OCTOBER NEWSLETTER - LETTER TO THE CHURCH

Dear Friends in Christ,

Many of you know I qualify as a “computer geek.” The first time I operated a computer I was 19 years old and it was an old fashioned ‘main frame’ machine.

So, it should not come as a surprise that I can and do use the internet as a source of information. On the ‘net’ I recently saw a lecture by the popular non-fiction writer Stephen Johnson about his forthcoming book (to be released October 5th) Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation.

That’s where the internet came in handy. His lecture was offered in Oxford, England and I did not have to get on a plane to see it. I just sat at my desk.

In the lecture Johnson tried to explain how innovation, new ideas really develop. What did he say? First he showed a picture of The Grand Café— the oldest ‘coffee house’ in England, built in 1650.

But its advent changed people’s habits and how people interacted with one another. He says this landmark was crucial to the development and the spread of ideas in the era we now call the Enlightenment.

As to habits, up until that era, morning, noon and night people drank, primarily, alcoholic beverages. Beer was consumed with breakfast, wine with lunch, gin with dinner. Water was not really safe to drink in that era. But, despite not being sanitized by alcohol, coffee and tea slowly but surely became staples once the coffee house appeared on the scene.

As to interaction, Johnson jovially suggests that the switch from depressants to stimulants (alcohol to caffeine) meant people were encouraged to concentrated on developing ideas. But more to the point and on a more serious note, coffee houses, just by their layouts, became places where interaction among people grew. People sat and talked. There is a modern term for how coffee houses changed the face of society: ‘networking.’ Coffee houses encouraged networking.

The claim made by Johnson, indeed, his finding having studied the topic of where and how good ideas are discovered, is that good ideas— innovations— are generally not found in ‘eureka’ moments, or strokes of genius, or epiphanies. Ideas are nurtured among people, in groups, and ideas develop and are tested slowly, over time.

For our culture, a culture which tends to look for ‘silver bullet’ fixes, the ‘big idea,’ ‘the one person who will lead us into the light,’ the necessary collaboration implied by this finding is somewhat alien. We like to think the next year or the next gadget or the next election will fix our problems. It won’t. Collaboration might.

Here is another example of collaboration which works. Ten years ago Brockton High School in Massachusetts was a case study in failure. A quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out.

Further, it is one of the largest high schools in America with 4,100 students. In our country it has been taken as ‘wisdom’ that large schools cannot work. Only small schools can be made to work.

At Brockton the teachers and administrators refused to accept that premise. They met and started to brainstorm. They decided that reading, writing, speaking and reasoning were the most important skills to teach.

Then they set out to recruit every educator in the building— not just the humanities teachers under whose bailiwick the teaching of these skills often falls, but math, science and guidance counselors— to teach those skills to students. Even the physical education department bought in to the new program. These skills were stressed in gym classes.

And, needless to say, the turn around happened. But the bottom line as to why the turn around happened is people were willing to work with one another, to network, to identify when a teacher or a student needed help.

In the context of the church, leadership groups are not meant to merely ‘conduct the business’ of the church. Most people would find that, if not drudgery, at least boring.

Leadership groups are meant to be spiritual companionship groups too. It is in these settings that people can not only find their place among the greater whole but it is also in these places where networking is possible, that ideas and innovation can percolate (pardon the coffee house reference).

And no, innovation does not happen quickly. One idea will not be a fix-all. That was not true in the coffee houses of the 1650s, nor in Brockton High School nor in the United Church of Christ, First Congregational of Norwich.

But innovation does happen when people are willing to work together, to work with one another, and to nurture one another spiritually. And yes, some ideas will not be good. Others will.

And yes, as the coffee house example illustrated, setting— location— can be an influence, helping put people in touch with one another. And, as the example at Brockton High School teaches us, a willingness to work on making things better through mutual cooperation is a second key.

We have the location, so we don’t need to build our own coffee house. Our location is at 11 West Main Street in Norwich. And this is a place where you can find people who are willing to work, to be spiritually cooperative and supportive.

This is what I tell my confirmands: (like the Brockton High School) we will work basics. In our case, we will work on spiritual basics: ‘Who am I?’ ‘How do I fit in?’ ‘What is the church?’ How does the church fit in with society?’ How do I fit into the church?’ ‘What is Scripture, when was it written and why does or should it mean something for us today?’ These questions all address basic Christian spirituality.

So, what can I say? See you in church!


In Faith,

Joe Connolly