Seeing the Exceptions

Once leaders can externalize the problem they are facing, what often happens is that the leadership is also freed up to recognize more of the situation than is usually allowed in our typical discourses about "what's wrong with this congregation." In the externalizing conversations, often a new kind of conversation—what White calls a "reauthorizing conversation"—begins to emerge. "Reauthoring conversations," he explains, "invite people to continue to develop and tell stories about their lives, but they also help people to include some of the more neglected but potentially significant events and experiences that are 'out of phase' with their dominant storylines. These events and experiences can be considered 'unique outcomes' or 'exceptions.'"²

In a consultation with a congregation that was badly in need of redevelopment since its membership was graying and its endowment was shrinking, the congregation told the story of how every time they tried some growth initiative it would be met with an effort to sabotage or undermine the effort. Consequently, they felt caught and in an impasse. The image that emerged in our conversations was that they had a "finger-trap problem," where pulling in opposite directions kept them trapped, much like the child's toy known as a finger trap.³

We focused on the effects of this finger-trap problem, mapping its effects on their community, on their capacity to grow, and on their ability to initiate change. The congregation readily agreed that they did not like the effects of this recurring problem because it kept them "trapped," didn't allow them to move forward, and it was simply painful. People tended to stay in their factions, reacting to each other, and finding the push and pull more engaging than the effort to "pull" in the same direction.

We then explored all the times in the life of the congregation when the finger-trap problem was not present. We looked at what White calls the "landscape of action," ⁴ what they were doing as a congregation during the "exceptional" times when their finger-trap problem was not prevalent. One clear example was the time when the youth of the church organized a benefit for the victims of the tsunami disaster in 2006.Without exception, members of the church supported their efforts—even when they were promoting music and inviting people to the church who did not fit their stereotyped understanding of themselves. People in the congregation worked together in spite of their differences. The event was successful not only as a fundraiser but also as a congregation-acting-as-a-whole event. This was an example of their "pulling together in the same direction," an exception to their finger-trap problem.

"What would the youth of this church, who saw you as a congregation act so readily and cooperatively to their fundraising project, say about you as a congregation?" I asked. This and other reauthoring questions allowed them to see that an alternate story was possible and that there were dynamics to the alternate story that were different than their dominant, problem-saturated story about themselves.

2. White, 61.
3. Also known as a "Chinese finger trap" or "Mexican handcuffs."
4. White, 99-100.