“If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all” (Quinn,1999).

This quote has stayed with me now for over a decade.  There is a haunting truth that I fear if we do not understand will result in much of the same, lifeless activity in the name of faith.  It has been the words of Eugene Peterson which has helped me understand the perilous nature of programs.  Spiritual formation, coming to understand and trust who God says we are, is a relational work.  The most important things in life: trust, love, forgiveness, compassion, acceptance are all relational. 

Programs are not.  Programs are efficient, clean, planned and antiseptic.  They are planned around abstractions and goals primarily of one person who wants to change other people.  Programs, no matter how well intentioned, are always focused on the planner and they leave the participant as generic receivers of the planners goodwill.  Programs are well organized means of relating without the need for real relationship.  We need “to recognize the unrelational ways set before us in the community—principles and abstractions, causes and programs—and see them for what they are, substitutes for love” (Peterson, 2005). They will not solve our toughest problems nor will they help us experience life and love.

So Quinn asks the necessary follow up question, “If programs don’t work, then what does?  What works so well that it never occurs to anyone to create programs to make it work?” I have come to a conclusion that the alternative to programs is process.  Perhaps even process is still too contrived but we live in a culture with schedules and slots of time rather than living in contexts where we naturally engage the natural processes of life together.  So process is an acceptable substitute for programs. 

Process does allow for some organization but it is an organization of the context and of starting points but not outcomes.  Process requires an adventurous courage and real relationship if done well.  Process asks questions without the need for any particular answer.  It sets out in a direction without a preconceived destination.  It requires ongoing listening and openness to what shows up in our interactions right now.  The content of process is not predetermined but co-discovered in our interactions together in a particular place at a particular time.  The outcomes are not reproducible on a mass scale for they are the product of a particular set of relationships.  Process honors mystery and thus makes it possible for us to encounter what we cannot even imagine.  What are you looking for in life?  Who is accompanying you in the search?  How are you searching?  Are you willing to be a new mind with no program?