That’s why I’ve decided to blog about it. I want to invite you into the conversation. I want to invite you into this world of messy leadership. So, let’s take a stab at opening up this topic.
I would have to say that I became aware on some level of an organic shift in our ministry at “10:35” a little more than 18months ago. We had made some significant changes before that, but the difference is that those changes were orchestrated. They were planned. We had begun to move away from a “church of attraction” model to a “missional church” model. However, in the wake of this shift, some things became increasingly clear for the future of our ministry.
Particularly, for me, it meant making some decisions to surrender my desire to control. That’s where I’ll pick things up next week.
Read the rest of the series here:
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All I have to say so far is that I recoil at the labels--organic church, missional church, church of attraction, emerging church, this model, that model, fundamentalist, baptist, calvinist, blah blah blah. When I was a kid other kids used to ask each other, "What are you?" (as in, what religion are you? I once had a friend who said, "I'm Christian", and the rest of us said, "Yeah, I know, Christian, but what ARE you? Like, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, what?)
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I've never even really been a fan of the "in, the up, and the out". It all seems so corporate. But that is my two cents. I like the whole idea of studying the early Christ followers from the gospels and the book of Acts, watching them sort of muddle through with their imperfections as they try to follow the perfect Jesus and mess it up a lot, but Jesus is rather patient and tries to get them to understand what they can, and to teach them what it means to love one another unconditionally and love God with all their hearts, souls, and minds.
I actually like picturing that a lot better than the 1950s version of the church, all scrubbed and dressed up and walking in together as a perfect nuclear family greeting the robed preacher and walking into a shiny building with a bunch of smiling people who secretly gossip and frown upon any who are different during the church potluck. OK, maybe it was never like that. I didn't live in the 50s.
I guess my view of being a Christ-follower is more like a Relient K song where we just all recognize how lame we are and we try and try again to be more loving and giving, and we fail, and we feel humble, and we are so grateful to God for being so forgiving because we are so screwed up.
Where leadership fits into these rambling thoughts I am not sure. All I know is I want the church leaders to be wise but very humble, visionary but not controlling, knowledgeable but not smug, discerning but not judgmental. Too much to ask? Probably.
While I certainly understand your reluctance to use labels, it becomes, I think, necessary when discussing the kinds of shifts that are going on within Christianity. I, too, hesitate to use and am definitely unsure as to what to use, when discussing "10:35". We didn't consciously make the decision to be "emerging" or "organic". We just knew that the model of ministry we had been using didn't seem authentic to our community. These terms just seem to best express the direction we moved in. If anything, we were definitely model driven previously. Now, what we are really doing is simply pursuing authentic biblical community. The terms are simply tools to describe that shift.
ReplyDeleteI am anxious to hear more about your ideas on church leadership. My earlier comment sounds negative when I read it again. Sorry i did not mean for it to sound that way. It was not a criticism of 1035 church which I really love. It was just about churches in general that try to fit into a mold.
ReplyDeleteDo not worry for even a moment. My greatest hope is for this blog to be an open dialogue. I am glad you are sharing what you feel. I hope you will be an encouragement to others.
ReplyDelete