Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
One of my volunteer roles in ADF (the church through which I’m ordained) is to mentor folx who are wanting to complete the “dedicant program”. This course of study lies somewhere between a proper conversion experience and one of “tell us what you already think you know”. Compared to the rest of the study programs, guild training courses, or the clergy training tract, the dedicant work is a rather small bit of what could be a very long, and happy journey of religious exploration…
… and yet, of the nearly 12K people who have joined ADF over our nearly 40 year history, fewer than 200 (as of 8-1-2019) have completed the dedicant program. Less than two percent. Shocking, if you’d ask me (or if you’re on my blog subjecting yourself to my personal opinion of things).
Why? Aside from the offputting gatekeeping, erudite attitudes surrounding ADF’s study programs, from what I’ve seen as a mentor and guide, these low numbers are a result of the dedicant candidate’s inability to put the work into perspective and connect to the less-than-perfect bits of religious journeying.
In other words, by seeking utopian perfection in all-things-dedicant, the candidate creates the excuse to fail because of a righteousness-supported, “religiously-pure” impossible goal… and worse, they feel totally justified in their quitting, blind to the fact that it was they themselves who sabotaged their own progress.
In doing that, those folx allow an honest understanding of the world to stop them from making the best of any situation. They allow petty annoyances and minor obstacles to completely shut down the important work they’ve chosen to do…
… all because of an unhealthy obsession with perfection, and a pathological repulsion of pragmatism.
May we all be freed from perfection’s non-pragmatic grasp!
(See y’all tomorrow)
… and yet, of the nearly 12K people who have joined ADF over our nearly 40 year history, fewer than 200 (as of 8-1-2019) have completed the dedicant program. Less than two percent. Shocking, if you’d ask me (or if you’re on my blog subjecting yourself to my personal opinion of things).
Why? Aside from the offputting gatekeeping, erudite attitudes surrounding ADF’s study programs, from what I’ve seen as a mentor and guide, these low numbers are a result of the dedicant candidate’s inability to put the work into perspective and connect to the less-than-perfect bits of religious journeying.
In other words, by seeking utopian perfection in all-things-dedicant, the candidate creates the excuse to fail because of a righteousness-supported, “religiously-pure” impossible goal… and worse, they feel totally justified in their quitting, blind to the fact that it was they themselves who sabotaged their own progress.
In doing that, those folx allow an honest understanding of the world to stop them from making the best of any situation. They allow petty annoyances and minor obstacles to completely shut down the important work they’ve chosen to do…
… all because of an unhealthy obsession with perfection, and a pathological repulsion of pragmatism.
May we all be freed from perfection’s non-pragmatic grasp!
(See y’all tomorrow)
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