Andy Rowell

Category: Leading change

  • Theological reflection when there is little hope for change

    As I hear about troubled organizations, people ask, how will reform come? The theological answer is the Spirit. Perhaps it is the breath whisper of the fluttering of a sheet as in Acts 10:11. Or perhaps it is like the gusts of wind of a storm that cause shipwreck in Acts 27:15.

    I'm specifically thinking of people dismayed because they have little power. The Christian claim that there is a need for the Spirit to work is not surrender to passivity. God's people continue to act. But they also ask for and look for the Spirit's quiet or drastic intervention.

    As the Spirit moves, the hardened heart of the powerful gate-keeper is awoken to exclaim "I see now that I was wrong!" and the chained outsider is welcomed and freed.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on December 25, 2021.

  • Navalny, courage, protest, and exposing dictators

    Update on Navalny in this thread from the NPR correspondent in Moscow.

    For us on MLK Day, this is right out of the Martin Luther King Jr. playbook: Have an angry unjust ruler? Then do normal peaceful things and see if he lashes out with brutality—showing the world who he is.

    This takes tremendous courage and willingness to sacrifice. You may die. But if *many* people do the right thing and act with courage and without violence, the vicious person will eventually be toppled or at least be remembered as an embarrassment.

    The road is long.

    Courage is contagious.

    What other countries can do: make it less fun and easy to be enriching oneself by enabling and cooperating with brutal injustice. And associate their names formally with Putin for all to see.

    Gather symbolically and peacefully to ask that justice be done through the law (if it were being administered rightly). And demonstrate for all to see that the leader does not care about just laws. *Eventually* the majority of the people begin to see it.

    When someone is a dictator, reminding them that many think they are a selfish, lying, coward pierces their self-delusion. And it causes the dictator to choose between either appearing weak by giving in, or inspiring more resistance if he cracks down.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on January 18, 2021.

  • Thoughts on closing a church with declining attendance

    Thread below on the story that made the rounds yesterday: "Cottage Grove church to usher out gray-haired members in effort to attract more young parishioners."

    First thread:

    https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1220057235432210432

     

    Last thread: 

    https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1220058532289994752

     

    PDF of thread: 

    Download Usher out gray-haired members