Dear Friends,
After the first day of the workshop with Ken Callahan, he’s finished explaining one of the four important searches in which people are engaged. The four searches are: emerging individuality, community, meaning, and hope.
Callahan is adept at cultural analysis and social archaeology. He’s able to break down social indicators that characterize individuals as well as groups. On day one he identified the differences between the first-born child and the second-born child. One of his theories is that the first-borns tend to be the achievers, able to progress on their own; while the second-borns are often more community-oriented and often more interested in “affiliating” or being more relational. If there are several children in the family then factors get more complex, each child seeking to differentiate from the others.
He then has other cross categories to identify persons’ tendencies, like how persons learn differently and the types of groups that people gravitate towards or attract.
This is the third year in a row that I’ve attended his San Diego workshop. Obviously, I like the social/historical perspective as I try to understand and minister to and with all three worship services and the various groups of our church. Callahan’s summation is that ultimately, though people are searching through the four avenues, all four lead to the discovery of God’s grace and mercy.
I hope to explain the other searches in future articles. Gwen and I have been attending the sessions. We look forward to sharing more of our learning with you. Thank you for affording us this great opportunity.
— Pastor Bob