Calling

Andrew T. Barnhill

Congregational Fellow ('10)
Duke Divinity School

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October 08, 2010

The Architecture of Possibility

Live Blogging from our 2010 Calling Congregations Conference  

Our world has many greenhouses. I run across them from time to time. Sometimes they are in the likely places—a neighboring yard, a place that looks familiar. But other times they are not. More often than not we find them run down and uncared for. Even then, somehow the plants manage to grow and bring life into the world.

This morning, participants at the Calling Congregations conference were brought into an image of a greenhouse. Plenary speaker Dori Baker, FTE’s Scholar-in-Residence, brought attention to her soon to be released ethnographic survey of American churches entitled, Greenhouses of Hope.

We were invited to imagine a young person who wants to change the world, but also chilled by the types of conversations such a young person faces. Why the church? Why use your gifts in such a sluggish institution if you wish to change the world? We then began to realize that those very conversations are the ones that block so many people from being beautiful conduits for the Holy Spirit. But after witnessing calling communities that are asking the right questions, communities who are equipping the best leaders for church and world, we are empowered by the knowledge that there are people out there not afraid to reach out to those young people who are wondering—who can I ask what I came to make happen in this world?

In our churches and in our communities, it is time to recognize the architecture of possibility that waits for us. And when we see those plants starting to take root, no matter how different they may look, it is time to say yes to the infinite variety and infinite mystery of our calls as we follow Barbara Kingsolver’s wisdom, and “tiptoe past the dogs of apocalypse that are sleeping in the shade of our future.” Imagine those who wish to change the world. Those who wish to bring a word of peace. Those who wish to preach the truth. Imagine them in an abandoned greenhouse and re-imagine them with empowered care.