HOW to start a movement is one thing, but I’m interested in WHY people join a movement.
The movement in this video is a clear case of the appearance of spontaneity that I have talked about before. The movement worked because it appeared spontaneous. I can’t say for sure that it was, after all I don’t know guy #1’s intent.
I’m not saying that it has to be spontaneous, movements can be planned and orchestrated, but I believe our current generation responds better to the spontaneous.
We had one of those airplane days where the domino effect of a couple late planes eventually starts to get the whole system behind. Before you not there are mobs of people that have this energy of discontent that you can cut with a knife. It’s in the air and you can taste it.
We spend a lot of time talking about strategies and formulas for accomplishing this thing and that, but at the end of the day, someone has to be able to read the energy that is happening. The problem is that for the most part this energy is not something that can be measured with instruments or counted on a spreadsheet.
At some point we must rely on something that is not quite tangible.
Sometimes its the Holy Spirit that we must rely on. Sometimes its a person that we must rely on.
Both can be difficult to trust for people not accustomed to exercising faith.
You go to the mall and duck into your favorite uber-high fashion store where you can buy sick new threads that look like old clothes and it happens. That kid walks up to you and starts spouting all kinds of data about what’s on sale and generally getting all up in your face. Immediately you have the thought; ‘If I wanted to shop with someone, I would have brought a friend‘.
Generation X and younger, I feel, are hyper sensitive to the feeling of being ‘played’ or ’sold’. We would rather resist and maintain our autonomy and not ’sell out’, than bend to anyone we perceive to have an agenda or a motive.
We had some really cool discussion last week at church tech camp and it got my mind moving back to some thoughts that I have had in the past.
There is something that I value in ministry and that is something I call ‘the appearance of spontaneity’. I have yet to get much traction into the idea. It may be an IT that Craig Groeschel talks about.
I know that grass roots, spontaneous movements seem to be the best at gathering momentum especially with my generation and even more so as the younger generations begin to rise. I think this stems from a general distrust for many different forms of authority. After all, half of our parents failed us, we have been forced to make it on our own.
I don’t want to ‘leverage’ and use the concept of the appearance of spontaneity for my own benefit or that of any organization I am a part of, but it is a reality that needs to be considered especially in the context of communities and movements like churches.
