I hear tension about intention just about everywhere I go these days. There seems to be tension over whether or not to intend to evangelize, or to plan to lead, or to aim for spiritual formation in ourselves or others.

This tension is especially palpable regarding the first two: evangelism and leadership. In some alt-church scenes, for example, it's currently a pretty big foul ball to have a stated aim of traditional evangelism or a determination to lead a group toward a set predetermined future.

I understand the impulse; I have seen all the abuses that produce the reaction that leads us to deconstruct past norms. But, having thought about this a great deal the last few months, I want to offer a few tentative thoughts for a way forward that is rooted in action and construction.

There's no put-down intended here, no implied condescension toward reaction and deconstruction. Rather there is an honest attempt to interact over important issues with the people in this "newfangled-church" conversation, with friends I've come to cherish. I want to stir up an imagination for leading, for growing as a person, and for evangelizing that avoids manipulation.

Intention vs. Manipulation

Within most of my conversations these days, intention is taken to be a synonym for manipulation. There's a better way forward, and I "intend" to say some helpful things in the paragraphs that follow.

Just to make sure we are all on the same wavelength, let's start with some simple definitions:

Tension: a state of psychological unrest and stress; a state of latent hostility or opposition.

Intention: a determination to act in a certain way; to aim at a target; the resolve to will something into being; to focus one's capacity to choose on an object or course of action.

Manipulation: to control or play upon another by artful, unfair, or insidious means, especially to one's own advantage; in dealing with people, to give them an appearance of choice but not a real choice in a matter and to do so for selfish interests.

Having had it repeatedly done to us in virtually every kind of relationship, I think we all see the problem with manipulation. Many of us even think we should have overt doggedness in stomping it out—especially when it has to do with something as precious and delicate as evangelism, as packed with power and authority issues as leading, and as fraught with religious legalisms as spiritual formation.

Good Intentionality

Let's see if we can find an imaginative way forward. First, with reference to all three issues—evangelism, leadership, and spiritual formation—the answer to misuse, usually in the form of manipulation, is not no use, it's correct use. We cannot live unintentional lives in any important area of life. And despite the language seeming to the contrary, no one is now doing so. Those focusing on "just relationship" or "just community" are intentional also in that they want to eliminate manipulation. But action must be taken to implement that or any other vision. We cannot live without intention; made in the image of an intentional God, that's simply not a choice available to us.

Second, God didn't, after creating Adam and Eve, tell them just to relate and have community. Work is part of God's plan for our collaboration in creation. For this reason, spiritual formation must be something intentional. We can and must intend, as Jesus did, to do what we see God doing.

Third, regarding manipulation, just don't do it: place manipulative tactics in your mind, circle them, and draw red lines through them. A big key to successfully leaving manipulation behind is to find a way to feel secure about our eternal life. We usually manipulate and control out of fear and insecurity, hence the need for spiritual formation again.

"Freewheeling and Nonjudgmental"

At Alpha USA, where we have an introductory course in Christianity running in more than 7,000 U.S. churches, our experience has been that people respond to the maximum when tension is at a minimum. We deliberately tell people that if they drop out of our weekly course at any point, they won't be subject to visits, phone calls, or any other form of pressure to explain their reasons. The talks they attend are given in a dinner setting and the discussion is just as freewheeling and nonjudgmental as the participants can reasonably make it, allowing for both leaders and participants to enjoy one another—regardless of the outcome, which has to be left to the power of the Holy Spirit.

We're now engaged in an initiative to encourage churches running the course to offer it to middle and high school students. We intend to make a powerful difference. With young people in crisis, do we have an option to do otherwise?

The "Prison of Self"

We can intend to lead and evangelize if we're willing and able to do so in confident peace, leaving the results up to God.

The "open secret" of the all-too-common abuse in churches—whether from pastor to people or people to pastor—is that one party is willing to do whatever it takes to win. "No matter the cost," these people say, "I want to win."

At times a similar, but subtler, form of needing to win shows up in our attempts at evangelism. We simply cannot have this attitude or the behaviors that spring from it. They must be set aside, or we'll be forever stuck in deconstruction—hating the normal approach to leadership and evangelism, but having no imagination or capacity for an alternative.

It's not about me or you but about God and others. Jesus was the servant of all and yet was never in bondage. Free from the prison of self, he could intend to do things that resulted in even greater freedom for others.

We live in an era when young people are encouraged by almost every cultural influence to resist any notion that one person's ideas might be better than another's. They are expected by some to believe that all ideas are created equal and that efforts to influence them are violations of their sense of worth. Such notions, whether valid or not, might become a convenient excuse to avoid the hard work of deep relationship-building. True community is more than a mutual admiration society. Our commitment to teenagers—the commitment to loving them—means taking the risk of being intentional in how we influence them.

hey todd- good, good thoughts.

I like to think I've been intentional about some things and intentionally unintentional about others...

And for me, the difference is that all (okay... most) of the things I used to be SOOO intentional about, I've given up, and become more intentional about the things I should have been intentional about all along.

Whew.

For example: I feel the need to be intentional with our community in terms of communicating our need and mission to serve the poor.

However, I am intentionally unintentional about fleshing that out. I refuse to put things on the calendar and try to get people to sign up/sign on/jump on board/get behind it... whatever. If we as a community can't learn to translate the teaching of the Gospel into action without someone doing it all for us, we're in trouble...

It takes a bit, but eventually people catch on.

So yeah- intentionality rocks. I just want to be intentional about the right things!

Thanks for your leadership and wisdom in this emerging church scene...
--bob hyatt ( bob at evergreenlife dot org ) on 3/31/2005; 11:36:51 AM