CHAOS!
 
The three principles (C;s) of innovation: Chaos, Creativity and Controversy. Chaos is the incubator for creativity - When God began creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors (Genesis 1:1 NLB)
 
“No doubt some will reply that God is not a God of disorder, incoherence, or arbitrariness, but a God of order. Of course he is. Unfortunately the whole of the Old Testament shows us that God’s order is not that which we conceive and desire. God’s order is not organization and institution (cf. the difference between judges and kings). It is not the same in every time and place. It is not a matter of repetition and habit. On the contrary, it resides in the fact that it constantly posits something new, a new beginning. Our God is a God of beginnings. There is in him no redundancy or circularity. Thus, if his church wants to be faithful to his revelation, it will be completely mobile, fluid, renascent, bubbling, creative, inventive, adventurous, and imaginative. It will never be perennial, and can never be organized or institutionalized. If the gates of death are not going to prevail against it, this is not because it is a good, solid, well organized fortress, but because it is alive; it is Life that is, as mobile, changing, and surprising as life. If it becomes a powerful fortified organization, it is because death has prevailed.” — Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity
 
Eye of God
GOD SQUAD OUTREACH HEARSE Creative, inventive, adventurous, imaginative and not “held captive to the structures of another day.” Photo taken in front of “Phoenix Broadway Youth and Family Center” (A center way ahead of its time and a prelude to Kroc Centers yet to come). The sanctuary sits in the background with the swooped up roof outlining what was known in the community as its “Broadway Chapel.” The hearse was painted bright gold with psychedelic coloring accentuating “God Squad,” “Agape Love” and “Peace” sign with dove on other side. The writing on the back door reads, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” A structure was constructed on the casket rollers inside and when slid out the back door became a portable stage for outreach evangelism. The singing group pictured billed themselves as “US PLUS” and were highly in demand. Yours truly stands with them as their leader and sporting long side burns (if you look closely), the look of the 60’s. True to form, chaos, creativity and controversy did follow. We never have expected to hit upon that final stable structure. This is important for a church to understand, for when it starts to be the church it will be constantly be adventuring out into places where there are no tried and tested ways. If the church in our day has few prophetic voices above the noise of the street, perhaps in large part it is because the pioneering spirit has become foreign to it. It shows little willingness to explore new ways. Where it does it has often been called an experiment. We would say the church of Christ is never an experiment, but where that church is true to its mission it will be experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling words of God to its own age.” It cannot do this if it is held captive by the structures of another day. (Elizabeth O’Connor….Call to Commitment)