I was first attracted to the ideas of Theory U because of the focus on spirituality as a necessity for effective change. In yesterday’s post, The Blank Canvas, Theory U founder Otto Scharmer used the idea of the artist before a blank canvas to illustrate spirituality.
Or writer before a blank page. A photographer framing an image. The potter before a mound of clay. A teacher with students. A cook in the kitchen. A mother with their children. A mutual aid member or a Quaker on the streets.
All examples of the moments of the creative process. Where does spiritual guidance, and where does creativity come from?
What we are going to get involved in and how we are going to use our limited time, resources and abilities are very important questions for us to consider. I found it a valuable experience, in trying to deal with these questions, when asked to consider the relationship between the spiritual church and social service.
Our commitment to the spiritual church is foremost in importance. Christian service is a necessary result of a commitment to the spiritual church. This relationship between the spiritual church and Christian service is very clearly illustrated in the history of Christianity and of Quakerism. The greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the essence of the new covenant.
Quaker commitment to the spiritual church is the search for and obedience to the inner light—the will of God. It has been said that God is love. Recently I have read that God is silence. God is ineffable, but these two words seem to be helpful in searching for a description. Perhaps a better word would be creativity. Active, loving silence is the essence of creativity. In silence an idea is born, and a creative act formulated. Perhaps ‘God is creativity’ encompasses ‘God is love’ and ‘God is silence.’
Our commitment to the spiritual church necessitates the creative use of our talents; that is, waiting to be shown how we can use our abilities to perform the will of God, and then doing what we are shown despite anxieties and persecution.
This is where commitment to the spiritual church leads to Christian service. The spiritual church shows the way, but we must respond, individually or collectively, in action.
In the past that action has been along the lines of improving man’s outward condition; providing food, clothing, shelter, and better laws and community services. There is a definite need for this. And yet, there is a real yearning for spiritual fulfillment in the world today. In the United States especially we are well off, for the most part, materially, but have lost a sense of worth in ourselves and others.
Our primary responsibility in social service is to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we do that, we would hope that they could share our commitment to the spiritual church; the search for and obedience to the inner light, the development of creative abilities—creative worship, personal relationships, recreation, art—creative living. It is very difficult to be creative. But from creative acts one develops in ways and receives rewards available from no other source. Creativity involves bringing into the world something new to the world.
Jeff Kisling. Friends Volunteer Service Mission. August 1971
Reconnections 2018
I was amazed when, in 2018, thanks to social media connections, two of the kids from the Second Friends VSM project re-connected with me!
Donnie
Excuse me, but are you the Jeff while in your college days headed up a kids
4H Photography group that was sponsored by a Church on the near
southwest side of Indianapolis?
Yes. I guess you remember those days.
I hope the years have been good to you Jeff. I remember those days well, the
bike rides across town and the trips downtown to take pictures, as well as
that dark room in the bathroom where you taught us how to develop them.
Tom
Wow Jeff, such a long time no see buddy. I lived across the street. I remember we rode our bicycles out to that silent church and don’t
remember who all was with us. But you rode your bike daily to med school if
I remember correctly. You had a bearded roommate named John. You took a
couple of us kids to Ohio on a train one weekend too
unflinching 