Parish example -- Our Lady of the Holy Nudge

The Holy Firehose  -- 

Our Lady of The Holy Nudge

In the second installment of this series, we suggested that one of the Holy Firehose parish or group names might be this, focused on The Holy Nudge.The Holy Nudge definitely needs some context and some explanation. What on earth is it?

 Well, we believe that the act of nudging is the absolutely most critical value and operation of a healthy, meaningful, functional  Church. Anywhere. Any time.  So why not acknowledge, for a group trying to profess and build their sprirtuality to be willing to say out loud, that it is often a holy act.

What are we about fundamentally as a church community? Surely we are a worshipping group. We have an administration. We have sub-groups, maybe parishes, maybe teams, prayer groups, athletic promotions, schools, lectures, social action outlets,  bereavement for the aging and dying. The list goes on and on. We form sub-groups and later dissolve them after they have helped handle a task or need or responsibility that is a priority for the members. If the need goes away, the sub-group can go away.

So the point is, how do we discern what the needs are? The bottom line is that the members need to alert each other to the needs and the opportunities. Once the needs are more clear, the path to responding to them is more clear. How do we alert each others to needs and opportunities? We suggest that the best way is through nudging. As you think of real world examples, most needs should not be dictated from above. Most of us don’t like the idea of no freedom and all obligations. We also know it isn’t fair to have the squeaky wheel always getting the grease. Managing a group, and in this case a church, is not a matter of simply taking leadership turns and handing over all the planning tasks to one or two individuals. We should also avoid having a single input source. (One of our most tragic examples this past decade in the US is how way too many people, for example, use Rush Limbaugh as their sole political “news” source.) What we need is a community of inputs, of nudges.

We all have different perspectives and sets of needs. We all have skills and talents that might be called upon to help ourselves or others in time of need. Sometimes our input, our nudge, is to argue against suggestions that you know would be harmful. Sometimes it might be to endorse someone else’s suggestion and help decide and move on. All of these inputs help fill up the reservoir of grace in the Firehose.

With the overwhelming pace of information in our 21^st century world, many of us have trouble treading water to keep pace with things around us. We often feel we need to have an efficient and reassuring source of information in some areas to regularly keep up with things. We look for websites or blogs or calendar notices and other mechanisms.

In fact, not all needs are clear building blocks of the community and positive.  Some are negative or worrysome or scary. Some are threatening. Some need immediate attention and resolution or members may be hurt. Some members may be threatened to lose their jobs etc.  Whatever the need may be, some part of the community often needs to become aware of it and help get it resolved. We need to pray and discern and plan but also to be always open to the Firehose of grace to help direct next steps. The Firehose will often help provide short-term steps and resources, including people needed to handle urgent needs. It will also help inspire a hopeful vision that will lead to future steps that will also be needed.

This framework actually should be similar for most any type of community or group: a civic community, a neighborhood watch group, a social club, an athletic club. Its members have needs and opportunities to build. They need to see what structure and sub-groups will help them meet those needs. And they should be thinking of ways to help keep each other aware of  …

There is another aspect of these nudges that we want to put forth here as well. Sometimes a very welcome and healthy input is a form of complaining. We suggest that nagging can be a virtue, and we should acknowledge it and encourage it. A critic often has a critical role to play in our world.  So too in our communities. We should cherish those who ask “Why not…”  at least as much as the curious who simply ask “Why…”. Bobby Kennedy has maybe the most powerful historical remembrance of this value. We want to encourage community members to frequently ask why the community is not doing some healthy works that used to be done in the past. Why, for example, are we no longer participating in homicide vigils or sending flowers and personal visits to those who had a family member deceased in the community. Why are we not protesting the distortion of news in our media outlets?  We should also be encouraging members to ask why we are not using more modern communication channels to respond to current issues, harmful trends, militaristic trends etc.  Why  are we not using blogs, social media sites etc to build support for healthy, virtuous activities in our communities and discouraging or protesting distorted, disrespectful, un-Christian ones?

Lots of forms of NUDGING. We can certainly look at many or most of them as "holy" activities. How about a community or two that focuses especially on promoting this?