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| Noun | 1. | lynchpin - a central cohesive source of support and stability; |
Let me give you a short education on guitars. There are two major companies always competing to be "the best". Fender vs. Gibson. Everyone else is a second rate guitar company - from a world branding standpoint. These are the big two. It's an interesting battle when you get to know what's going on because the two have such fundamentally different veiws of how to make a great guitar. At Fender every part is replaceable. And I mean EVERY part. No two parts are so joined that we can't swap one out for another. To make my point, the neck is affixed to the body in such a way that if the neck breaks who cares! We just pick up another one, replace it, and start again. How the body and neck are connected is less important to Fender than the quality of the connection. Nothing is indispensable. The Les Paul Guitar is the epitome of Gibson's line. When they set out to design and make this guitar they had a fundamentally different approach. They believed that at certain junctures of the guitars assembly, the neck in particular, the joint must function as much like a solid piece of wood as possible. The result, many people would say, is a better feeling, more resonant instrument. Here's the catch though - if you break the neck it's not replaceable. That joint is indispensable. That joint, on a Gibson guitar, is the lynchpin. Without a solid connection there the instrument losses it's advantage. It becomes less than it could be. It losses what makes it really beautiful. Seth Godin's new book Lynchpin is awesome! Here's the basic premise: you have been conditioned to believe that you belong in a system. A system where everyone has a part to play but nobody is needed or indispensable. It's the factory mentality. It's the same premise on which Fender guitars were built, on which the auto industry and many others work, and on which our schooling is based. Godin says that we're teaching people how to fall in line rather than teaching them how to become remarkable artists and leaders, self-sufficient in their work, ready to tackle real problems with real creativity. Godin suggests that there is something else and something more than what we've been offered. I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE! I think this resonates with me so much because it's one of the dreams we have for Montage. That every person would become a Lynchpin in their home, work, and community. That in Christ there is so much more to be had than simply living lives that others create for us. Those of us who follow Jesus NEED to become the recognizable lynchpins in our community. What kind of opportunities would we create for the gospel if we sought to become the indispensable components of community that, much like that solid neck joint, bring a sense of more complete connection between people and an increase in the beauty people experience in life? Right about now people might be thinking "here he goes again - dreaming about these weird and unattainable things". The problem is that when I open the scriptures I find Jesus telling us to ask for and expect weird and seemingly unattainable things. Consider this: He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matt 17:20 Do you think moving mountains is unattainable? Yeah, me too. But there it is. Seemingly impossible things are supposed to be possible for those who live life connected to Jesus. As I work my way through Lynchpin I'll post occasionally on things I read there. Why? I think it's an idea that needs to be spread. I think Seth Godin is doing a wonderful thing by trying to encourage us all to become indispensable - to become more creative, more integrated and more beautifully connected to one another and to humanity. My goal will be to encourage you away from the Fender mentality and towards the wonder and beauty of the Les Paul....or something like that ;-) 
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