Lydia’s story began in the Autumn of 2011 to explore God’s emerging activity in the South Saint Anthony neighborhood of Saint Paul, MN.The neighborhood was a mix of apartments, warehouses, industrial space, smaller homes, and a significant non-profit and artist community drawn to inexpensive rent and the neighborhood’s location in at the heart of the Twin Cities metro. It just so happened that University Avenue, which bisected the neighborhood, was also the route for massive new development and transition around the new Green Line Light Rail system.
Our initial work revolved around the question of financial sustainability. How does a new urban faith community sustain itself financially, particularly in a low-income non-traditional neighborhood in flux? Obviously, the conventional model of congregational giving was unlikely to work in such a neighborhood, so what else could we do? Studies indicated that the neighborhood would in time change. Planned higher end condos and apartments would attract hundreds of younger, highly educated, and tech savvy residents – people more likely to be entrepreneural, independent, mobile professionals. Our answer was to establish a faith-centered coworking space where such self-employed or ‘differently officed’ people could share office space and business amenities while also exploring faith and vocation, faith in daily life, and faith in the public square. The long-term vision was that the income gained through coworking would in time financially support a more conventional word and sacrament community.
As the coworking community developed, we kept asking the question: “What is God up to?”
To help us answer that question, we drew heavily upon Luther’s thoughts on vocation, incorporated planning strategies and tools from various business sources (such as Eric Reis’ “Lean Startup”, and the 90 Day Micro Strategy practice). We held a weekly intimate Taize-style morning prayer, observed practices such as Dwelling in the Word and the “Discernment Huddle” practice (which grew out of the work of Mike Breen and the 3DM network). Things were going as planned. We were hip and we were trendy. We had cast a solid vision and could see the future clearly laid for us.
And then we met Linda.
It was late April 2014, and she was interested in joining our new coworking community. When Linda arrived, she immediately told us she was a writer, was living on medicare and couldn’t afford to pay, and was extremely bipolar. We told her that money was not a barrier. But to her the space was both too confining and too open, too loud and too quiet, exactly what she needed but not what she wanted. And then she abruptly left.
Thirty seconds later, Linda opened the office door, and asked: “You’re a church, aren’t you?” We said, yes, we are part of the ELCA. At this, the words tumbled out: “I live at Seal Hi-Rise, the big public housing tower just up the street. We haven’t had church there for two years. The last people who did church there, I think it was the catholics, when they left they took the damn piano.”
And then she paused. “Will you be our church”
For whatever reason, we simply nodded, and told her, “sure?” Within three
weeks, we began leading Sunday worship at Seal Hi-Rise. For Lydia, something had
changed. Our neat and tidy long-term strategy and vision for a faith-centered coworking community had been disrupted, and we weren’t quite sure why. Why did we, without hesitation, say “yes” to Linda’s request? Why did we so suddenly step outside of our own carefully curated work and worship space to sing, pray, and break bread with the residents of a public housing community: folks who were poor, disabled, mentally ill, socially outcast, and heavily dependent on public assistance and the charity of others in order to simply survive. These folks were the exact opposite of the target demographic for our developing coworking community.
And, we continued to ask, “what is God up to?”
Although we had been asking that question since the beginning, something awakened us. As we listened and discerned more deeply and honestly, the question changed. We began to ask, “why is God doing this other thing?” And, “what does that mean for us as faithful followers of Christ?”
Soon Lydia realized that as our vision for a coworking community had grown clearer, our focus had narrowed to the point that we were missing other signs of God’s activity and call. Not only were we seeing the future dimly, as through a mirror, we were also seeing it narrowly, as through a tunnel. What was God indeed doing outside of our narrowed vision?
It was during this time of deep questioning and deep listening that the Discernment Huddle emerged as a primary spiritual practice for the Lydian community. And this is where our particular use of the practice deviated from Mike Breen’s original 3dm version. Where Breen and 3dm used the tool to build disciples who would start other huddles and build more disciples who would start other huddles and build more disciples, we began to rely on the process as a way to more deeply discern, in community, how the Holy Spirit gifts us as persons and as a community, and more importantly, calls us, as persons and as a community, into God’s already active work in the world.
What emerged was a foundational shift. In short time, the Lydian community discerned that the Holy Spirit was not calling us specifically to coworking (though a good idea and useful tool), but rather to building relationships and cultivating collaboration in the neighborhood and beyond.
So we followed the Spirit, took a leap into the void (at the frequent puzzlement of synod and church leaders, colleagues and others), and began to follow and trust the Spirit’s lead, while actively seeking to connect this call to the treasures and essential practices of our Christian and Lutheran tradition.
And, soon, other practices and understandings began to emerge, as well. We began to explore the use of the “Radical Yes” as an extension of “radical hospitality” (what does it mean to say “yes” to the invitation of the other instead of assuming the position of being the host – as Jesus told the disciples to do in the sending of the 70?). How could the Radical Yes move us from reaching out to the neighbor from a position of security and authority (outreach) to simply “Neighboring” with the other (which assumes that we both had gifts to give and needs to be attended to). We adopted the practice of “Dwelling in the Word” (particularly in a specific text week after week after week) and merged it into our Discernment Huddles as a way to even more deeply practice hearing God’s voice and call through scripture and the huddle practice.
We explored how we could be, as community and persons, could be more open and ‘present’ to God’s activity and call (adapted from Otto Schermer’s ‘presencing’ work at MIT). We begin to hold Table Talks at a local pub, where anyone connected to the Lydian Community (or not) could explore together how God might be moving in our world and in our midst.
And through it all, Lydia has been led to proclaim the good news and serve the neighbor in ways we could have never imagined on our own – from worshiping out of offered space (an art gallery) while live-streaming to a broader audience (long before it became a Covid necessity) to working with students at Luther Seminary around innovation, leadership, and discernment; from active leadership in local policy and advocacy with the Saint Anthony Park Community Council (which advises the City of Saint Paul on policy matters) to a partnership with the local community garden and others to bring free, fresh, organic vegetables to the residents of Seal Hi-Rise; from hosting a monthly bluegrass beer and hymn singalong at a local pub to the introduction of the Discernment Huddle and other discerning practices to congregations under interim; from sharing the Lydia Way at innovation summits and preaching conferences to collaborating with theologians and other faith leaders around the globe as we together try to make sense of what it means to be church in this day and age.
Through it all, another foundational shift began to emerge – one that touches upon one of the primary reasons we believe the church struggles so in the midst of this rapidly changing and uncertain world.
It’s not a question of theology. As Lutheran Christians, particularly, we have an beautiful understanding and proclamation of how God works by Christ in and through the Holy Spirit to love and forgive, reconcile and renew, create and claim us as beloved children.
It’s not a question of faithfulness. Or effort. Or, even, intention.
But it might be a question of how we position ourselves to live and act and respond to the challenges of the day. More specifically, the strategies we use to guide and shape how we are to “be” church in the world.
One of the most common practices in the world of business and commerce is strategic planning, which is designed to direct an organization’s activity and energy towards accomplishing definable and identifiable goals. Many of these future-focused strategies have made their way into the life of the church. However, when standard strategic planning practices are adapted by the church, institutional far-sightedness can set in. Our focus on getting to a pre-defined future may be so strong that we miss the real-time act and call of the Holy Spirit bursting out in plain sight in the present.
Furthermore, in a day and age when the future is so ill-defined and uncertain and where seismic cultural and social shifts are becoming the norm, future-focused strategic planning is less and less reliable. Particularly for the church.
Part of this stems from the assumption that an organization’s stakeholders are its investors, owners, or employees. In the church, however, the stakeholders are not the congregation, nor the denominational body, nor the church council and pastor. Rather, the stakeholders are those whom Christ calls the church to love and serve: the neighbor, the poor and needy, the hungry and sick, the forlorn and suffering. Christ’s call, above all, is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul – and to love our neighbor.
Our primary focus, then, is not on our own needs or wants or desires. Unfortunately, churches also often approach strategic planning as if we were the primary stakeholders – that the church is called to meet our needs, our wants, our vision.
Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit continues to create and love and move and make God’s Kingdom present in our midst while we naval-gaze and dwell in the past, fret the present, and fear the future.
What if, however, the church could position itself so that our strategy flows from the activity and call of the Holy Spirit?
Lydians call this Strategic Posturing
Simply put, Strategic Posturing it is a future planning practice that begins with the church’s clear discernment of the gifts that God has given, an openness to ways in which the Holy Spirit is breaking out in the world (see Kairos Discernment Huddle and “presencing” – two of the tools), and the ability to faithfully and trustingly pivot to where the Spirit is both calling and equipping us to participate in God’s mission in the here and now, and into the future.
Instead of putting our effort and focus into working toward a predefined future and missing the Spirit’s activity and invitation along the way, we adapt a strategic posture or stance which allows us to pivot and move whenever the Spirit invites.
What’s more, Strategic Posturing does not jettison the past for the future. Instead, it incorporates scripture, tradition, theological truths, and deeply held convictions in a way that honors past, present, and the future to which we are being invited into. What arises out of it will certainly vary from church to church, ministry to ministry, mission to mission. Your ministry will not look like Lydia’s. Or a church in another synod, conference, diocese or region. Or the church down the street.
But we may be be closer to participating in God’s work in the here and now. And less confused about the road that lies ahead.
Strategic Posturing may very well be a foundational move that will help the church navigate the changes and challenges of this uncertain and ever-changing time.
To help us be nimble and faithful to God’s preferred future in the here and now, as well as for our particular and unique context.
The neighborhood was a mix of apartments, warehouses, industrial space, smaller homes, and a significant non-profit and artist community drawn to inexpensive rent and the neighborhood’s location in at the heart of the Twin Cities metro. It just so happened that University Avenue, which bisected the neighborhood, was also the route for massive new development and transition around the new Green Line Light Rail system. 
o establish a faith-centered coworking space where such self-employed or ‘differently officed’ people could share office space and business amenities while also exploring faith and vocation, faith in daily life, and faith in the public square. The long-term vision was that the income gained through coworking would in time financially support a more conventional word and sacrament community.
practices such as Dwelling in the Word and the “Discernment Huddle” practice (which grew out of the work of Mike Breen and the 3DM network). Things were going as planned. We were hip and we were trendy. We had cast a solid vision and could see the future clearly laid for us. 
curated work and worship space to sing, pray, and break bread with the residents of a public housing community: folks who were poor, disabled, mentally ill, socially outcast, and heavily dependent on public assistance and the charity of others in order to simply survive. These folks were the exact opposite of the target demographic for our developing coworking community. 
Mike Breen’s original 3dm version. Where Breen and 3dm used the tool to build disciples who would start other huddles and build more disciples who would start other huddles and build more disciples, we began to rely on the process as a way to more deeply discern, in community, how the Holy Spirit gifts us as persons and as a community, and more importantly, calls us, as persons and as a community, into God’s already active work in the world.
of assuming the position of being the host – as Jesus told the disciples to do in the sending of the 70?). How could the Radical Yes move us from reaching out to the neighbor from a position of security and authority (outreach) to simply “Neighboring” with the other (which assumes that we both had gifts to give and needs to be attended to). We adopted the practice of “Dwelling in the Word” (particularly in a specific text week after week after week) and merged it into our Discernment Huddles as a way to even more deeply practice hearing God’s voice and call through scripture and the huddle practice.
(long before it became a Covid necessity) to working with students at Luther Seminary around innovation, leadership, and discernment; from active leadership in local policy and advocacy with the Saint Anthony Park Community Council (which advises the City of Saint Paul on policy matters) to a partnership with the local community garden and others to bring free, fresh, organic vegetables to the residents of Seal Hi-Rise; from hosting a monthly bluegrass beer and hymn singalong at a local pub to the introduction of the Discernment Huddle and other discerning practices to congregations under interim; from sharing the Lydia Way at innovation summits and preaching conferences to collaborating with theologians and other faith leaders around the globe as we together try to make sense of what it means to be church in this day and age.