Process, Not Product

The professor told us it was all about process, not product. It was the popular buzzword terminology of that time when I was in teachers’ college in the mid-1990s. This was just a globalist attempt to first rip away the classical education methods and goals, then institute something in its place. It was a blatant political agenda to destroy the American identity, and nothing new. In fact, that was the whole intent behind public education since at least the Tavistock Institute produced their guidelines around 1910.

The problem was not that anyone was actually promoting process over product; they weren’t at all. It was just political jargon meant to destroy something they hated. That professor was lying and she knew it; she knew her students were mostly from right-wing backgrounds. The only way to actually institute an education system of process-over-product is to completely restructure the underlying epistemology. It would mean shifting from a materialistic orientation, which included the professor’s socialist doctrine, and building on otherworldly assumptions. I would have applauded that.

Lately I’ve been feeling a very strong urge to contemplate and write about this otherworldly orientation. We should have no expectation of changing the world in which we live. Our very best hope is some partial withdrawal into a covenant community of faith, a parallel society that infiltrates the rest of the world. We can’t avoid being noticed, but we are calling people out of this world, not trying to change it.

In our divine mission of infiltrating this world, we may well be involved in the political process. But by no means do we expect to accomplish anything significant by such a process. Rather, we are there pointing people to their one greatest need: to stop being entangled in this world and its cares. It’s not a question of entangled lives in the sense of what we do day to day, but of entangled souls. Our ultimate goal is not something anyone can point to; it’s the process of how we confront this life from an otherworldly orientation. It’s the process, not the product.

That’s what a church should be — a process, not a product. There is no objective, only daily growing more like Christ by our pursuit of Biblical Law. It’s the care and feeding of a covenant and the daily harvest of shalom. All of our “goals” are short-termed like that; our victories are always moment by moment. It’s always the here and now of process.

Then again, we know that pursuing shalom does bring a certain momentum. It’s a relationship with Christ, so it’s not: one failure and He simply forgets you. But peace with God is not a goal; it’s a proximity of walking alongside Him as He goes about His work in this world. It’s a constant movement, clinging to His Presence, because He doesn’t stand still. There is nothing resembling stasis in shalom. It’s not an achievement or a place. It’s love in action.

Let’s redeem that phrase: process, not product.