Leading at SMC - Faith-based and Apostolic

It occurs to me that I ought to say something further about leading at SMC and especially where I am coming from... my leadership emphasis.

I prioritise faith-based leadership - confident that I/we can hear and see the Lord and therefore will be led out by him. Jesus said 'as the Father has sent me so I send you' - we are an apostolic people and supposed to lead apostolically as those who are sent.

I seek to use Lifeshapes (see http://www.3dministries.com/ & http://www.missionorder.org/) especially the Circle and the Square to help me to lead. The Circle helps me to live a life of constant learning - repent and believe. The Square helps me to see different leadership styles that I need to function in a different times. I make many mistakes and have my share of failures yet tools like 'Lifeshapes' are crucial to keeping me in an apostolic frame of mind.

Mike Breen talks about the need to be 'a shepherd from in front and a sheep from behind' - in other words I need at the same time a leader and led, a shepherd and a sheep.

Leadership

I will return to the subject of belonging and community soon however I have been thinking a little bit about leadership today so thought I would blog on this.


We can't escape from the biblical image of shepherding. Jesus says


"the gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice." (John 10:3,4)



This morning as we were worshipping in this glorious hubbub of community at HGS I was reminded of this passage (esp.v3) and here's a number of things that I am thinking about in response:


1) Leadership has to be legitimised - we earn the right to lead. You don't get to lead the sheep unless you are in some way or other authorised/allowed to lead. Too often this has been construed as a way of keeping leadership to a few 'special ones' - we are mad to go down this route - I prefer to say that all can lead but our leadership has to be legitimised. I think we often earn the right to lead through loving service of others, through exercising initiative and taking responsibility. As we do these things the gatekeepers allow us in... then we can lead further.



2) Leaders are listened to - the sheep listen to the shepherds voice - she/he is legitimate, trusted and they are open to guidance and help. So a leader needs to ask whether they are being listened to - if they aren't it could be because their leadership isn't legitimised (hasn't been earned) or conversely because the sheep have decided not to be sheep (not open to guidance and help). I'm only to aware of how stubborn and proud we/I can be - unteachable - and how it seems to me that sheep are uniquely designed to need guidance and help and not to is to reject all that is good for them (I think Neil Coles in his book 'Organic Church' says something along these lines).



3) Leaders call - a leader identifies those who are their sheep (remember Jesus talked about being called to the lost sheep of Israel - he was quite specific about who he aimed at and who he called - 12 disciples). I believe that a leader calls people to the vision that the Lord has given them. Am I/are you calling people to my/your vision?



4) Leaders lead out - leading has to have a direction to it and I am sure that it has to be an outward movement - the sheep aren't meant for the sheep pen they are designed for the pasture. In my last church someone gave me a prophecy that I was to be a shepherd who led the sheep from a pasture that was finished with (pastures can be overgrazed and therefore unable to provided nourishment) to a new pasture but that we would have to go through a valley to get there... how true! I was able to leave my previous church with a new pasture to graze in (though there were still sheep who hankered after the old pasture!)



5) Leaders go on ahead - here is what we need to do once we have led our sheep to new pastures... we continue to go on ahead. We don't get waylaid by the demands now of maintaining the flock... we need to go on ahead as by now the sheep are willing to follow us to new pastures because they know us and trust us.



Of course all this needs to be reflected on in the light of Jesus being our true leader. He is the model which is why this passage of his teaching in John 10 is so important for us. True leadership is learnt from the true leader ... the good shepherd.

True Community

I have been waiting with anticipation for a book by Joseph R. Myers to arrive. Called 'The Search to Belong' and subtitled 'rethinking intimacy, community and small groups' I reckon it might be just the right thing to be reading as I lead SMC through a vision casting and implementation process that is focussed on becoming a community of communities. At time of updating this blog I am still only in the first chapter and already feeling disturbed and challenged in how glibly I use and have used the words 'belonging' and 'community'.
Myer's quotes from someone called Larry Crabb;
"The future of the church depends on whether it develops true community. We can get by for a while on size, skilled communication, and programs to meet every need, but unless we sense we belong to each other; with masks off, the vibrant church of today will become the powerless church of tomorrow. Stale, irrelevant, a place of pretense where sufferers suffer alone, where pressure generates conformity rather than the Spirit creating life - that's where the church is headed unless it focusses on community."
Hmmmm .... makes you think doesn't it?
I really want to see true community developing associated with SMC but I realise that we are going to have to process the question of belonging in relation to community because as Myers puts it "Most of us have always believed that a person could 'belong' as long as their definition of belonging agreed with ours."
More on this at some point soon.

Falling to the ground and dieing

I have been looking at Jesus' words in John 12 recently about being like a grain or kernel of wheat falling to the ground and dieing:

Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"
Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Challenging words to start the new year with... in all sorts of different situations I have found myself being drawn back to this passage - perhaps it is a reminder from God that I am committed to being simply like Jesus and that my life like his is all about giving the Father glory - not having it for myself and that my life is about being 'set aside and laid down' for him (as the Methodist Covenant prayer puts it).

Hmmmmmm

A quote for Christmas

Here's a great quote that has made me think today....

But for the rest of us, forced to ponder the complexity of our existence and the competing implausibilities of faith and unbelief, that was surely the point of the manger, the stable, the ox and the ass. That God would choose to come among us in such a way so strange, so inexplicable, so unbelieveable, it compels us to believe.
Gerard Baker
(The Times 23.12.07)

Hmmmmm

Vision?

Vision is a funny thing. I think I can often overcomplicate this vision thing. Maybe this is why I have been hearing the Lord saying time and again 'keep it simple... stupid.' My vision is supposed to be his vision but too often it is merely my vision. My vision often can be presented and couched in such ways that it sounds really great and convincing but when it comes down to it lacks authenticity and therefore after varying amounts of time (during which there may be some signs of success) dies away to nothing. My vision needs to be allowed to fall to the ground and die - because from the death of my vision comes life.

I have found myself drawn to isolating the simple basics of vision the Lord has given me here:
Cultivate a tent mentality
Simply live, love and lead like Jesus
Build a community of communities

That's a fair amount to go on!

Jesus' teachings are not complex & easy but simple and hard

So, it all feels a bit complex. I'm looking for easy solutions thinking 'how can I solve the problems I face'?
I've got a church with no building, a people who want to go but don't quite know where to go (hey, but wanting to go is half the battle). A vision and strategy that runs out in 2008 so a new vision needed! Many of the trappings of English church life and a mixture of forced change (building not suitable for worship) and chosen change (a decision to worship in HGS).
Oh, and there are people wondering if God is calling them to join us and others hearing God's call to 'go' and getting a vision and pursuing it. Then there is the issue of managing the change, supporting great things already happening... Oh and did I mention the other small matter of another church I have responsibility for and the need to lead them to a decision regarding their building and where and how they are to live and worship as a community in the meantime and into the future?
No wonder 2 months in I feel like collapsing in a corner and becoming an introvert for a while!
Well, lets resist the temptation of that corner for a moment. Things seem incredibly complex and our instinct is to hunt for the magic wand that will solve it all - that's the easy and frankly impossible way (mind you, I reach for that magic wand all the time!) The way of Jesus lets us off from seeking a magic wand to flourish at our complex problems. Instead we are called to the radical simplicity of the kingdom way which contains hard things (what could be more counter-cultural than simply living like Jesus?) and a simple approach - love like Jesus, live like Jesus and lead like Jesus.
There are many things that are complex, that present me with problems that come over as intractable. But I am actually called to a change of mind - to see the simple and knuckle down to the hard way but actually what amounts to the best way.