The problem we face in our conflicted churches is disagreements — right? Well, maybe.
But what if much of the problem is agreements — agreements that are a result of groupthink where people are afraid to express unpopular truths.
Now you’re talking about the Abilene Paradox, a concept introduced by business management expert Jerry B. Harvey.
On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles north] for dinner. The wife says, “Sounds like a great idea.” The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, “Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go.” The mother-in-law then says, “Of course I want to go. I haven’t been to Abilene in a long time.”
The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.
One of them dishonestly says, “It was a great trip, wasn’t it?” The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, “I wasn’t delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you.” The wife says, “I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that.” The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.
The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.
It’s one of the hardest things to do in relationships (marriage, family, friendships, church): to express an unpopular opinion while remaining polite, respectful, and under control.
“If we see somebody behaving pompously and arrogantly, we sometimes say, ‘He thinks he’s God Almighty.’ But that’s a gross slur on God. Christianity focusses on a young Jew telling stories about the kingdom of God, healing the sick, confronting the powerful, dying under the weight of the world’s pain, and rising again having defeated death itself; and Christianity says: ‘That’s what it means to be God.’
