Leaders on the anvil...
We are pretty foolish sometimes! Think about it, we often just hope that things will drop in our laps without any proactivity on our part. One of my favorite stories in Scripture is that of the Israelites pressed from all sides as they're pursued by the Egyptian army. The army is behind, the mountains are to the north, the desert is to the south, and the Red Sea is in front of them. The Israelites begin to complain to Moses who begins to pray to the Lord. The Lord's response is, forgive the MOW (my own words) translation, "Quit praying and get moving!"
I've been thinking a lot about leadership these past few months. As we seek to adopt a more team-based approach to doing ministry as Cornerstone, and now with my involvement on the Conference level with a desire to produce better pastors. It seems to me that both in the life of our Annual Conference and in the life of the local church, we just expect that God will drop the right leaders on us just when and where we need them....as if God is the "leader fairy."
I believe with increasing conviction that the church needs to put itself on the anvil...allowing ourselves and those who may be called to lead to be formed by God into that role. Moses did. David did. Peter did. Paul did. These guys didn't just fall from the sky, but were molded and formed by God and the faith community to be used for the Kingdom.
So must we. We need to be investing in the lives of potentially great pastors and putting them on the anvil to shape them into that instead of putting so much time into poor and mediocre pastors who will never step up.
In the church, we need to be praying with discernment that God will show us those who can be leaders if we invest in them. And we need to be patiently placing them on the anvil of God's grace to be formed into the next generation leaders....
Am I off base?
6 comments:
AND we need to be training pastors to be leaders, not just pastoral care givers! I'm taking a leadership class this semester and I'm realizing that I need to learn to do Inductive Bible Study, I need to learn about the Old Testament, I need to learn about Systematic Theology but I also need to learn how to motivate and encourage people towards the Missio Dei...I need to learn to LEAD people, not simply manage the Status Quo. Dr. Gray said this morning "If you serve the status quo, you can't be about the business of adaptive change." I believe God is about the business of adaptive change...changing people to be more like Jesus to bring about the Kingdom of God and we have to LEAD people there. Leaders aren't born...they are made and trained and trained and made and shaped and...
I agree with you, Brett, but there are lots of "how" questions, including, "How do we dismantle a largely disfunctional connectional system (the "old boys network" and all that)?
Seminary largely does little for leadership. It's unbelievable how poorly rooted we are in classical Christian pastoral theology and practice, to say nothing of emerging generational trends in culture. How can we pressure our seminaries to do more in that area?
Sometimes I think the issue is so complex. There are so many levels to our dysfunction, yet they all relate to the same problem. We are not making disciples in the local church. Is is that we were not/are not taught leadership, yes. Is it that there are too many people who find there call in the midst of being "pastored" and feel that they only want to "pastor a church?" yes. Is it because of the systemic problems of the local church, yes
We need bold leadership in the church and in our seminaries. We need pastors who will bring people through the refining fires and place them on the anvil's of trial and error. We need leadership from our outdated good-ol-boys that will make the bold moves and stand up for the church that needs to be.
All connected. If we want to change the systems, we need to begin by leading people. I believe it is possible.
Keep hammering away!
You and Corben need to talk. We were just talking about this last night.
We truly need to evaluate how we are evaluated. Unfortunately we see often pastors comfortable leading churches in the status quo. Nothing is done to change that. Mainline Protestant churches today are experiencing a decline that continues to fall. At the Worship Connection Seminar last year in Dallas, a speaker said, "The United Methodist Church with it's current decline will cease to exist in the year 2020."
It's time for bold leadership, accountability, and for us to not be afraid to try things that go against what "we always used to do." We cannot expect the unchurched to come to us; as previously thought. As leaders, we must equip the church to go into the world.
J.S.
I do not think you are off base at all. As I have been coming through the candidacy process I realized how unhelpful the mentoring program became once DCOM certified me. Now I am a student local pastor and clumped with many other student local pastors that meet four times a year, have prayer requests, share what we are doing in ministry, a little, and that is called mentoring.
I have not found it helpful yet, but have recognized I need an actual mentor, one on one and need to meet more regularly.
I think implimenting an accountability group with a few other student local pastors would be helpful, but not all of them at once in the district, only four times a year and then call it mentoring.
I know the good old boy system in place is not easily overcome, but our choice is obvious, CHANGE or DIE!!!
I agree our leaders need to be on the anvil, but also I find the mentality that someone is a follower of Christ because they come to worship somewhere on a Saturday or Sunday disturbing.
We all need to be on the anvil, especially me.
To be formed and forming, learned and learners, to be passionate and not complacent about being a follower of Jesus.
To me you seem right on target!!!
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