation is a form of prayer, where we still ourselves before God, coming before him with a fully present, deep, listening, receptive posture – wanting and expecting God to show us both God’s presence, and what is, inviting us forward.
As leaders of the church in America today, we tend to be people of action. However, we often miss the deeper rhythms of contemplation, the habits which lead us to form emotionally healthy, adaptive teams. Contemplation slows us down as leaders, creating space for us to effectively join in with the work that God is unfolding in creation.
Let me use the captaining of a sailboat as an analogy to help us better understand the postures of contemplation we are seeking in the midst of our organizational leadership. Most of us have been taught and habituated into a style of leadership where we are perpetually in this mode of action – “Figure out the map, chart the course, set sail, navigate, tac jibe, full steam ahead, etc.”
By contrast, contemplation develops regular rhythms, muscles, habits, intentional spaces whereby we:
- Take the sails down, put the map down, and take our hands off the wheel.
- We let go of our agendas and what we think we know – and seek to become present.
- We ask God to help us begin to see and name more of what is – what’s happening in the winds, the waves, in the crew, the boat, ourselves (in our minds, hearts, and bodies).
From this place of receptive, deep, whole self listening, we can attune to the deeper frequencies of God’s presence – “As Deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42:7). This space is where we are free to get out of the boat and swim way down deep below the surface, seeking a sense of the currents of God’s presence and movement.
In the deeper currents of God’s presence – This is the place whereby we can pick up on his heart posture of love towards us – God’s power, goodness, and place for us in his unfolding story.
This deep experience of God’s presence is what gives us the courage, resilience, presence, and love that is needed for the formation journey towards emotionally healthy, adaptive leadership.
It is from this place of deep receptive listening that we’re able to tap into the deeper currents of how God is moving. We can feel for the direction of his current, which is a deeper kind of intuitive sense of the ways God is moving (So often in counter-cultural, counter-intuitive ways, I might add). This knowing allows us to surface and now set sail in ways that more effectively join in with it what God is up to in our world.
Sketchy Theology participated in Awakenings 2023 by creating these fantastic sketchnotes of most sessions. So great!
Contemplation is a form of prayer, where we still ourselves before God with a fully present, listening, receptive posture – wanting and expecting God to show us both God's presence, and what is, inviting us forward. (1/3) Share on X
As leaders of the church in America today, we tend to be people of action. However, we often miss the deeper rhythms of contemplation, the habits which lead us to form emotionally healthy, adaptive teams. (2/3) Share on X
Contemplative practices slow us down as leaders, creating space for us to effectively join in with the work that God is unfolding in creation. (3/3) Share on X
I for one do believe God is doing a new thing.
Isaiah 43:19 rings true for this season: “See – I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
There’s hope in God’s words through Isaiah’s pen – and there’s a warning present as well.
What is this hopeful warning?
God is doing a new thing with his church, and there’s a decent chance that if we don’t still ourselves and deeply listen, we’ll miss it! We’ll fail to perceive it! Sure, we’ll be working hard for God, but we risk laboring in vain if we’re not joining in with the ways he is moving.
All this to say – Contemplation is pretty critical in this stilling of our souls, and in this deep listening posture of our hearts.
But the thing with contemplation is that it’s not just something you need to know about; it’s something you need to learn how to do. Contemplation is a skill set, a capability. You can think about learning it the same way we might think about learning a sport like basketball. It involves a whole set of movements, muscles, and postures that must be learned through practice.
Reading a book is great, but a good coach goes a long way, and nothing replaces court time. And like basketball, contemplation is a team sport. You can shoot hoops all day by yourself – and that’s great practice – but if you never practice as a team, you going to have a tough time playing the game.
As far as the current state of the church, I think it’s pretty safe to say that most Kingdom oriented leadership teams today aren’t consistently practicing contemplation as a regular part of their team rhythms. This is especially true when the stakes are high and the context is full of risk and uncertainty.
Making time and space to learn how to do this work of contemplation feels somehow inappropriate.
We think:
We don’t have time to slow down.
We need answers.
We need to develop our response.
We’ve simply got too much to do!
Or maybe contemplation just sounds weird, cute, quaint, or antiquated. The truth is, for most of our organizational leadership teams in America, a posture of contemplation as a team feels totally foreign, uncomfortable, and awkward – Maybe even wrong!
And that’s a huge problem – a heart breaking problem.
God is doing a new thing that is meant to transform you, your teams, and your ministries – and through your efforts the world around you. Without the muscles, movements, postures, habits, and normative group behaviors of contemplation being at the ready, I fear:
God is doing a new thing and you just might miss it!
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Contemplation is a skill set, a capability. You can think about learning it the same way we learn a sport like basketball. It involves a whole set of movements, muscles and postures that must be learned through practice. Share on X
*Editorial Note: The keynote lecture below was given by Tracy Mathews, one of five speakers who addressed broad themes on “The State of the Church in America” during Awakenings 2023. This session sought to address disparate vantage points from which to view and analyze the state of the church in America, asking: What have we learned from this season of disruption? Might there be an awakening on the horizon? What is needed now for what is ahead? Speaking from her social location of expertise as one of the founders of Attune, an organization that uses contemplative exercises to help teams reflectively listen to the Holy Spirit while engaging the challenges of organizational leadership, Tracy’s talk focused on “The State of the Church in America Through the Lens of Contemplation.” ~CK
Tracy Mathews
