Friday, July 07, 2006
THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN SHIFT
A reader sent in a link to the blog of the Discernment Research Group. Specifically she found their blog titled "The Myth of a Laity-Driven Movement" pertinent to my blog "Catholic Buzzwords - Building with Living Stones."
In the Discernment blog you will find a discussion of the revolution that is taking place not just in the Catholic Church but throughout the religious landscape--a change that is agenda-driven and top-down. There you can read that George Barna...more openly calls the church transformation movement a "revolution."
Revolution it has certainly been. A list of the terminology used in the modern evangelical movement includes some that are familiar:
Reformation
Restoration
Revolution
New Reformation
New Apostolic Reformation
Transition
Transformation
Second Reformation
Renewal
You've heard about the "reform of the reform" in conjunction with Vatican II? Read that list again! Significantly the blog indicates this is the work of the past 30-40 years--the specific time period we have agonised through since Vatican II:
For the past 30-40 years, there has been a massive undertaking to train evangelical pastors and leaders through various entities (such as Leadership Network) and parachurch organizations to become "change agents" for "transformation." This leadership training, even though often done in the guise of "servant leader" (to make it more palatable), utilizes corporate business and marketing models.
For example, leaders are trained to develop a company "vision" and then, by using sophisticated group marketing techniques, persuade the "customers" (people in the pews) to "buy into" this vision. This approach is top-down, not laity-initiated.
Techniques are spelled out. Specifically they include "personal example," "verbal slogans," "analogy or metaphor," "phrases and logos," and "personal contact." The "verbal slogans" and "phrases and logos" are hard to ignore. We in the Roman Catholic Church have been phrased and sloganed to death. Or in other words, the Catholic laity has been suckered, using our own money--our Sunday contributions--to finance the manipulation campaign. And we have had no say about what is being done to us.
It is still happening. I could add another phrase to the list..."New Springtime." John Paul II was a master PR man.
Ironically, that Fond du Lac cluster parish well on the way to building its megachurch, gives it away. The Discernment Research Group's blog on the Laity-Driven Movement makes a reference to Saddleback Church, a nationally known megachurch.
