Boundry Conditioning

Here's an interesting video. I think it has implications for the Church. (HT* The Forgotten Way)



This PS2 add (I really don't get how it's advertising the PS2) is a great illustration of the problem of centered vs bounded sets. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch discuss this concept in their book, The Shaping of Things to Come (an excellent book that I'd recommend to anyone who has any interest in the past or future of the body of Christ). Ben Cheek also references this idea in his very good e-book examining the person of Jesus, Revolutionary. Since I'm short on time (and since he does a better job than I can) I'm going to quote from Ben (book 4 page 9 and following).

Frost and Hirsch use this as an illustration to demonstrate the difference between bounded sets and centered sets. A set is a collection of objects, or in the case of the spiritual community, people. A bounded set is a group of people defined by their boundary and by their separation form others. On the other hand, a centered set is defined by their center and their relationship relative to that center (how close they are to the center).

Churches that see themselves as bounded sets have a clear line of who’s in and who’s out. Those inside the boundary all have certain minimal qualities in common like baptism, membership, doctrine, etc. The point is to get unbelievers or non-Christians to become believers or Christians by crossing the boundary. The work of the leaders is to tend the fence, make sure none of those inside “cross the fence” and are lost, and in some cases they prevent others from getting in who are outsiders and don’t
belong.

In contrast, churches that see themselves as centered sets have no clear line of who’s in and who’s out — in the broadest sense of the group, everyone who has any kind of connection at all is in. What all the people have in common is a relationship to the center, but these relationships vary considerably in closeness, quality, strength, and style. The point is — whether you consider yourself a Christian or a not-yet-Christian — to move closer to the center of the set: towards Christ and his core values. The work of the leaders in a centered set community is to link to people and to the center. Like rescue workers, they use their relationship to Jesus as an anchor line, while they extend relationships to those farther out (regardless of their Christian/non-Christian, member/non-member status), which they use to pull them in closer.

I'd recommend picking up Shaping or downloading Revolutionary. This is an important thing for Christ's church to think about.

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* HT: (I just found this today) blogging jargon for "Hat Tip" or, in other words, the source for where the blogger found the content for his blog