July 2005 Archives

I picked up the Summer 2005 issue of Leadership Journal at the office today. The theme is spiritual transformation, and it's one of the better issues I've read. Some samples:

I have to ask myself, Do I trust Jesus? Do I trust Jesus with this church? As pastors we've been trained to trust experts to help us build the church. If we truly trust Jesus, maybe we should begin by seeking his ways before we buy the latest church growth book. Jesus said, "I will build my church." Maybe we need to go away for five days and say, "Jesus, what do you want me to do?" And then learn to listen and obey. (Dieter Zander)

Pastors need to redefine success. The popular model of success involves the ABCs - attendance, buildings, and cash. Instead of counting Christians, we need to weigh them. We weigh them by focusing on the most important kind of growth - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and so on - fruit in keeping with the Gospel and the kingdom. (Dallas Willard)

Soul cultivation goes before institution building...The forming of the soul that it might be a dwelling place for God is the primary work of the Christian leader. This is not an add-on, an option, or a third-level priority. Without this core activity, one almost guarantees that he/she will not last in leadership for a lifetime or what work is accomplished will become less and less reflective of God's honor and God's purposes. (Gordon MacDonald)

And this quote from Henri Nouwen:

The way of a Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which the world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross...It is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest.

The main theme running through the issue is the importance of spiritual formation. The flip side is that this isn't happening in many of our churches. A very helpful issue indeed.

From Stupid Church People:

Pastors.

That's the number one weakness in the modern church today. Paid pastoral leadership is the reason the church is weak, inefficient and to a point...neutered...

Before all of my pastor friends send me hate mail, I don't think it is all your fault. I think the church culture has caused you to function as CEO's and not pastors. We need you to resign yourself as the CEO's of your church or ministry. As fast as you can run away from treating the church as a business. Leave your church meetings, your planning sessions, your growth conferences, and go and interact with far from God people where they are - outside of your church. Stop bearing the burden of whether your church offering or attendance is what it should be - you just aren't that important!

Start encouraging your congregations to stop coming to so many church meetings and ask them to get involved in the local community activities outside of the church. Asking them to do both is only burning them out. And asking them to make a choice is only making them feel guilty. Encourage them to immerse themselves in their "work culture" and to get to know their co-workers and become their friends...not so they can convert them...but because all people need friends.

Finally, please stop asking us to bring our "unchurched friends" to your church to fill the empty seats around us. Do you actually know how difficult it is to get someone who is seriously "far from God" to come to church? By asking us to do this, you imply that the only way we can truly make a difference in someone's life is by getting them to the church building.

(Via Monday Morning Insight Weblog.)

A controversial post:

There are so many books about the problems of church, it's leadership, it's style, it's ecclessiology, it's abuses etc etc.

But when was the last time you read a book about what was wrong with christians, who have have given up on church? It's easy to bash church, and popular to lambast institutions, to critique an organization.

Reminds me of the person who said that we don't just have a crisis of leadership, we also have a crisis of followership.

More reaction here.