Culture and Pastoral Ministry
Ernest White in an article entitled The Crisis in Christian Leadership (Review & Expositor, Vol. 83.4 Fall 1986) expresses the axiom "culture and society shape leadership after their own likeness" (p. 547). I am in the process of writing an article that explores this further, especially as it relates to pastoral leadership. Here are some of my initial ideas.
We know that as followers of Christ we are in the world but not to be of it, meaning that even though we live as human beings within culture, we live as sojourners or aliens guided by a different purpose, a different culture if you will. However, over the past 2 decades or so pastoral leadership has been greatly influenced by business and government culture, especially in relation to the models we have used to guide the way we lead in the churches we serve. The question I raise is whether we are called to "lead" in a different way as we are guided by the Gospel of the reign of God?
In some ways the kingdom or reign of God does not have a culture of its own because it takes root within cultures in order to bring all peoples within all cultures under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Yet in saying this, we also need to ask whether the kingdom or reign of God also has countercultural or othercultural aspects to it that confront each culture with the demand for metanoia (repentance). Does living under the reign of God lead us to live differently in the cultures we find ourselves in? I think so! Therefore, I also ask, does living under the reign of God lead us also to lead differently? I also think it does!
I think what we need to be exploring at the beginning of the 21st century is what the shape of our pastoral leading, our pastoral ministry is to be in light of being guided by the Gospel of the reign of God. My hunch is that we have missed the depths of what we are being called through our utter fascination and indepth exploration of leadership. The fact is most models of leadership have some aspect of "lording it over others," which Jesus cautioned us against (cf. Mark 10:42). It seems to me that we have much to learn about what how we are to engage in ministry in the churches we serve by delving deep into discovering and discerning what it means to be servants, pastoral servants -- to be fascinated with servantship, rather than leadership.
What am I not saying is that pastors are not to have influence (a definition of what it means to be a leader), rather what I am saying is that our influence is to be realized through an exploration of what it means to be servants (and not just servant leaders, because that still places the emphasis on leadership and makes servanthood a mere adjective) because the master we serve is Servant.
Perhaps then there are aspects of the kingdom or reign of God which exert cultural influence and as we are guided by the reign of God as our guiding principle/telos, then perhaps we will discover that we will begin to exercise a kind of leadership that is shaped by the culture of the kingdom, rather than the culture we are in, but not to be apart of.
Well there is much more to be explored and to be dialogued over regarding this -- but what do you think? I am interested in your responses.
We know that as followers of Christ we are in the world but not to be of it, meaning that even though we live as human beings within culture, we live as sojourners or aliens guided by a different purpose, a different culture if you will. However, over the past 2 decades or so pastoral leadership has been greatly influenced by business and government culture, especially in relation to the models we have used to guide the way we lead in the churches we serve. The question I raise is whether we are called to "lead" in a different way as we are guided by the Gospel of the reign of God?
In some ways the kingdom or reign of God does not have a culture of its own because it takes root within cultures in order to bring all peoples within all cultures under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Yet in saying this, we also need to ask whether the kingdom or reign of God also has countercultural or othercultural aspects to it that confront each culture with the demand for metanoia (repentance). Does living under the reign of God lead us to live differently in the cultures we find ourselves in? I think so! Therefore, I also ask, does living under the reign of God lead us also to lead differently? I also think it does!
I think what we need to be exploring at the beginning of the 21st century is what the shape of our pastoral leading, our pastoral ministry is to be in light of being guided by the Gospel of the reign of God. My hunch is that we have missed the depths of what we are being called through our utter fascination and indepth exploration of leadership. The fact is most models of leadership have some aspect of "lording it over others," which Jesus cautioned us against (cf. Mark 10:42). It seems to me that we have much to learn about what how we are to engage in ministry in the churches we serve by delving deep into discovering and discerning what it means to be servants, pastoral servants -- to be fascinated with servantship, rather than leadership.
What am I not saying is that pastors are not to have influence (a definition of what it means to be a leader), rather what I am saying is that our influence is to be realized through an exploration of what it means to be servants (and not just servant leaders, because that still places the emphasis on leadership and makes servanthood a mere adjective) because the master we serve is Servant.
Perhaps then there are aspects of the kingdom or reign of God which exert cultural influence and as we are guided by the reign of God as our guiding principle/telos, then perhaps we will discover that we will begin to exercise a kind of leadership that is shaped by the culture of the kingdom, rather than the culture we are in, but not to be apart of.
Well there is much more to be explored and to be dialogued over regarding this -- but what do you think? I am interested in your responses.
posted by Roland G. Kuhl at 6:45 AM
7 Comments:
I work at a seminary bookstore (as you know) - and the "Leadership/Administration" section of the Pastoral-Church Life area is stuffed with several shelves' worth of titles that all seem to say the same things over and over again. Jesus didn't give us "7 Effective Leadership Keys" or "The S.L.A.P. Method of Running Your Ministry" or any other sort of program, acronymn, power tool, or management technique.
He gave us a basin and a towel and a cross.
Perhaps one question you might consider as you craft your article is what it would take to break the Church's addiction to "Leadership" as you describe it and we've all experienced it?
My .02 worth!
P.S. - I betcha didn't know I was reading this!
That is an interesting thought and will require some dialogue to discern what it will take to break the church's addiction to leadership. It is easier to say what is wrong, to deconstruct our present understandings, but how we proceed to reconstruct understandings more in line with servantship in light of God's mission is much more difficult. I would be open to hear any of your ideas.
Good call sis except that leadership is a stewardship that is incredibly misunderstood and the greatest problem in the world today. Leadership is influence, influence is what shapes ideologies, governments, wars, finance and has the worst or greatest effect on the most amount of people. Leadership is the number one problem in missions today because the Church worldwide is growing rapidly. It is one inch deep but miles wide. Leaders emerge but are very inept in their ability. This is largely due to the lack of mentors, lack of material available, etc... and the rapid growth. I understand your frustration but at the same time the rest of the world is hungry for good leaders. The number one issue in Africa right now is not AIDS, or famine, or genocide, or lack of clean water, etc... it is corruption, the lack of good leadership, courageous leadership. The example of Jesus is the best one but volumes could be written from just that one act and to write on leadership is to flesh out what so many people are beginning to understand that God is revealing to them. I think that the subject of leadership will be one subject that will be difficult to exhaust in regards to material being published about it. Whether or not the material is any good is another issue but there isn't enough and what does exist is not getting enough distribution. I heard a statistic that 90-95% of all Christian literature is produced and consumed in North America. If i have been to harsh please let me know and I would be glad to renounce anything for the sake of virtual fellowship. I've never met you but if you are a friend of Jesus and Roland then you are a friend of mine. Blessings and take joy in the battle.
Nathan
Hey Nathan (and Roland) -
No offense taken at all. Your points about the lack of healthy leadership in the non-western world are great ones! Training in basic communication and leadership skills would certainly be a huge help in areas where the church is exploding and quickly maturing leaders are needed.
Our brothers and sisters aren't "there" in regards to a healthy use of leadership any more than we are, it seems. Education is a part of the equation, perhaps - but it isn't the whole bowl of tortillas.
Michelle,
You are right about that! The whole bowl of tortillas involves much more. I am reading a book called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and the basic summary so far is that education is good and important but without learning the practical side and encountering something else than a book and a classroom is not nearly enough to really learn. He taught them to not work for money but to have money work for you by simply making them work and then only paying them a fraction of what they were worth. When they got frustrated, he moved to paying them nothing. This gave him the opportunity to confront the reality that people work for money instead of having money work for them and of course they were a captive audience. This is leadership, influence, etc... that caused an encounter with a desire for learning a valuable lesson that I am now reading in a book. Part of me wishes that I could experience what he learned in the same way, but at least I have a book. The encounter is always better for fuller learning. One aspect of leadership is that writing books is one of the most un-original ways of doing it. Creativity requires work and writing a book, though it be difficult, is only one way, the missing link many leaders miss is personal mentorship, it used to be required because of apprenticeship learning but now because of the growing space around each individual, there is very little need to be mentored. It is going to take some spirit-filled, intentional leaders to re-connect with the young people of today if we are going to see it happen again. We need it desparately and we need it now and we need it to not be superficial - it has to be sacrificial and difficult to mean anything.
Looks like this post is getting a lot of action. My additional comments on this are in line with what mm posted -- it is the church's accommodation to a particular style/kind of leadership that creates the problem. Last year I was watching to war films -- Ike and We Were Soldiers. Both presented two powerful war leaders. In the first, Ike, played by Tom Selleck, struggled with the sacrifice of life in planning the D-Day invasion. In the second, I forget the name of the colonel, played by Mel Gibson, saw that his place was beside his men in the first American offensive in the Vietnam war. What I noticed in both instances was that these leaders drew on their faith, their spiritual roots in exercising their leadership. However, what I find is that most church leaders miss that point entirely and are drawn to how the "world" or culture does leadership, rather than turning to the model of Jesus, as both Ike and the colonel played by Gibson portrayed. What we do not realize is that we are tempted, drawn to the culture's mode of leadership, when the best leadership finds its source in the servanthood of Jesus Christ.
Good stuff Roland and MM (what is your name?) I have been thinking for a long time about themes that run through the Scriptures and one that is coming up in Scripture as well as the financial and globalization books I'm reading (Re_Imagine, The World is Flat and Rich Dad/Poor Dad) is that personal responsibility is what gives freedom to creativity and freedom to lead by example. It is the embracing of pain as part of life, it is seeing people through God's eyes, seeing opportunities for money that don't depend on someone else except for myself, it is taking ownership of my gifts and faults and mistakes and victories all with humility. This is the kind of person that stands out and is given greater and greater responsibility by Jesus. The other side is that we depend on our boss for a raise and if he doesn't give us one, then we blame our arrested development in finance on him, we expect somebody else to teach our children the Scriptures and then when they don't receive the training they need to face the world we can blame our youth pastor, when pains comes we look for a reason or excuse or somebody to blame instead of just realizing that it is part of life and then move forward. So much in lack of maturity in leadership is the expectation that somebody else has to do it for me, explain it for me, teach it to me, give it to me, and when they don't we have the convenience of blame - that all started in Eden and continues today. I believe the truest and boldest leaders are the ones who take personal responsibility for more than others and then use that posture to serve others. The wandering Israelites wanted someone to stand between them and God, because they didn't like to be that close to God, to have that much personal contact with them. First they made a golden calf, then they told Moses to go by himself before God, then they blamed Moses for bringing them out into the desert continually and then they blamed him when they got to the Promised Land for bringing them to a death trap. The two spies took on personal responsibility and explained that "they" could do what God had called them to. So in conclusion it seems that those who look to be most responsible personally with what God has given them and not depend too heavily on a leader, a politician, a wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend, a pastor, a parent, or anyone on whom they can formulate blame towards will end up being the bravest, boldest, kindest, most integrable and trustworthy servant leaders we have. How do we learn to be okay with owning our circumstances? How do we become whole-heartedly responsible for our every decision, both good and bad?
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