C. Kavin Rowe on Making Connections

There is a short but stimulating piece by C. Kavin Rowe on the Faith & Leadership blog on ‘making connections as Christ-shaped leaders’.

He begins by noting the danger of specialisation leading to a loss of being able to think in wholes, ‘to see the connections between all the various strands that make up our lives’. As he says: ‘In an age where we take it for granted that the doctor looks at health, the engineer at buildings, the scholar at texts, the pastor at souls and so on, we have a hard time making the connections.’

Using a few examples from the New Testament – Paul using the Roman legal system as a means of carrying him across the Mediterranean, and eating as a matter of Christian witness – he points out the significance of seeing all things in relation to Christ.

Towards the end, he offers three points:

(1) ‘First, as prosaic as it may seem, we need to read Scripture regularly with special attention to the astonishing array of things that we hold apart but that seem to go together for the early Christians: religion and politics, public and private, economics and community, body and soul, even death and life.’

(2) ‘Second, we need to develop a guiding image that has connection at its core, and then teach this image as a way to imagine the world’s connections.’ He suggests ‘crossing borders’ and ‘networks’ as possibilities, in addition to emphasising the importance of developing ‘deeply ingrained habits of learning’.

(3) ‘Third, we need to find concrete examples of Christian leaders and communities who both see and live the connections of the world in relation to Christ’s redeeming lordship.’

In conclusion:

‘Christian leaders cannot afford to rest content with expertise and the compartmentalizing of life. Christ does not relate only to the soul or to this or that aspect of the world but draws all parts of life to himself for healing and redemption.’