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Unite the pair so long disjoin'd,
Knowledge and vital piety;
Learning and holiness combin'd,
And truth and love let all men see.Charles Wesley(1)
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Rock-the-Cradle Discussion Questions and Genogram Exercises
1. In 1995 the British publication Economist did a feature article on what it called "the death of distance."(18) Can you see signs that distance is dead? How would you handle the thesis that while distance is dead, location is more alive and important than ever before?
2. The '96 Olds Eighty Eights inaugurated the smart-car era. For an extra $2,000, you can purchase the GuideStar, a navigation system that, with the push of a button and the purr of a trunk-mounted hard drive, you can be led by a map database to any destination in the country. You will never need a paper map (broadcast) again. Your media analog gives you door-to-door pointcasting precision.
NavTech guarantees its database to be over 97 percent accurate. But information quickly perishes. If addresses and street names change 10 percent a year--which is a conservative estimate--then after two years the driver only as an 80 percent chance of reaching his/her destination. In other words: every year 10 percent of the information is wrong.
3. In ancient cosmology static was good; change was bad, even evil. What would it mean for the church to befriend change? Isn't there a need for a balance of stability and change?
4. Does it jar you to think that Jesus himself changed in the course of his ministry? Do a Bible study of the three "conversions" of Jesus, as outlined by biblical scholar and archaeologist Charles R. Page II. Jesus' first "conversion" moved him from the Hasidic fundamentalism of his Nazarene background to the Hillel liberalism of the Pharisees (Matthew 12:1-14). His second "conversion" experience, precipitated by his encounter with a Gentile woman in the region of Tyre and Sidon, moved him from seeing his ministry totally in terms of the Jewish community to reaching out to the Gentiles (Matthew 15:21-28). His third "conversion" experience led him to break with the Pharisees (Matthew 23:37-39) because of their establishment preoccupations and lack of concern for the people, and led to his death.(19)
5. How well does your church use ESP in handling resistance to change: empathy, space, and pressure?(20) Sometimes people need understanding and compassion; other times they need time to move through the grief process and transition; other times they need subtle and even overt pressure to change. Which one of these does your church need now?
6. William Bridges' book Managing Transitions argues for the distinction between change and transition.(21) Change is an event that alters reality -- for example, my eyesight deteriorates. Transition is the necessary adjustment to the alterations -- for example, I get glasses and have to adopt an entire new lifestyle. How is your church handling change, and handling transitions differently? Do you agree with Bridges that there is a difference?
7. If no one in your group has participated in the Boston-based Elderhostel program, invite someone in to talk about this peer-based educational residential program for people aged 60 and older. How might your church integrate this model into its own ministry. In the fall of 1991, almost 300,000 part-time students aged 50 and older enrolled as undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across the country. According to the Department of Education, almost 50,000 were enrolled full-time. How is your church addressing this need, which will only increase in the future with more and more boomers moving into retirement? 
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