What to do when the world seems to be falling apart
And ways to live the future now
Mass disappointment in systems, structures and leaders has led to an easy invitation to despair. These are dark times. Wars are raging, economies are struggling, nationalism is on the rise across the world, many christian leaders we thought would bring light and hope are tainted, their light extinguished as their complicity with darkness is exposed. We are left wondering what to do, where to go, how to find our faith - if it even matters.
Mark Sayers wrote a small weighty book a few years ago called A Non-Anxious Presence. He explored era shifts in history and explains that between eras exists a 50 year gap often called ‘the grey zone’. Basically, this 50 year window in time is when all hell breaks loose due to chaos and crisis the shift causes.
Everything that used to work doesn’t anymore, but the new ways are not yet fully here. This leaves people confused, scared and left to try and find their own way, identity, meaning and purpose in the absence of certainty and a seemingly inevitable flurry of panic. It is within this space and time that Christians have a unique opportunity to be a sign of a Kingdom that is deeper than our fears and cultural identities, wider than our divides and inclinations to self preservation, and more reliable than any system or force past or present. It’s in this world and time that we are called to be a non-anxious presence - secure in the Hope of eternity and the promise of God’s Kingdom come on earth as in heaven.
It’s a word.
I think Mark is right. Somehow it helps to locate our anxiety and uncertainties, it’s good to be honest about our fears and disappointments. AND it’s also right and true and good to be thankful that in this exact space our prophetic imagination will help us discover the way our lives can be a sign of the sure Hope of Gods’ presence and purposes for this time.
That’s what I’m giving myself to these days. Being a grateful, non-anxious presence, displaying the beauty and goodness of God ‘with us’ and ‘in us’ right now, co-creating new ways of working that honour the sacredness of each other, demonstrating the wonder of collaboration over competition and nurturing faith-filled witnesses to the ways of Jesus. In the bleak backdrop of our shifting world I’ve never been more thankful or hopeful.
This is a miracle.
If you need some fresh hope - take a look at all the various ways this garden of God’s creative work is blooming at boundless enterprise. This week we’re launching a financial partnership campaign. We are looking for partners to join in solidarity and support as a prophetic witness of hope in these troubled times.
Boundless Enterprise is a collective of new and innovative start-ups (non-profits and charities) imagining the possibilities of mutual flourishing at the intersection of faith and justice.
We are rooted in the soil of God’s Love through our intentional practice of Infinitum (latin for Boundless) that leads us, moves us and forms us in the way of Jesus. Each initiative is a creative exploit that seeks to imagine a different world and inspire, and equip people to live it out right now. Brave Global is imagining a world where girls are empowered instead of trafficked. They mobilize communities to collaborate, support and equip those vulnerable of exploitation to become the solution that stops it. Imby is imagining a world where there is room for everyone - confronting the affordable housing crisis and the loneliness epidemic with tangible signs of hospitality and inclusion that reveal the promise of God to put the lonely in family. Sure, they build tiny houses in backyards but they also inspire people to live Gods’ purposes right now starting with what we have, where we are.
Hagar’s Voice has been responding in Love to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, modeling the God who sees, and reimagining what safe church looks like. They offer strategic survivor support and advocate for the restoration and reimagining of faith communities to look and operate like Jesus. Women Speakers Collective has raised up and continues to unite a mighty company of women supported and equipped to use their voices to speak life and truth all over the world. Reimagine by WomenCo is exploring and piloting the potential expansion of faith communities unrestricted and unlimited by culture, gender, hierarchies and old systems.
What if the new ways that could unfold in this season are best known and most understood by those trapped and restricted in the margins of the old one? Boundless Publishing is seeking to discover the power of unleashing voices from the margins that contain the wisdom and truth we need right now.
What all these initiatives have in common is a shared desire to demonstrate to a weary world what it looks like to live out the hope of a thriving future.
Boundless Enterprise offers a core center place that operates like a hive of support, formation, collaboration, development and community. From project management tools, ongoing training opportunities and collaborative projects to spiritual retreats, development, formation and a community to belong, dream, pray and heal together.
Now, here is where things get a little complicated but hang in because it keeps getting better! Each iniative in Boundless Enterprise is their own charity/non-profit. What we long to see (and believe is coming), is for every one of them to be financially sustainable and flourishing. But what I know to be essential in this prophetic work is a solid core - the thing that centers and supports all the others.
In my experience of creating new things it’s almost always what is missing. A seeming lack of resources, scarcity mindsets and old systems perpetuate silos and solo ventures. It’s most often the holy disrupters launching these prophetic exploits that are seen as a threat to existing systems, are excluded from community and find themselves slogging it out alone and unsupported. It doesn’t take long for those prophetic dreams to die. This is how things have been done….but those old ways belong to a passing era.
Boundless Enterprise models a new way of shared, collaborative leadership. We contend for supportive and spacious systems that cultivate mutual flourishing - belonging, growing and daring together. We think this is what Love looks like in an organization and it’s a display of hope in a future that’s well on its way.
Join us.
Our current task is to build and sustain the solid core of Boundless Enterprise and to do it, we need partners. Would you join us? We have charitable status in both Canada and the USA and offer tax deductable receipts for your giving. We welcome financial supporters who would give a one-time donation. We would be grateful for any contribution. AND we are contending for ongoing partnership in this labour of love. Would you be a monthly financial partner of Boundless Enterprise?
Monthly partners allow us to build a solid core in a sustainable way. Monthly partners offer us tangible support and solidarity in what is often hard and lonely work. Monthly partners provide evidence of Gods faithfulness to our shared dreams, inspiring us to keep going and making them a reality. Monthly partners stand shoulder to shoulder with us in collective hope to demonstrate our faith together.
We are believing for 50 monthly partners over the next 3 days. Would you help us? You’ll be seeing the push on social media from Monday - Wednesday this week. And I’d love it if you would share this inviation as widely as you can. Our goal is a reasonably solid start at keeping the core of Boundless Enterprise alive and growing.
But back to being thankful…
I wanted to share this with you first (before the social media campaign) because I’m already personally encouraged and so grateful for your engagement and support in this space. I didn’t start this substack for support - but that is what you’ve given me. I’m grateful. As I’ve shared openly and honestly you’ve shown me the dignity of reading my writing, subscribing, supporting and encouraging me as I keep forging ahead. Your comments and encouragements and ongoing support have meant a lot to me. I am truly grateful for this space and for you.
Full disclosure: I don’t take any financial compensation from Boundless Enterprise. I’m both a volunteer and one of the financial partners of this beautiful work and have gratefully used my own means and platform to champion the dreams and hopes of each initiative. I believe this is holy work in a holy moment, that God isn’t short of cash, and that scarcity exists only when we refuse to share. So, here I am sharing this dreamy opportunity to ask that out of your abundance, in this thanksgiving season, you might bless Boundless Enterprise and join forces with a daring crew of holy mavericks determined to display the glory of God in the land of the living. What else are we going to do in an era shift?! And how else do we live out the eternal hope we have?
The future is now, we can’t wait any longer.
And for that, and you, I’m thankful.