a drop of water

Andy Crouch in his book, Culture Making, discusses a relational model where creativity creates.  Many successful companies and other sources of things created are led by a group of three, that is to say a small small, tight knit group of like minded creators, working together for a common goal.  Often I try to create things on my own, but that only goes so far.  When I involve too many people, the vision gets construed and pulled in so many directions, theres nothing left after everyones had their say.  Crouch goes on to say beyond that intimate group where creativity creates, are two, farther removed layers of input.  A group of 12 and a group of 120, similar to a board of directors and a group of team managers if this model is to be liked to a business model.  The group of 12 has more input and authority than the group of 120, but less than the group of 3, yet each tier plays an important role and contributes towards the end result.

“The essential insight of 3 : 12 : 120 is that every cultural innovation, no matter how far-reaching its consequences, is based on personal relationships and personal commitment.  Culture making is hard.  It simply doesn’t happen without the investment of absolutely and relatively small groups of people.  In culture making, size matters–in reverse.  Only a small group can sustain the attention, energy and perseverance to create something that genuinely moves the horizons of possibility–because to create that good requires an ability to suspend, at least for a time, the very horizons within which everyone else is operating.  Such “suspension of impossibility” is tiring and taxing.  The only thing strong enough to sustain it is a community of people.  To create a new cultural good, a small group is essential.”  p. 243

Prayerfully I will find that small group of people that I can make culture with and together we can cross the obstacles that stand in the way of personal relationships and personal commitment that sustains the energy and perseverance required to create something that “genuinely moves the horizons of possibility.”  I want to find significance in what I do with my friends.  When I was in grade school, I always had a dream of starting a company with my friends.  Each of us had different skills and talents and it made sense to bring our relationships into the sphere of work for efficiency and productivity.  There is something refreshingly redeeming about Crouch’s advocacy of “measuring our significane not by our access to power, people and institutions, but by how faithful we remain [in our small groups], to the cultural goods we seek to cultivate and create!”