The Unlearning of Listening

Nathan Hill from The Table community in East Dallas, Texas, posted this short video interview with Luther Seminary PhD student John Ogren, in which Ogren gives this intriguing insight,

“We want church plants to succeed so we put a lot of emphasis on strategy, planning, [and] working stuff out. So, unfortunately, a lot of times church planters get in there, and they’ve got their theology all worked out, their values and purpose and strategy, and everything ready to go. When you do it that way, you end up more trying to attract people to what you already have rather than co-author or co-create something new with the people who are in that context. …

“Part of the Church’s cross is in the unlearning of listening, of having to be re-molded, re-made, and that comes about in the face of ‘the other,’ in the interaction with ‘the other,’ the difference and challenge that they bring to us. That’s a gift, I believe. That’s the Spirit that’s working there. And then God is able to create something new out of the tension of that.”

What do you think? Watch the full interview with John Ogren: