Lead into the Community

Charles Van Engen has been quoted in the Swedish Missiological Themes talking about this. Evangelism invites into a community sui generis with no other limits than the whole human race – a community based on a human belonging more encompassing than any existing form of political or biological connectedness. The missionary movement of the Churches claims to be relevant to women and men of all stripes and walks of life.

"By witnessing to the possibility of a common life sustained by God’s creative breaking of existing frontiers and showing that creative authority in the pattern of relation... (it fosters), the building up of
Christ-like persons... The Church’s good news is that human community is possible; the Church’s challenge is in its insistence...that the relations constituting Christ’s Body neither compete with nor vindicate others, but simply stand in their own right as the context which relativises all others... The Church's primitive and angular separateness... is meant to be a protest on behalf of a unified world, the world that holds together in and because of Jesus Christ."

Seeing our leaders willing and able to thrive in the world and in the Church is empowering and offers the opportunity for others to do the same.

 "Alan Roxburgh, (2006, 12-13) proposes a paradigm of leadership that contrasts the operating models of a typical pastor with that of a missional pastor who functions in an apostolic way. He also asserts (Roxburgh 1997, 62) that “discipling and equipping require a leadership that demonstrates encounter with the culture in action. This is the role of the apostle.” “Pastor, as apostle, is foundational to all other functions.”

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Lead with Sensitivity

Scripture references with words like patience, long-suffering and steadfastness portray a sense of quality in relationships.  As the Christian community lives out through the lives of ordinary people, leadership sensitively nurtures the diversity of such a people, both the coming and the going.

Leadership needs to discern when they can push and when they need to back-off.  They need to also discern which battles need to be fought and which ones do not.

The sensitive ministry will have a vision for long-term possibilities and will create an environment that will experience growth and depth.

Lead from humility

Everyone needs encouragement and is encouraged by affirmation.  Needing too much affirmation - or coming to terms with a "need" for emotional "strokes" is a signal of leading with insecurity.  Emotionally dependent leaders will lose out on the calling out fo the church if they want to only play the crowd and not "risk" calling the call.

It is the humility that enables the leader to find vision, strength and creativity and allows the leader to see people not as the consumers but those who want to participate in a vision or find one along side of you.

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Diverse

The church, as a structure, is a human institiution and system.  People will become part of a church for a variety of reasons, but that will be shaped mostly by their experiences and with those experiences come complex expectations and assumptions.

Pastors must have relational skill sets, spiritual rootedness, and emotional grounding to navigate the white waters of conflict they will ensue.

Hopefully, as a Pastor, you have the ability to access the joy and life of community for without nurtured relational and social intelligence, you will observe conflict and resistance as anomalies rather than realities of life.

For if not, you will try to take on the toxic forces through reasonableness, love, insight, role-modeling, inculcation of values, an striving for consensus, when in fact you should be taking a stand that sets limits to the invasiveness fo those who lack self-regulation.  Gary Nelson

http://youtu.be/P2RnkPkfN7Y

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Accessing too much information

Being informed is highly overrated.  Clergy leaders study the trends and read every book on the church that is offered.  They attend the seminars offered to help clergy and church leaders envision and manage ministries more effectively.  The result in some cases is information overload.  (Gary Nelson)

Irrelevance

When a clergy leader feels irrelevant outside the walls of the church, such a leader will have more at stake in what happens inside.  One's identity, feelings of worth, and significance are placed on a narrow one-dimensional platform.  The result is a stark vulnerability not previously experienced in pastoral ministry, causing clergy leaders to put pressure on congregations to meet their needs for significance, needs that are emotionally and relationally unrealistic. - Gary Nelson

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A sense of urgency

When facing our realities, we found ourselves describing it with words and images, but rarely do we look at them through the eyes of truth.  We do not because we do not feel the urgency to do so, and those around us do not feel any urgency at all.

Then there are those who change for the sake of changes sake.  Never, ever helpful tack to take.

Staying the course is no better.

Skillful leaders nurture a sense of urgency in their congregations.  They foster a passionate desire to see the church live out its intended purpose.

In our smaller churches and our smaller ministries, there are more people interested in making sure the pastor/leader do not get away with anything than in giving them the opportunity to lead.  As a side note - the downfall of our pastor/leader is the lack of understanding that the only person that you have direct and immediate control over is yourself - so don't worry about what you want from others, instead, think about what you can give to others.

We have a new world around us - they need us to show the love of Jesus, to make it visible.  It isn't about us attracting crowds, its about seeing lives transformed, its about constructing personal relationships, it's about providing encouragement, spiritual growth, accountability and avenues for Christian ministry - arresting the temptation that people have of shopping around, looking for diversion while avoiding commitment. (Eddie Gibbs)

If most conflicts in the church were shaped around seeking what is best for God's purpose for the church, it would be amazing how the conversations would differ.  We are part of a large purpose. God's desire is to announce Himself through a people so passionately involved in this mission that they can do nothing less than become the people of God. (Gary Nelson)

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