A Faith that Lasts: Using Feedback

There are few low-stakes words that engender more discomfort than “Can I offer you some feedback?” It’s not that most of us are against feedback as a concept — we are not in denial about our faults and genuinely want to improve. But that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable to hear. (Particularly, since someone is unlikely to ask that question if the feedback is going to be good!) But it remains that feedback, whether formal in the workplace setting, or informal, such as just seeing what we get back from what we put out in the world, is the most important tool we have in achieving our goals. Because of this, feedback is also an important element of systems theory, including how it’s used in permaculture. But in these disciplines, feedback has a specific meaning, which is slightly different from how we normally understand it, but also helpful. Here, it’s not about tools for improvement, but about tools for achieving homeostasis, or balance. Today I’d like to explore how both senses of the word — the informal sense of critique or assessment and the formal sense of regulating forces within systems — can be helpful for us in the life of faith.

First, let’s talk a bit more about the formal idea of feedback. Simply put, “a feedback loop is formed when changes in a stock affect the flows into or out of the same stock” (Donella Meadows).* In other words, ‘feedback’ is when the output(s) of a system impacts its inputs. In a healthy system, positive feedback, which promotes growth of a system, is balanced by negative feedback, which inhibits growth, producing a state of homeostasis (or controlled growth, or strategic reduction).

As David Holmgren, one of the founders of Permaculture, wrote:

This principle deals with self-regulatory aspects of permaculture design that limit or discourage inappropriate growth or behavior. With better understanding of how positive and negative feedbacks work in nature, we can design systems that are more self-regulating, thus reducing the work involved in repeated and harsh corrective management.

The easiest example of how feedback works in systems is to think of population growth. There are positive feedback loops, such as birth rates and immigration, which drive population up. These are counteracted by negative feedback loops, such as death rates and emigration, which drive population down. Through much of human history, our population as a species stayed relatively stable, with birth rates only slightly outpacing death rates, allowing for limited — appropriate — growth. But over the past two centuries, medical advances have disrupted this system, lowering death rates due to illness and injury, for both infants and adults alike; and the human population has exploded as a result, going from about one billion in 1800 to close to eight billion today. Birth rates have gone down in response to this, but, on a global level, not enough to keep human population growth at a sustainable level. All this is to say, that what had been a well-balanced system for hundreds of thousands of years has become out of balance, with the negative feedback loop declining far faster than the positive feedback loop. This is a helpful example because it helps to show why a healthy system is not one that is about run-away growth. In fact, at the cellular level, we call run-away growth ‘cancer’. Instead, a healthy system grows, but in a slow-but-steady way, allowing it time to adapt to its growth within its environment, and its environment to adapt to it. This is why constructing systems that are self-maintaining and self-regulating are the “Holy Grail” of permaculture design (Tim Sonder).

Self-regulation is such a misunderstood idea in our culture. The capitalist mindset of unlimited growth makes it anathema, and those of us who have grown up with these messages in media, advertising, and politics have a hard time not hearing self-regulation as ‘self-denial’. But all it really is is an understanding that things ultimately have to balance out in the end. Unlimited growth is impossible on a limited planet. And, when applied to our own lives, unlimited personal growth or productivity is impossible with our limited, human bodies, hearts, and minds. We simply weren’t built to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders.

Understanding and applying feedback is yet another piece of observation. It’s about honestly coming to terms with what we’re seeing and adjusting accordingly. In a garden that could be seeing what is growing and what isn’t, what is being eaten by animals or pests before it can provide a yield, what areas are too wet or too dry. (In this example, pests are a negative feedback loop, and both sun and water can provide either positive or negative feedback loops depending on the exact spot and the type of plant you’re trying to grow.) In an organization it could be understanding sources of employee disengagement, such as poor communication, unnecessarily complicated procedures, or a commitment to maintaining inefficient processes, and at the same time, also understanding the things that promote employee engagement, such as good working relationships with teams and managers, well-established and respected roles and responsibilities, meaningful recognition of work, and so on.

So how might we apply these concepts to the life of faith? Here are some ideas that have helped me:

• Positive Feedback Loops: What is increasing energy in my spiritual life? What is spurring me to action? In a community or church setting, what is increasing engagement, growth and depth?
• Negative Feedback Loops: What is decreasing energy in my spiritual life? (Remember this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s balanced by things that increase energy!) What is spurring me to rest? In a community or church setting, what keeps growth in check?
• Homeostasis/Controlled Growth/Strategic Reduction: Remember that homeostasis is not doing nothing, but about a dynamic equilibrium. A homeostatic system is still providing a yield (bearing good fruit in Jesus’ language). The key is balance and intention. We don’t need or want runaway growth or energy — that’s mania and it’s unhealthy. (Remember, even God rested on the seventh day, and Jesus took time alone to pray, away from the crowds.) The goal is to build a system that’s sustainable — built for the long haul — and that means either it’s in good balance, or, it’s slowly and intentionally building up or slowly and intentionally pulling back. Neither of these alternatives to strict balance are inherently good or bad. There are seasons for doing more and seasons for doing less. What’s important is to pay attention to the feedback we’re receiving, whether from others or our own bodies and hearts, and adapting appropriately according to that feedback.

At this point, I think it’s helpful to revisit the first principle of permaculture, which is that it’s about designing specific systems for specific purposes in specific environments. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions here. What may be a positive feedback loop for your friend may be a negative feedback loop for you and that’s okay. Just as a plant may thrive on the north side of a fence but falter on the south side, so too can small differences in personality, age and stage of life, or circumstances have a big impact on our spiritual lives. For example, I have one friend for whom the quiet intention of contemplative prayer is restful and life-giving; I have another friend who experiences that same practice as a drain. Neither of them is right or wrong, neither of them is ‘more spiritual’ than the other. Or, in my own life, I’ve had seasons where the church’s liturgical life and worship has been the driving force of my spirituality, but for the past decade that simply hasn’t been how or where God has done business with me. As much as I find that frustrating, because it feels like it ‘should’ be energizing, it simply isn’t right now. And, as long as I have other places in my life where God is doing that business, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The last point about this I’d like to make is that the same activity can perform a different vital role in different people’s experiences. If we think in terms of the classic Western Christian spiritual elements of action (going out and doing) and contemplation (prayer, worship, study and so on), for some people the action side is what gives them energy, but they need the contemplative side to balance that out and to give them the opportunity to rest, regroup, and evaluate; but for others, it’s contemplation that gives them energy, but they need the active side to balance that out, and give them the opportunity to share and live out what they’ve come to understand and experience in their contemplation.

So, I think using the feedback in our life of faith is a tremendously helpful tool. It keeps us aware of how we’re responding to what we’re doing, and how the world is responding to us. And, the focus on balance instead of growth for growth’s sake is an important corrective in our more-is-more society and can help us avoid burnout and disillusionment.

* Please see the series bibliography for details.