The following is from A Is for Abductive (152-155) and should help in beginning the process of understanding EPIC.

The Plains Indians were known for the smoking ceremony. At the conclusion of the sharing of the pipe, all the participants would say in unison: “We are all related.”

The experience of the self as a part of others-”We are all related”-is one of the most spiritual of experiences. Everything is related. Nothing exists in isolation.

The basic unit of the future is not the isolated individual, not the communal collective, but the The more interdependent we become, the more important our individual uniqueness becomes. The interplay of the individual and the interdependent yields a third entity: the connective self. liou can hear it in the U.S. Army commercial “An Army of One.” Postmodern people seek new ways of fitting together, not of fitting in .(31)

The clamor for connectivity that haunts postmoderns can be heard in Rodney King’s soul-cry, “Can’t we all get along?” Connectivity is partly a response to the decline in social capital, civic engagement, and social connections to other people-to partners, family, friends, and strangers.”(32) But there is something else at work as well.

All the connections-between human beings, between humans and nature, between humans and God-are being rewired. Concepts of connectivity have replaced notions of geographic centrality. The whole of integrated connection is now more the focus than the component parts of self-sufficient separateness.

The greater the communication, the greater the hunger for connectivity.(33) The church must connect people through communication in community for communion through both physic and virtual venues.

Shortly after the massive hydroelectric Norris Dam was built in the hills of East Tennessee, a night-shift worker observed something odd. As he looked across the lake, h could hear behind him the humongous dynamos hum in powerfully in the quiet of the night, generating fabulous amounts of electricity. But in front of him, every cabin in sig was lighted not by electrical energy, but by kerosene lamps, When he inquired why, he discovered that the transmission lines had not yet been laid. Here were people living in the shadow of a power source sufficient to light up whole citie9 but they could receive none of its power because they were n connected to it. Power surrounded them, but they were n plugged in.(34)

Weirdness means three things for emerging ministry. First, and foremost, are you “plugged-in” to the Spirit, to the power supply that God has provided to supply your every need? Sect and, are you plugged-in to digital culture, both in terms of you ministry goals and personal gadgets/toolkit? Third, are yo socially wired-connected to other creatures (both human and animal)?

The threads of a spider’s web are drawn out from within the spider’s very being. The threads in the web’s concentric circle are sticky. The threads leading to the center are smooth.

For the way to be made smooth to life’s only true center-Jesus the Christ-the circles of life must be gluey with connections. In the word consciousness is hidden this, mystery of connectivity: To be conscious means to “know with”
(sci + con). Christian leaders must increasingly remind people of what a wise Midwestern pastor repeatedly wakes up his congregation with: “Individual Christian, the Bible takes no notice of you.”

If we are not connecting people in community-so they know together (”together with all the saints” as Paul says in Ephesians 3:18) and grow together and serve together and suffer together and rejoice and cry and feast and fast and give and live and fall and rise together-then we are spinning our wheels in terms of authentic Christian ministry, whether modern or postmodern or whatever.(35) In modernity we thought “knowing” was something that happened in an individual’s mind; now we begin to see that knowing is a connective experience, not unrelated to loving.(36) In the words of one postmodern, Worship that is relevant, that “speaks to me,” is worship that is

• Personal yet communal
• Emotional yet instructional
• Inspiring yet practical
• Spiritual yet tangible.(37)

“Dare to connect” has replaced Kant’s famous motto of the Enlightenment, “Dare to know.”

31. For more of these insights in a Gen-X framework, see Steve Rabey, In Search of Authentic Faith: How Emerging Generations Are Transforming the Church (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2001); Ken Baugh and Rich Hurst, Getting Real. An InteroC tiv’ Guide to Relational Ministry (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000); Richard 1N. Flory and Donald Miller, eds., Gen X Religion (New York: Routledge, 2000); Clarence E. McClendcn, The X Blessing: Unveiling a Redemptive Strategy for a Marked Generation (Mshville: Thomas Nelson, 2000); Andrea Lee Schieber, Ann Terman Olson, and Richard Webb, What’s Next: Connecting Your Ministry with Generation X (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fotress, 1999), with video companion; Tom Beaudoin, Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritu7l Quest of Generation X (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998); Tim Celek, Inside the Soul of :i New Generation: Insights and Strategies for Reaching Busters (Grand Rapids: Zondevan, 1996); Kevin Graham Ford with Jim Delaney, Jesus for a New Generation:: Putting the Gospel in the Language of Xers (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996); Alan Rocburgh, Reaching a New Generation: Strategies for Tomorrow’s Church (Downers Gave, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993).
32. Robert Putnam attributes 25% of the decline in social connectedness to televisiol. The other 75% is largely due, he argues, to generational issues. “The declines in chorch attendance, voting, political interest, campaign activities, associational membership.
33. Larry Crabb, Connecting: Healing for Ourselves and Our Relationships: A Rad’ ical New Vision (Dallas: Word, 1997).
34. James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not to Be True (Nashville: Dimen• sions for Living, 1994), 122-23.
35. For new ways of building connections, see Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001).
36. For the role of small groups among postmoderns, see Jimmy Long, Generating Hope: A Strategy for Reaching the Postmodern Generation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), and Jimmy Long et al., Small Group Leaders Handbook: The Next Generation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995).
37. Richard P. Schowalter, Igniting a NewGeneration of Believers (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 80.