White Space

Again, I'll remind you that last month I went to Off the Map in Seattle (Are you getting tired of hearing about Off the Map yet? Maybe you should just plan to attend with me next year! ha ha) I attended a little workshop entitled Sacred Accidents while I was there.

The presenter, Earl Creps, talked about the idea that often some of the greatest stuff, spiritual and/or otherwise, in one's life can be the result of just stumbling into it. He cited the famous invention of Insulin or the amazing success of Intel as examples.

In the spiritual world, Christians talk a lot about the power of God, yet how do we often operate? Take away our prayers before and after events, and what really looks different about what's going on in many spiritual communities from any other business or social organization? It appears that most institutional work that gets done is the result of humans intentionally making stuff happen.

Earl pointed out a tension to live by in the Spiritual world-making it happen vs. letting it happen. Maybe Christian leadership is being a steward and recognizer of those times when we're ambushed by Godly activity. When God interrupts our lives! Maybe the purpose of intentionality in leadership is to create what Earl calls, white space. Space in time, place, heart, etc. for God to have room to work.

What if we were to focus on creating white space and approached ALL of life expectant that God is already at work? We are just watching to see where He is going to show up next. We became stewards saying, "Hey, did you just see what happened? That was a God thing!"

I wonder what places, both in and outside of our spiritual communities, might we see God at work?