well, you see people at their worst. grieving, dying, and on committees being anxious and completely irrational. granted you see them at their best too, like weddings, baptisms, and such.
i've been studying human emotion for some time now. the most recent two finds is the PBS Series This Emotional Life. It's a 3 part series, most of which is online, dealing with the science behind emotions. The second source is Peter Steinke's Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times.
I've already experienced Steinke's work in another class and found him fascinating. This book covers Bowen Theory which is an understanding of what happens when people come together and interact, how the mutually influence each other's behaviors, how change in one person affects another, and how they create something larger than themselves. I like this view as it isn't a Newtonian understanding of people and their interactions.
Newton's atoms were like billiard balls, separate, compacted masses always operating to ironclad laws. This was extended into thinking about society, namely that the individuals were the atoms of society; isolated and impenetrable (unknowable). Freud might state "to myself, i am a self. to others, i am an object. to me, others are the objects."
Quantum changed all that. Quantum states that there is no world of composed, solid, individual parts unaffected by and unrelated to one another. in fact the quantum world goes so far that it boils down particles to subatomic particles that are so small that there are no small particles---only relationships. there can be no subatomic particles without the presence of other particles. such it is with humans. the genius then, as Steinke puts it, is that life is built of small, discrete things that are connected and interactive. everything is connected to everything else. all parts dependent on one another and mutually affect each other.
Humans are responsive, relational creatures. Leaders then are the chief stewards who are willing to be accountable for the welfare of the thing/system/culture/thing-people-create-when-they-get-together/congregation. Leaders set the tone, invite collaboration, make decisions, map direction, establish boundaries, encourage self-expression and reflection, and maintain the integrity of the whole
a tall order.. one i hope to do well and get the message out that we're all in this together. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Rationalist, Newtonian, Quantumian (?), Pre-, Modern, Post-, Post-Post, Fundamentalist, Agnostic, Atheist, Martian, Pens and Pencils.
