Pilgrim's Progress

Emerging Leadership: Necessary or Unnecessary?

I believe books have seasons. More than once a book bought in haste, or because it "looked interesting", or because it was the trendy book a while ago, comes "into season". It comes into "kairos" - to use the New Testament word - its message suddenly bursts into life for us.

As my student chaplaincy placement nears its end, one such book for me is "The Unnecessary Pastor" by Eugene Peterson. My previous post asked the question about Institutional or Incarnational leaders.

Let me do the same again with two other categories, after Peterson: The Necessary Leader and the Unnecessary Leader (Necessary \Unnecessary is used of the leader's attitude to him or herself). Again I paint the extremes to give us something to kick against - it's not either/or.

Emerging Leadership: Institutional vs. Incarnational

Something struck me about emerging leadership today - may have blogged about it before. Ah yes, here it is.

I have not really had an official leadership role on my student placement, so have felt what it is like to need to earn respect through relationship, involvement in shared activities, investing in others, participation, and so on, rather than just expecting it because I'm ordained.

In a small way, this echoed something Henri Nouwen wrote on leadership (on his move from Harvard to L'Arche community): "Not being able to use any of the skills that had proved so practical in the past was a real source of anxiety. I was suddenly faced with my naked self, open for affirmations and rejections ... all dependent on how I was perceived in the moment. In a way it seemed as though I was starting my life all over again. Relationships, connections, reputations could no longer be counted on." (In the name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, p15-16)

Father I Call On You

For anyone whose heart is longing for more, but doesn't quite know what to do with that longing ...

Masculinity & Power

The theme of masculinity keeps coming back at the moment ... what does it mean to be a man after God's heart? This is a lifelong quest, but some recurring themes:

1. Humble ourselves before God and let him elevate us when we're ready. If we don't understand this we will probably try to force our way to prominence and status.
2. Don't be afraid of true spiritual power - the godly power that comes only through continually being broken and humbled before God (modelled perfectly by Jesus). As soon as we start to wield it away from that humble & broken place, the power becomes destructive.
3. Let others clamber onto the platforms and pedestals, but we must be willing to stand there ourselves if God elevates us.
4. There is a place, indeed an urgent need, for men to live and act with boldness and courage, but it begins, once again, with daily brokenness and true humility before God.

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up when the right moment comes." (1 Peter 5:7)

"Evaporated Church"

I think we need a new term: Evaporated Church. This might help avoid calling any old gathering of Christians "church". Liquid church may be a legitimate term for new forms of church, but evaporated church is simply Christians happening to be together without any intention of being a group. In an evaporated state, particles have a looser association than in a liquid.

I thought of this as I read Hirsch & Frost's words:

"It’s tempting, in our efforts to strip back the church from the empire created by Christendom, to overdo it and end up with the belief that any old bunch of believers sitting together in the same room is a church. But the six of us sitting around that table that night, were not a church.

1. We had made no mutual commitments
2. We shared no long-term calling
3. We were completely unaccountable to one another
4. Our purpose for gathering was mainly social.

... we were doing some of the things a church might do, but our involvement was not permanent.

We don’t think a church is just any old bunch of Christians who have bumped into each other. Neither do we think that a group of Christians who gather for a specific mission purpose is necessarily a church."

Comments?

Em Church: Proclamation or Exploration

Am midway through my student work\em.church placement and find a bit of an identity crisis looming! I realised, on a moment's reflection, that it goes right the way back to early days of Pilgrim's Progress and also here.

Is there a place for proclamation (in the broadest sense) in em.church?
(Frost & Hirsch's model of em.ch would say so: Proximity, Practice the Presence, Powerlessness & Proclamation)

In mission to the contemporary spiritual seeker, must proclamation give way to exploration?

Is there a middle ground? A place for both?

Wild Places Again

Continuing recent theme of wild places (my big theme at the mo) ... a poem written at a time when the implications of "following Jesus wherever it leads and whatever it costs" were beginning to bite.

Out Here (A Solitary Traveller Speaks) written 10.05.02

I swapped my nets for questions
And traded my home for walking boots.
And now I'm out here.
Some trackless somewhere.
I think you called me, God.
But was I faithful or a fool
to come out here to find you, to follow you?
Won't you calm this moment with an answer?

I came out here too.
I traded my omniscience for an unanswered "Why?",
and universe-creating power for an infant's chubby hands.
I turned my back on golden paradise and huddled in a draughty shed,
and left unbroken fellowship for deep betrayal by a friend.
I drew the blinds on unimaginable radiance
and sank in utter blackness that I had not known …

I came out here too,
But you have no language to apprehend
The wonders I traded for your brittle frame.
You have no intellect to comprehend what I forsook,
What all-surpassingness I laid aside,
What gnawing questions swarmed around my mind,
When I came out here.

To find you.

Will Your Anchor Hold?

Went to Frost & Hirsch Emerging Church conference on Friday aware of the fuss surrounding it on certain blogs. I found it easier to connect with Mike Frost's stuff than Alan's more academic model but it was a worthwhile day.

I want to sidestep the controversy and pick up something Michael Frost said about "liminal communities" - leaving safe places and heading out to wild places in pursuit of the Holy Spirit. It chimes with some of my own spiritual journey about Wild Places.

What is the soul anchor that will keep us in course if we head away from the safety of known places in search of God, of those who are far off, of those trapped in dark places, of dangerously re-imagined forms of church, of ourselves?

Here are a few items in my "survival kit for the wild places" - it's not complete, but then how can you pack for an unknown voyage?

1. From everlasting to everlasting, God.
   
2. Whatever happens, I belong to him forever.
   
3. I keep wanting to follow him, no matter how good or bad life is.
   
4. I keep stumbling across signs that he is actively present in my own life, in other people, in his world, in his church.
   
5. A profound conviction, even on the hardest days, that "there is more".

What's in your survival kit?

Things that Get To Me #1

1. People being robbed of the chance to live the life God created them for e.g. the child soldier, the bond slave, the child born in poverty, kids who are abused or exploited in any way.

But being bothered isn't enough for me any more - I'm sensing the uncomfortable calling to do something. No-one was ever set free by concern or sympathy, only by their prayer and their action.

I've done a few posts about what I'm intending to do ... I hope before too long there can be one about what I am doing!

(How's this for a start ... Liverpool City Council is making cash donations to Save the Children for every ton of rubbish returned for recycling! They now have an excellent neighbourhood collection scheme. Signs of God or what? I know someone's going to come with a cynical political explanation but I think it's God at work in his world.)

Dry Spell

Blog in a bit of a dry spell at the moment - my energies are directed elsewhere I think:

- quite a bit of alternative worship involvement (more Lord!)
- student chaplaincy placement (having a great time)
- a lot of art stuff for the above
- relationship building (!)

I'm having a lot of discussions about emerging church, changes in culture, critically assessing the state of things and seeking ways forward.

If I'm really honest, at the moment it seems much easier to invest in face to face conversations and interactions rather than posting stuff into the ether ... it'll come round I'm sure!

If you're reading this the chances are I've visited your blog recently and am enjoying the stimulation of your thoughts, reflections and ideas. Watch this space ...