“What Is”, “What If” and the Challenge of the Preferred Future

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cone_slide8If you’ve been along for much of this journey you know we’ve talked a lot about the preferred future.  A lot.  In fact, when I used the search box here on the blog I discovered that 52 of my articles use the term “preferred future” in the title.  That is a lot!  (see the search results for yourself)

Why so much about the preferred future?  I think because all of us, and that includes me, know intuitively that the way things are right now isn’t what it should be…or could be.

We know that if life-change happens in circles, we should have more people in groups.  We dream of that preferred future.

We know that men and women truly become disciples who make disciples only in relationship and we know that happens best in groups.  So we dream of that preferred future.

And yet…one of the greatest difficulties is achieving escape velocity, “the speed needed to escape the gravitational pull” of  the way it is today, the deep rut of our current trajectory–that leads to the probable future, in order to begin moving toward the preferred future.

Why is it so hard achieve escape velocity?  To break out of the rut of “what is?”  I think this line from Erwin McManus explains it as well as anything I’ve ever seen:

“We live in this “what is” reality, and then we talk about things like creating culture, making history, creating the future, and we don’t realize that we actually do not have the fundamental core values of a “what if” culture because they violate our core values that protect the “what is.” Erwin McManus

Could it be as simple as that?  Do we have trouble achieving escape velocity, breaking free from the current trajectory, because our organization’s true core values protect what is?  I think you know that’s true.  If we want to arrive in the preferred future we’ll first have to embrace the core values of what if?

What do you think?  Have a question? Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

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