Navigators and Map Readers

Allan Roxborough and his colleagues at Allelon have produced some great resources on the theme of leading the church in the post-Christendom era.

One of their analogies is the use of maps to describe the shifting sociological forces at work. Just as you keep a map of the neighbourhood in your head that helps you navigate through your daily life, we all have "maps" of how our society/ community works and how the church fits into that. They argue that the old maps are no longer relevant because our society has changed so dramatically over the last 40 years. It's like using a 1960 street directory to navigate around Sydney- it might work in parts but mostly it's not going to get you to where you want to be.

In this article, Len Hjalmarson compares leaders to navigators rather than map-readers.

navigators, not map readers
by Len Hjalmarson


Eddie Gibbs writes, “The Church needs navigators tuned to the voice of God, not map-readers. Navigational skills have to be learned on the high seas and in the midst of varying conditions produced by the wind, waves, currents, fog banks, darkness, storm clouds and perilous rocks.” (Leadership Next, 66).This is a significant insight. While we have generally located ourselves on maps based on a predictable rate of change to the surrounding landscape, we are now in a time where the pace of change outstrips our ability to locate ourselves. Moreover, the increasing fragmentation of western culture makes context king - adaptive responses must be local. (Perhaps this was already true twenty years ago and the universalising tendency of modernity simply made us blind to the fact.)

Navigation is a significantly different skill than map reading. The points on a map are fixed, and so when one wants to locate a point in the real world one simply locates oneself by known geography or artifacts, and then proceeds step by step methodically to the next point. If you have a compass, this is really, really easy.

But navigation requires no fixed planetary points and requires no compass. Instead, one learns to read the sky - the stars, really. Map reading is a skill that can be learned on a table top in any school room. Any ten year old can master it. And with a compass, any ten year old can go out and use that knowledge with a high degree of confidence. This skill is only useful, however, when the landscape is not changing.

Navigation, on the other hand, is a skill that does not ask for a predictable landscape. And it is learned in the wilderness or on the ocean. It requires courage and the ability to withstand harsh conditions. And it requires something that is never required of map readers: faith and a fundamental inner restfulness. When there are no physical points to locate ourselves, we rely on an imaginal map - an internal compass. That internal compass is tuned not to earthly points, but to a fixed purpose and an external reference point - the North star.

Map readers, and navigators, are actually two different kinds of people (See Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?) While it is possible to make map readers into navigators, it is not easy, and some will never make the transition. Map readers as leaders make good managers; navigators as leaders are explorers. Map readers love predictability; navigators enjoy complexity. Map readers are impatient with process; navigators enjoy the journey. Map-reading is a lonely vocation; navigators value company.

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