Center for Pastoral Ministry

What Willow Creek's REVEAL reveals

2007-11-26T18:51:00.000-06:00

A lot of blogging is going on around Willow Creek's discovery about itself through a survey it has conducted around "how successful they are in accomplishing their purpose of making fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ." Bill Hybels indicated that the results were disturbing as they discovered that after 30 years they were doing something fundamentally wrong.

However, they have come up with a plan to respond to a whole new set of "needs" of those who self-identify themselves as "fully devoted followers" which focuses on believers to become "self-feeders" earlier on in their spiritual journey. Hybels and the staff at Willow are talking about having "personal trainers" to coach people to custom design ways in which people can mature spiritually.

I wonder how long it is going to be before Willow realizes that perpetuating an individualized, need-focused, consumer-driven spirituality is just another facet of the "seeker-driven" model which sees spirituality as a need to be met? Spirituality is not just another commodity, rather it is being in a Spirit-led relationship with Jesus Christ within a Spirit-led community that permeates every aspect of our lives and demonstrates what it is to be human under the rule of God. It has more to do with developing the spiritual sensitivities of discerning -- seeing and hearing where God is active in the world, and being an obedient people participating with God in God's redemptive mission of reconciling human beings to himself and recreating the earth. This involves a process rather than the working of another plan.

A Fundamental Question for Shaping Our Leadership Imagination

2007-11-26T12:02:00.000-06:00

For me a fundamental question shaping the way, I think, we ought to think about pastoral leadership is:

"What is God doing in our world and how can we lead a people to be formed by what God is doing? How can we lead a people to see what God is doing, to hear what God is saying, and to courageously respond to participating with God in God's redemptive mission?"

To be pastoral leaders who shape communities to be spiritual in this way I believe is a fundamental question for shaping our leadership imaginations. This is to understand that it is not about our agendas in leading the people we have been entrusted to us, nor about offering religious services for the spiritual consumer, rather it is about guiding a community to demonstrate in the world what it means to be a people who live out their lives under the rule of God.

Making Space for the Gospel in the World

2007-09-24T16:13:00.001-05:00

Recently I came across an article by Todd Hiestand entitled, The Gospel and the God-Forsaken, which gives focus to the challenge of being missional in the suburbs. He raises a unique distinction for understanding what differentiates missional churches from churches operating within the Christendom paradigm.

It is a distinction between being sent and those that go. Basically, churches that have a mindset of “going” see themselves as separate from the world and in order to share the Gospel they make forays into the world to “do mission” and then retreat “back to the safety of separation” (Hiestand, http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=385). Many of us live out our Christian faith in this way. We interpret Jesus’ command in Matthew 28: 18) of go into the world as making disciples as a command to set everything aside and go, with the result that we charge into the world, only to retreat once again to be refreshed. This cycle of going and retreating keeps us from being not only “of the world,” but it also keeps us from “being in the world” as well.

In many ways this represents a monastic paradigm in which we separate ourselves from the world; even in our reaching out we exude a separateness. And so we wonder why we struggle with making space for the Gospel in the world.

In taking note of how Jesus became one of us and engaged the culture, we see that an incarnational approach calls for us to be in the world. Just as Jesus was sent by the Father to be in the world carrying out God’s redemptive mission, so too we as Christ’s community in the world, called to continue in the ministry of Christ, we are a community that is sent into the world, rather than a community that goes into the world. The difference is staggering.

The realization that we are sent is the realization that we have been placed in the world in order to make space for the Gospel. By the way we live, relate to one another, carry out our business, we are sign, foretaste, and demonstration of the presence of God’s rule in the world. As a sent community in the world, we live out an alternate reality to the way the world is used to living.

What might this look like? I propose that we are called to walk among our neighbors – those God has placed us beside in our contexts – to walk with them, alongside of them, supporting and encouraging them in their growth and development as human beings by engaging them in the way Jesus would. We engage our neighbors with the realization that it is not our efforts that make space for the Gospel, but as we are open to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who sends us as persons and communities to engage our world. We are sent to love the people who we are with in the world as Christ loves them, to seek their well-being, to offer ourselves, as imperfect as we are, to be of use to God so that they might be made whole.

In an attitude of sentness, we make space for the Gospel in the lives of our neighbors, as we make space for them in our lives. As we make room for others in our lives, we do not come to them with our agendas, but we are open to the agenda that God has for us in coming alongside of them in our encounter. As we make room for others in our lives – our lives in being open and yielded to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit has opportunity to touch the lives of our neighbors and draw them to himself. In an attitude of sentness we remain in the world and the Spirit is present in our relationships making space for the Gospel. It is when we go and retreat that we are more apt to grieve the Spirit and create barriers for our neighbors to experience the reality of the Gospel in Jesus Christ.

Being Led by the Spirit

2007-09-03T07:42:00.000-05:00

Many of us view the ministry we are involved in as a response to the call of God upon our lives. It is a call that was not shaped by us, but God prompting us in ways - through circumstances, through an inner compulsion, or even a sensing of God speaking with clarity to us - that made clear to us that our lives were to be devoted to God's mission in the world.

Yet, somewhere along the way we get comfortable with our calling and we begin to control and shape the way we enact our calling. We may still feel we are led by the Spirit, but much of our leading is now also under our own direction.

I am discovering - through re-reading of the birth narratives of Jesus - that being led by the Spirit is something that is very uncomfortable, very much outside the boundaries of our control. Though the Spirit comforts us, the leading of the Spirit is very uncomfortable - and I guess that is the way I would rather have it. You see, when I start shaping my own destiny, I seem to go off in directions that have more to do with me, rather than participating in what God is up to in the world.

Both Mary and Joseph in hearing the news that the child developing in Mary was of the Spirit made both Mary and Joseph very uncomfortable - they had no context for which to gain understanding (many of us who called ourselves learned, still have no context for what they came to accept.) What the Spirit of God expressed to them was indeed uncomfortable, though as they were comforted by the Spirit their hearts leaped with joy - being in wonderment about what God was doing to bring about the salvation of his human creation.

And so I ask myself - do I want to live into my calling in ways that are comfortable to me? Or do I want to discover what God intends for the calling God has placed upon my life by daring to heed the Spirit, no matter how uncomfortable it is for me? I am beginning to discover the courage to engage in the latter. It is the Spirit of God, who comforts me (cf. John 14) as the Spirit leads me - because without the Spirit I would be unable to go beyond my comfort zones. As the Spirit takes me into different kind of ministry contexts, I am unsure why I am even there - but in yielding to the Spirit, I begin to see and hear what God is doing in the world to which I am being invited to participate. And to think that I would be oblivious to all this if I remained in ministry bounded by what I am able to control and be comfortable in.

Being led by the Spirit is perhaps the most uncomfortable thing in my life - but I am re-discovering this to be the way I desire to live out my life and ministry.

Church: Communities of People Surfacing to do Gospel in the World

2007-08-02T09:33:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I participated in a convocation sponsored by the Center for Parish Development. The theme of the weekend focused on "Led by the Spirit, Learning to be Church" and the presenter was Thomas R. Hawkins. The next few blogs will highlight some of the learnings I gained from this time together.

One of the sentences that took hold of my imagination was -- "pockets of people surfacing to do Gospel in the world." This grew out of the conversation we were having as a group on "Fellowship." Fellowship is more than hanging out together, chatting, drinking coffee and having a good time together -- though it involves those things, it is actually a partnership with one another as we partner together in Christ Jesus and through him we partner together with God in God's mission -- the enacting of the Gospel of the kingdom or reign of God.

As the community of Christ in the world we find that we are actually communities -- we exist in all kinds of geographic places, all kinds of ethnic contexts, urban, rural, rurban, suburban, etc, in all kinds of socioeconomic settings -- though we are one community (we are one in Christ), we live and have our being in every imaginable setting.

So what is our identity in these settings? How are we salt and light in these settings?

The image that is a helpful one for me is seeing ourselves as "pockets of people (or pockets of communities) surfacing to do Gospel in the world."

We are groupings of people, gathered communities, who live not for ourselves, but to actively reveal the present activity of God in the world -- as we consciously participate with God in fulfilling God's redemptive purpose in the world. And as we live in such a way, we pepper the neighborhoods, towns and cities we are in with visible and concrete actions of the Gospel -- we become communities of people who live out life in places where love, peace, and joy have been shoved into a corner. As "pockets of people" we surface in all kinds of ways -- through relational encounters -- in which we bring the realities of Gospel, the presence of Christ and the Spirit into every situation.

And as a result -- we bring light and life -- not as a program -- but just through our living -- so that others can enter into life as well.

Journeying Can Be Scary At Times

2007-04-24T11:16:00.000-05:00

Recently, I turned down a ministry opportunity that I had been hoping would shape the next phase of my life and ministry. It has been a process that has taken almost one year -- and to come to the realization that this would not be a moving forward for me, but a stepping back made this decision all the harder. It was a position that offered a modicum of financial security, but one thing I have come to realize in the past year is that life is not about financial security. Sometimes I hate being a "dreamer" -- and this year has been a year of dreaming what life yielded completely into the hands of God can be.

I admit it is scary at times -- this place of trusting God for my future. I don't understand it at times, and so I am sure others do not understand this at all. I don't have clarity about what my future looks like, no more 3, 5, 10 year plan, but there is also a peace. It is a peace that comes from sensing that I am in am journey in which God is leading me, a way of being in which I, as best I can, am following after Jesus Christ. I find that it is God's peace that encourages me to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and to be open to participate with the ongoing redemptive mission of God in the world through the opportunities he is presently opening to me. And so, I continue to develop my eyes to see where God is working and ears to hear what God is saying so that I can somehow participate in what God is doing -- I am open to that.

Last week I came across a poem I wrote in February 2006 which expressed the reason for my embarking on this adventure of leaving one position and taking a "sabbatical" to explore a new direction for life and ministry. Here it is:

Life!

Full of passion, full of purpose

Embracing, involving all that I am

Focused, directed, seeking

Everything that I have been called to be.

Can life be lived within a box?

A quart of soil to bed my roots?

Windowless walls to set my gaze?

Folded flaps to hide the stars?

Can lilies of the field flourish in garden plots?

Can sparrows be held in fenced in yards?

Roots matted, tangled in potted soil

Seek soil that enables limitless reach

Life, hindered, constrained, boxed in

Seeks horizons that are beyond the sun

Life

That I am created, called to live

Seeks first the horizonless, limitless

Reign of God.

by Roland G. Kuhl

Walking into the Unknown

2007-03-22T09:55:00.000-05:00

This past year has been one filled with differing thoughts and emotions as I ventured out in faith from my position at Northern Seminary. Throughout this whole time I know it has been the right decision for me for this phase of my life -- there are many names that people give to such a journey such as moving from success to significance, rediscovering oneself at the midpoint of one's life, even mid-life crisis. This journey is one of discovery, but also one that ventures out embracing fear of the unknown -- not so much in where God is leading, but in wondering if I am hearing clearly enough and whether I have the courage to follow.

There are times when I sense that I am trusting God in the journey and I know beyond a doubt that the direction of my life and the meeting of the needs of my family is fully in God's hands -- and I am at peace. At other times I am filled with questions, with doubt, wondering am I discerning the direction clearly, am I being irresponsible in regard to caring for my family, especially as it relates to financial concerns.

No matter what kind of day I find that I am strengthened when I refocus on on seeking first God's kingdom, realizing that there is no other place for me to be (Matthew 6:33). When I am overwhelmed with doubt, it is refocusing on God and God's leading -- remembering the signposts in my life where God has clearly indicated that I am following in the way he is leading -- that I rediscover the peace that is beyond all understanding.

Life and ministry are meant to be an adventure and as long as I walk with God, with Jesus Christ, with an openness to the Spirit, my walking, though unknown to me as to where I am headed, is not unknown to God.

I encourage all of us as followers of Jesus Christ to discover the peace of not taking control of our own destinies, but to rely on walking with Christ, even if it is through the "valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23).

Peace,
Roland

Being a Servant Community

2006-12-01T15:39:00.000-06:00

This past week I was up in Vancouver Canada interviewing for a position and they had asked me to make a presentation on the following topic: The Future of the Missional Church: Its Potentials in the Multicultural Setting of Canada. One of the things I stated was that the church, either in Canada or the United States, has no future unless it becomes missional.

I really believe that. Though there is a lot to be reflected upon, I offered two implications for the church in Canada -- one was the necessity for the church to be a servant community in culture. We recognize that as church we have become marginalized in the present postmodern culture and no longer have a place of privilege wherein we can speak in such a way that the culture will listen. As with leadership, even though we know we are called to be servants, we still want to maintain some control, so to the church, even though it is marginalized, we still want to be regarded as somehow relevant in society.

That isn't going happen -- at least not in the way we think. I think the only calling that makes sense for us as the sent Christian community is for us to be servant community. This has two aspects to it. One, we serve the world by demonstrating what life is like under the reign of God in order to display another narrative amongst all other narratives in order to enable the narratives of other cultures to see themselves truthfully. Hauerwas stated something like this in talking about how the church is called to serve the world. It is as the church lives out its Story as the sent community, participating with God in the fulfilling of God's mission, that a different Story is revealed that stands in contrast to all other stories. This contrasting Story acts as a mirror to help cultures see the limitations within their stories for being whole communities.

Actually that is the result of our serving. As we enter into dialogue with other cultures, other people, as we live amongst them incarnationally, living in relation to them in the rhythm of our Story, we serve them as our neighbor, loving them, caring for them, encouraging them, being Christ in their midst -- in this way our servanthood actions reveal not only our love for them, but what is also revealed is our Story.

However, we serve in another way as well. Here I am indebted to Ray Anderson. Our service is not primarily to the world, but to God, whose mission is enacted in the world to draw all humanity into a reconciled relationship with God. As we serve God, we place ourselves at God's disposal as a community for God to use us in any way God sees fit to draw humanity, cultures unto himself. We exercise our servanthood by discerning the particular engagements God is calling us to -- to which we respond in engaging people, cultures in these ways -- no matter how far out of our comfort zones these actions are. We do this because we serve the Father and the Father's mission of reconciling the world to himself through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, rather than trying to make something of ourselves as communities of Christ in the world, we are called to be servant communities, just as Jesus came to serve.

Doing Life in an Attitude of Servantship

2006-11-02T16:38:00.000-06:00

Servantship. It is an idea I have been trying to get into. The reason for this is that so much of what has shaped our pastoral imagination is a style of leading that is more influenced by culture than by Scripture. We all know Jesus talked about servantship, he even modeled it, but we opt for leadership instead of servantship. In fact, we try to have it both ways -- we want to lead, but we ought to be servants at it, so we talk about servant leadership. The problem with this is that leadership is still the primary focus and servant is merely an adjective to describe our leadership.

However, what Jesus demonstrated was not servant leadership, but rather just servantship. So why is it so hard for us as pastors to get our lives around this? Could it be down deep we really want to lead, to shape things in ways which have our mark on them? Our attitudes it seems are more shaped by leadership than servantship.

As pastors we have made leadership the primary gift -- and so have the churches we serve. But where leadership is listed in Romans 12: 6-8, it is listed as the sixth gift out of seven. Though it is a vital gift in the life of the church, and if we give any credence to priority of listing, it does not seem to be as primary as we have made it to be.

Rather, if we give heed to Jesus, we soon discover that we are to exhibit an attitude of servantship in all that we do. We are not to lead lording it over others, but if we do lead, or serve, or show mercy, or give generously, we are to do it in an attitude of servantship. Our life and ministry is to exude servantship -- that is our primary calling which Jesus exemplified when he washed his disciples' feet (see John 13).

My hunch is this: If we take the time to understand what servantship entails, we will come to a deeper understanding of what we are being called to in the life and ministry of the church, than by reading all the books on leadership. By our preoccupation on leadership, we have neglected that which we are called to in the world: servantship.

Perhaps it is time we put the same energy into exploring servantship as we have leadership over the past 25 years.

I know I am a bit preachy today, but I am getting tired of our continually focusing on and giving primacy to what is so opposite to what Jesus calls us to.

Sabbatical Learnings -- 2 -- Dependency

2006-10-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

This summer began with me learning some things about relying upon the sufficiency of God. Just this week however, I came face to face with reflecting upon the things I really depend upon to live out my life. Presently, I am an adjunct faculty member at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School teaching a course on campus and at the Madison Extension site. This week my computer crashed again. I bought a new one and it crashed too (have discovered it was an internet cable problem).

Well I went into class at Trinity again this week without my notes or my powerpoint for leading the class session. As I reflect upon this, I am realizing that I am dependent upon a lot of things that "hold" my life together. Just to name one: All my teaching notes from over the years are all in computers, disks, etc. Though I have hardcopies of all these that I keep in files (what I used when I was teaching those courses, etc), where I keep all my creative stuff, what I'm writing etc. is all in my computers. When I was on staff at Trinity or Northern, my stuff was all backed up on the school's servers -- but I don't have access to such servers now, except as I keep them backed up on my email accounts.

But this dependency on these things to "hold" my life together, I am discovering, stifles me. It keeps me from stepping out, it keeps me from engaging fully the adventure of life in the presence and power of the Spirit. Now I am not sure how "noteless" or "technology-free" I am willing to go, but I am trying to begin to realize that trusting in these things to "hold" my life together is only going to frustrate me.

Stuff happens in life where the things that "hold" me together crash -- and then what am I to do? Might it not be better for me to hang onto these things much more loosely and become much more dependent upon the One who is before all things and holds all things together (Col. 1: 17). So not only is Jesus Christ the sufficient one, he is also the one on whom I am to completely depend -- because it is in him that all things hold together.

There is a lesson in here for pastoral ministry. We try to orchestrate the way ministry occurs that we are in danger of orchestrating the Spirit of God out of what we do. We become dependent upon our abilities, our charisma, our passion, and/or the energy of others. You know all these things are going to "crash" at some point -- maybe even at a point when we are critically relying on them. What if we began each day -- reconfessing our complete dependency on Christ and the Spirit -- maybe the other stuff of life we will be able to hold onto loosely, so that we are free to live life and minister in ways in which the Spirit leads us. I can still learn to live life when the things I "hold" onto become undependable, in fact it can become downright adventurous, but I know that life is not able to be lived if I am not fully dependent upon the One who holds all things together.

Sabbatical Learnings -- 1 -- Is God Sufficient?

2006-10-04T07:48:00.000-05:00

This summer has brought me into a different place. I have a different attitude about God's sufficiency in my life. I started this summer out, having left Northern, with about 9 months saved in order to be able to navigate my transition from Northern to something else. It is interesting when you step out saying you trust God, God brings us into situations in which we discover how much we really do trust God.

Well besides being involved in the things I had been planning to be involved in this summer -- 10 days with the folks of the Center for Parish Development in July/August, and 10 days in the Boundary Water Canoe Area with Outward Bound in August, there were numerous incidents which were unanticipated -- my daughter's car being totaled, computer and printer crashing, stove breaking down, and a host of other unexpected expenses.

I woke up one morning shaking, wondering how I am going to handle all this -- in two months had spent about 4 months worth and an income-producing teaching opportunity was cancelled. As I was struggling with this, I mentioned to God that I don't think I can handle this -- to which a clear response came -- who said you were to handle this? Who is the sufficient one here? Who is the one who holds all things together? Well I realized its God and not me. But do I trust God to be the sufficient one - the one who is able to take my family and I through this time? I wasn't so sure. So I confessed my lack of trust and asked for the courage to trust God in this. Well God responded. God filled me with a peace in which I can state without any hint of reservation, that finances is something I just do not worry about anymore. Not to say that money is rolling in -- its not -- but what I am saying its not mine to worry about. In fact when I received a check for some other teaching I did in September, I saw it not as earnings but a gift. I know there is no way I would be able to create such an attitude shift in my life -- this new attitude is a gift as well. In fact, for the first time in my life -- I truly am not worrying/concerned about where what we need to live is coming from. Its just not mine to be concerned about.

Lessons for pastoral ministry in this -- is that its not only finances, but ministry as well. Too often I found myself "creating" ministry, that ministry was up to me. But the same lesson applies -- who is creating the opportunities for ministry, who is setting the vision for ministry. In not worrying about this, I am discovering that God indeed does open the doors/opportunities for ministry -- do I have the ears and eyes to hear and see the opportunity. It is reshaping the whole way I am looking at life, ministry, finances, etc.

Roland

Update Forthcoming

2006-09-27T20:58:00.000-05:00

I see its been quite a while since my last post and its time I got back into a regular rhythm of sharing some thoughts since I left Northern Seminary at the end of June and began a "sabbatical" year to discern the next phase that God has in store for me for life and ministry.

Since June, it has been a quite eventful ride in which I have gained numerous insights about myself, as well as developing a greater sensitivity to hearing and seeing what God is saying and doing in and around my life. I think what I will be sharing in some more regular updates are some of my "Sabbatical Learnings."

In the meantime, like now, I have been active exploring a number of doors that the Lord has opened up and have not yet had to say make decisions which begin to close some of them -- however it seems I will be coming to some crossroads in the near future involving moving in one direction or another -- exploring positions in academic settings, or exploring opportunities in other areas of missionally-focused ministry. I'll have to keep you updated on that as well.

For the time being I am teaching adjunctly at both Trinity and Northern, exploring the development of a missional community in central Lake County, consulting with the Center for Parish Development, and exploring other opportunities such as a partnership with Outward Bound in relation to clergy renewal within wilderness settings, developing what a group of us have called "Catalyst" for helping shape a new generation of young people in a missional world view, as well as doing some writing and meeting with various people in mentor-type relationships. In some ways things are much busier, but also I am very much more at peace than I was a few months ago.

So watch this blog for some future updates -- I am hoping much more regularly. Thanks for being patient with me.

Roland

Goals and Goal Setting

2006-05-16T06:56:00.000-05:00

The more I think about our predilection towards goal setting, the more I think we miss the point about how we respond to God's invitation to participate with God in God's mission. By this I do not mean that we become directionless, because we need to be guided, directed by God's telos in all that we do and are (this is different from purpose-driven).

It seems that goal setting, no matter how prayerful we are about it, is about our setting some point in the future to which we will walk to, work towards, strive towards so that we can measure the success of our activity when we reach or do not reach the particular goal. In a real way, we not only set the goal, but then set the course, the means, etc by which to reach that goal. And this to my thinking opens us up to taking charge of our lives, rather than discovering what it means to live directed by the Spirit day to day.

What if we approached the days of our lives more strategically (not strategic planning --that is the same as goal setting, but engaging life strategically, thinking strategically). By this I mean as we start our days we ask the Spirit of God to direct our days in light of God's telos, God's mission. Yes, we have our appointments and plans for the day, time with the kids, time with our spouses, sermons and bible studies to prepare for -- but these are our rhythms of where God has placed us. Yet, in those rhythms we seek to be guided not by the goals we set, but that which God desires to do in the world using us. This opens us up not just to see what we seek (our goals) but to be open to what God is saying and doing, which we are called to participate together with God in enacting. Our days then become less goal or purpose oriented (if our purposes are what we purpose), and more God-telos oriented. In this way we develop our abilities to have ears that hear and eyes that see more clearly what God is doing and to what God is calling us to. Our day is less filled with interruptions, and filled more with seeing the wonder of God unfold before us and involving us.

What is behind all this is the numerous development processes I have been a part of over the years, such as Faculty Action Plans, etc which call for goal setting, etc. These things stick you in a certain direction (unless you keep changing the goals to match where God is leading -- which makes then these goal setting exercises "busy work" just so you can have successful evaluations), directions which may if strictly followed, possibly grieve the Spirit in relation to the direction God desires to lead you in.

Goal setting also makes us lazy -- once a goal is set we do not necessarily yield ourselves everyday to the leading of the Spirit, because we know what we are going to do.

Now this is not to say we go around doing what we feel like. No, it is rather to say that our telos, our "goals" if you will are not directed by us, but instead life in the Spirit is filled with direction and purpose and accomplishment if we are sensitive to that which the Spirit leads us in. Goal setting sometimes seems far easier to do than being sensitive to the Spirit -- it places us in control.

Your response?

The Right Place for Leadership in Pastoring

2006-04-22T07:51:00.000-05:00

Perhaps our churches have become so influenced by culture that the number one gift for pastoring is regarded as leadership. Yes, pastors besides coming alongside and walking with, also have the role of presiding over (as John Lynch points out in response to the previous post), but in conversations I am always being corrected for not pointing out "leadership" functions of the pastoral office -- but when talking about leadership, hardly anyone corrects to point out the shepherding or servantship functions of the pastoral office.

The reason I find this unique is not that there are leadership functions in pastoral ministry, but rather than we are more concerned with leading than we are with shepherding or serving. Years ago, Walt Wright and Jack Balswick in a article on leadership noted that the leadership gift in Romans 12 in the fifth or sixth one listed -- rather than the first. However, in our culture and in our churches, we have more or less made it the primary gift for exercising our call in the life of the church. There may be many reasons for why we have made it primary, but one reason its become primary (and remains primary) is that we still have not taken to heart fully what Jesus meant when he declared in Mark 10: 42-43 "not to lord it over others." We hear this word of Jesus and even want to follow it, but we just can't bring ourselves to the point of giving up "not lording it over others" just a bit, just a little, so that things will work out in our churches, in ministry the way we want them to.

So yes, there may be a presiding over, being in front, but not in the way we think. In leadership involving these kind of things it needs to grow out of a servantship framework and not a "lording it over" paradigm.

So rather, than always trying to make a place of leadership, lets begin to discover what we are really called to when Jesus takes "lording it over others" off the table as a viable way of thinking for us. Let's focus on rediscovering the depths of servantship, rediscovering what it is to shepherd, let's give attention to the processes of discernment and gaining wisdom -- let's focus on relationships and releasing people to mature in the way God names them, calls them, rather than making them mere resources for ministry tasks.

As pastors we are called to walk with people, to help them attend to God -- to have ears to hear what God is saying in the world, their world, to have eyes to see what God is doing -- to encourage them (to have the courage) to participate in God's mission here on earth. I know there is a need to hold leadership issues in tension, but I have come to the place in my understanding and my journey, that I would rather err on the side of viewing what I am called to from the perspective of serving and shepherding, rather than from the side of exercising leadership in the way it has been expressed (and is still being expressed) for over the past 20 - 25 years.

Interested in your thoughts!

Helping Others to Have Eyes to See

2006-04-05T07:13:00.000-05:00

I like what Eugene Peterson has to say about the pastoral role. The pastor is a sinner amongst sinners in a community looking to live life in the way of Jesus in this world. The pastor in this community is no greater than others within this community, but the pastor does have a unique role. Peterson talks about pastors having the responsibility of walking alongside with others in order to help them attend to God in the midst of life. This attending happens through engagement with Scripture, participation in prayer, and also through spiritual direction (see Peterson's book, Working the Angles, where he expands on this).

For me a key aspect of this pastoral role of walking with people in order to help them attend to God is helping others to have eyes to see. If you think of it, Jesus' ministry on earth was not his own. In John's Gospel on numerous occasions we see Jesus stating that his ministry is not his own, but that of his Father -- I do what I see my Father doing, or I say what I hear my Father saying (see: John 5:19, 7:16-17 etc.) Jesus had eyes to see what his Father was doing and ears to hear what his Father was saying and his ministry was one of participation in God's activity, God's mission (missio Dei). Jesus also expressed in the telling of parables, "Whoever has ears, let them hear" (Matthew 13:9).

What better ministry could there be but to help people have ears to hear what God is saying in the midst of everyday life and to see what God is doing in the world, in their community, in their family, in themselves. And then it is in this hearing and seeing, that pastors encourage those they are walking alongside with in order to have the courage to participate in what God is doing and to speak what they hear God speaking.

I remember when I was a new Christian and I was giving the responsibility of leading bible study in my youth group, I would often hear some message or exposition of Scripture by a Christian teacher I respected and I respoke what I had heard them express. Likewise for us, what joy do we encounter in ministry when we help the communities we have been called to serve, not only for them to hear God and see God's actions, but to speak into the lives of others what they are hearing and participating with God in bringing about human and creation wholeness through reconciliation with God the Father through Jesus Christ.

As pastors we are called not for people to see our visions and agendas, but to help people, guide people develop a greater sensitivity to hear God and clearer eyesight to see the activity of God, and to encourage them to live their lives in participation with God in God's mission. In this way the people we are called to serve become and are salt and light in the world.

The Adventure of Pastoral Ministry?

2006-03-23T16:52:00.000-06:00

Ought pastoral ministry to be one of the greatest adventures? Think of it. We are called to shepherd a congregation to participate with what God is doing in the world. We are called to help people attend to God so that their whole lives will be shaped by living under God's reign, praying and living out "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." We are called to walk along side with others in their journeys encouraging them to be open to the Spirit of God's reconciling, transforming work in their lives. We are called to live in such a way that our speech, our actions, our prayers continually reveal that "Christ is before all things and in him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17) and that God is reconciling all humanity to himself and restoring all creation. Is there any greater adventure?

Someone remarked that adventure is anything that quickens our pulse. Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies of our time is that we as pastors are complicit with living our our ministry in ways which makes it one of the most staid professions around. I'm not saying that we need to go around gladhanding and smiling like used car salespersons, but we need to take seriously that we are involved in an adventure.

Any engagement in adventure involves being prepared, ready for unforeseen circumstances, taking risk, keeping our mind and wits about us, keeping our whole being focused on what we are seeking to accomplish. What makes adventure different from business is that though both adventure and business has some sort of telos in mind, adventure has the real risk of loss of life -- falling off the face of a cliff, sucked under by raging rapids. Though we make every preparation not to lose our life, the risk is there -- and that is what makes it adventure.

How are we willing to risk our lives in pastoral ministry? I confess that too often I have settled for comfort in ministry, when in fact we have been called to adventure -- and to lead others in this adventure as well. "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:34-35).

Reframing the Preaching Task

2006-03-11T09:12:00.000-06:00

One of the last solo activities in pastoral ministry is preaching. Pastors are expected, by themselves and by congregations, to spend a significant amount of time in the study to do the necessary exegesis, to hear what God wants to say. Some suggest that pastors spend about 20-25 hours per week in the study.

But if we are a part of the Body of Christ, should preaching in its preparation and its execution be a communal activity, rather than the solitary activity we have made it out to be. Now we all know that the best preaching preparation cannot just happen in the solitude of the study -- a pastor who prepares and preaches well must be actively and intentionally pastorally engaged in the life of the community-- otherwise their preaching is devoid of incarnational relevance.

However, I am suggesting there is another kind of reframing that needs to take place in the preaching event for pastors at the beginning of the 21st century. It is somewhat arrogant of us as pastors, even with all our training in biblical and theological scholarship, that we think that we can hear what God wants to say to the congregations we serve by ourselves. We know we cannot do all the ministry alone, so why do we think we can discern, hear what God wants to communicate through his Word to us alone.

I think as pastors we need to explore doing our sermon preparation with Sermon Preparation Groups (SPG). These groups would be made up of key representative people within our churches who come together weekly, to reflect together on the passage of Scripture to be preached, in order for there to be a communal, rather than a solitary, discerning of what God is saying to the community of faith. Afterall, theologically we are the body of Christ, and it takes the whole body to hear the breadth, heighth, depth, and expanse of what God is saying to us. As pastors we are only one set of ears, but an SPG brings a more comprehensive set of ears to hear what God is saying to the community which we are serving as pastors.

Now, this takes time. It takes a very different rhythm for sermon preparation. Sermons will need to be worked on 3-4 weeks out, rather than the same week in which we are going to preach. It requires a humility to recognize that God speaks through the entire congregation and not just through one or a few persons. The role of the preaching pastor in all this is to hear what God is saying as the SPG attends together to Scripture, and then gives shape to it and articulates to the congregation -- "this is what we are hearing God saying to us this morning."

By having mutlitple ears to hear what Jesus is saying to us as a community, preaching moves away from a performance of God's Word, to a word which is spoken into the hearts of a congregation that has the power to transform -- because it will be a word which is already connecting with what is going on in the life of the congregation -- even if it is a prophetic word.

This kind of preaching has already been digging around in the soil of the congregation and so speaks much more directly, pastorally, and incarnationally into the life of the community.

There is much more to unpack regarding this, and it would be good to hear from all of you reading this post. In some other post I will explore how preaching might be proclaimed communally, in more than one voice.

An Additional Thought on Culture and Pastoral Ministry

2006-02-25T06:54:00.000-06:00

I had some time to reflect on my last post and so I want to add another thought regarding culture. I want to be careful to state that it is vital not to diminish the importance of understanding culture. It is necessary for us to understand culture and to connect with culture, but our relevance, or what sets our direction, or steers our engagement in culture cannot be culture. Culture does not set the agenda for our engagement, rather the reign of God does, however, culture is the context in which our engagement happens -- and so we need to understand it and take heed of it. As followers of Christ, submitted to living out our life in the way of Jesus, we live in our culture, whatever culture that may be, by the agenda set by missio Dei, by the agenda of the reign of God (see Matthew 5-7 for this agenda). We are called to live out, to demonstrate the reality of God's reign in the context of culture.

This is all to say that the way we lead as pastors is not to be driven by the agenda of the culture, rather we are called to lead, or better still -- to serve -- the purposes of God in the context of the cultures we find ourselves in. For this reason culture is important to understand. It is the context in which we are called to serve as pastoral servants.

Culture and Pastoral Ministry

2006-02-23T06:45:00.000-06:00

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.

Insights on Pastoral Ministry from Two Encounters

2006-02-11T06:47:00.000-06:00

I do not make enough of encounters -- at least I do not write out my reflections on encounters enough. Sometimes I find it easier to just have thoughts and reflections and I am finding that it takes discipline to voice those thoughts either verbally or in written form. It seems that at times my attempting to articulate these thoughts through voice or in writing gets in the way of what I want to express. Need to reflect more on this later.

Getting back to my two encounters. I had two encounters this week that shed some light on the nature of pastoral ministry. One was with John Hayes of InnerCHANGE (www.innerchange.org)who has a unique way of revealing what is to be seen in Scripture. He sees Scripture from the perspective of the Story that God is telling us. Often when we read Scripture we look for the historical drama unfolding before us, the words spoken, the actions displayed -- and we get caught up in the event and try to make some sense of it for our life and living. However, there is another way to see Scripture as well. It involves seeing it as God telling a Story to us, His Story. And in telling his Story to us it is more than what the content of the Story is about, there is much to be learned in the hearing by how the Story is being told -- how the Story is structured.

So for example, John Hayes told the story of the 4 friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed in Mark 2. John Hayes opened my eyes to a whole new dimension of what is shared in this story, by seeing the way this Story is told by God to us -- almost allegorical, but not really. In hearing this Story being told we see things we normally do not see when we only take notice of the story's content and not its structure. Of significance is to note that when the 4 friends brought this paralyzed man to where Jesus was -- it was crowded. They could have said to themselves, "Well we did our part, we brought our friend to be healed, but there is a crowd here -- we tried our best." This reveals perhaps our attitudes in ministry -- trying our best but stopping short of engaging in what we know we need to do because of the barriers that always confront us. What is healing about this story -- at least the way God tells it -- is that barriers will always be there, but are we willing to climb to the roof and rip a hole in it to get those who need to be touched by Jesus in front of him. Powerful stuff.

The second encounter was hearing Linford Detweiler of "Over the Rhine" perform. A poet who has deep insights into life -- his own and ours. He read us some of his poetry, some to music and some without music. He shared insights in ways that drew you into the way he sees life.

In both of these encounters I see something that I think is to be descriptive of pastoral ministry. It involves "seeing the Story of God being told all around us." It involves "hearing the activity of God that is going on all the time." No mix up of words there -- seeing of Story and hearing of activity -- is what I meant to say. Something of what pastors are to be is being poets. As we live and serve amongst our people we are called to discern God Story amongst us, God's actions amongst us -- and we begin to give voice to these discernings. We begin to retell the Story of God with us, we give voice to the ongoing continuing unfolding drama of God in Jesus among us and around us. The only way this Story can be told is in the way it is told to us -- in Story. Often we try to take hold of it, capture it, reshape it, interpret it, recast it, through our preaching and teaching. But I wonder if there would be more power in the hearing of God's Story amongst us as God's people if we offered up our voices to the Spirit of God in ways that John Hayes and Linford Detweiler did this week -- and so become poets retelling the Story of God in the hearing of a people whom we are called to serve so that they may include their living, their struggles, their hopes and sorrows, their joys and despairs in this Story of God.

I see that as pastors our role is not to recast the Story in ways that show how well we know how to tell the Story, but we find ways of telling God's Story that people will give their lives to become a part of God's Story and somehow see their story being embraced by God's Story. Is this a helpful image? Let me know what you think?

Leadership for the Journey

2006-01-21T07:47:00.000-06:00

Last night I had the opportunity to meet with a number of folk from My People, which is a ministry to the indigenous people of North America. In talking with Ray Aldred and Terry LeBlanc, not only about their ministry, but also their perspective on the God's Story, Scripture, the Christian journey, etc. it generated some insights on the way leadership is to be carried out through the pastoral role.

As the people of God we are a part of a story, in fact we are a part of a number of stories and what gives our lives meaning and direction is how these stories are connected and integrated. Each of us has our own story involving our family, our heritage, our life journey, but we are also a part of a greater story, as story that acts not only as a metanarrative and telos for our being Christian, being human, but also transforms our stories and enables us to see how our stories are caught up in the ultimate story -- God's Story.

Ray and I talked about Scripture as God's Story and that this Story is told and retold, not so much as a series of propositions, but as a Story of God engaging a people, a people of his choosing -- and so it is a Story that is told, heard, retold, reheard in community. The truth of this Story cannot be pulled apart and compartmentalized apart from the Story, but the truth of this Story is meant to impact and transform our lives as we submit the story of our lives to God's Story. Truth, God's truth is relative to his Story. The modern experiment, in which so many of us have become used to categorizing and compartmentalizing truth, has ripped truth out of its context, its God context. God's truth is meant to be heard, understood and lived out in story -- and the ultimate good news is that as we are embraced by God's Story (through our surrendering, submission to Christ Jesus and living in the presence and power of the Spirit) our stories are transformed and caught up in God's Story.

Terry and I talked about life as journey, rather than life as being only destination focused. Life is more than where we are headed, but it is living in God's Story throughout the days of our life -- hence a journey that is directed by God's Story and God's Vision (or eschatological telos). And the living out of this journey is not done alone, but in a community -- journey is walked with others.

The implications of all this for pastoral ministry and pastoral leadership are rich. Much of our modern conceptions of leadership have to do with destination and little to do with journey. But if we see life as journey and that our life journey is not only about our stories, but our being embraced and transformed in and through God's Story (in Jesus and in the power of the Spirit as we live our lives in light of the Father's mission--missio Dei), then pastoral leadership is to be exercised in a community experiencing God's Story and being transformed focusing on the journey, rather than just the destination. Now journeying with God is directed by God's telos, which gives purpose and direction to our journey, but it is primarily about our day to day living in this Story, than just where the destination is.

This means that pastoral leadership is less about being upfront, out ahead, trying to get people to follow so that we can get to the destination, but rather, pastoral leadership is being with, alongside, among the people of God we have been called to serve to guide them along their life journey as they grow more and more each day in seeing how their story is embraced by God's Story. In being with, alongside and among, pastors repeatedly help the members of their community see what God is doing and hear what God is saying to them as a people -- for them to see how God's Story is being unfolded in their midst right here and right now. In being with, alongside and among, it is not about planting some new vision into their lives, but helping them see, uncover, discover, discern the vision that the Spirit of God is manifesting in their presence as the body of Christ. The pastor does not need to "sell" any vision to get a congregation "to buy into it" --rather the pastor has the responsibility to articulate the commonness of the stories that are being lived in light of and in integral relation to God's Story in our midst. It as the pastor articulates the shape of God's Story in their midst, the people bear witness to what the Spirit has already been shaping in their lives. This is vision-casting in a new frame, this is pastoral leadership from a different perspective. It has all to do with God's Story, the community of God's people living in this Story, and it has to do with discerning how our stories -- our stories within the community story-- are embraced and integrated with God's Story.

This kind of pastoring helps people to attend to God in all of their life, helps people discover how God has been active in shaping their story, and leads to their participation in God's ongoing Story (as it continues to be lived out in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit--not that we are adding to the text of Scripture). This is pastoral ministry focused on a community in the midst of journey, rather than a community merely focused on the destination. It simply requires a different kind of leadership than we have been taught over the past 20-30 years.

Insights Gained Through My Own Journey: Phase 2 -- Reflection on Ministry

2006-01-05T19:07:00.000-06:00

This is the second of three parts of insights gained through my own journey. The first phase focused on my journey as a Trinitarian encounter and was posted in December 2005. This second phase reflects on my coming to an understanding of the nature of ministry.

Though I began reflecting on the nature of ministry as early as 1984 through the writing of Ray Anderson, I was not deeply impacted by the inner logic of ministry until the late 1990s. In 1988 I began serving a congregation in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Over the next five years I would come to a deeper understanding that ministry is not just what pastors do and that the laity do not merely assist the pastor in his/her ministry. Rather the ministry of God invites all of God's people to participate in what God is doing on earth. As I sought to understand the ramifications of Ephesians 4: 11-16, and how pastors and others are called to equip the people of God for engagement in ministry, I began to recognize this vision as a key aspect of my calling.

I read the books, such as R. Paul Steven's Liberating the Laity, went to conferences on equipping God's people for ministry in order to become more effective in preparing and equipping members of the church I was serving to become more active in ministry -- and not just ministry in the church, but ministry in the Monday to Friday world. This last emphasis was a key one for me because what was becoming important for me was to see the people of God integrating their faith with their living -- that what they believed was carried out in actions that made space for the gospel in the midst of Monday to Friday. For me equipping God's people for ministry had more to do with getting out from behind the walls of the church and out into the world. Frank Tillapaugh's book, Unleashing the Church, became a significant book for me in modeling how a community of God's people discerns what God is doing in our communities and how we can discover how we are to engage in participating with what God is doing.

However, while I was coming to new understandings about ministry and the people of God, I was still practicing ministry in ways espoused by the church growth movement and the burgeoning mega-church movement (at least in the ways I was interpreting them). I still saw that the vision for ministry came through the pastor, that the church needed to be intentional in creating ministry opportunities (seeing the need and responding to it), that the people of God needed to be motivated, for them to discover their giftedness so that they could be placed into the proper ministry context. I became the kind of pastor, that I now realize I never wanted to become. For the sake of "ministry," I lost sight of God's people and my responsibility to shepherd them, seeing them as people who needed to be motivated, directed to be engaged in ministry. Though I did not intend malice, I was caught up in "manipulating" people to become involved in ministry -- and people began to misunderstand and were hurt. My response to their resistance was concluding that they lacked commitment, they lacked a desire to be involved in the things of God, their faith was not integrated with their living.

As a result I went on to do doctoral work in education to develop processes to bridge the gap between faith and practice -- and in the process I began to see how manipulative I was, how deeply I misunderstood the nature of ministry and the people of God's participation in it, my participation in it. It was in the years from 1993 to 2002 -- which I refer to as my 'desert years" that I came to think differently about ministry and became a very different kind of pastor. As I sat in the pews on Sunday during my Ph.D. years I began to wonder if I had come across to the people in the pews as the pastors I was listening to Sunday after Sunday were coming across. They were all about agenda, vision, mission, and it seemed the people were mere playing pieces to fit into these wonderful plans. I began to develop a different perspective sitting on the other side of the pulpit.

On the other side of the pulpit I began to see what kind of pastor I had become and I realized that I had neglected my calling as shepherd. I began reading Eugene Peterson, I began to reread Ray Anderson, I became acquainted with the folk at the Gospel and Our Culture Network, I reread Stanley Hauerwas, I read Stan Grenz -- and I began to realize that ministry is not our creation, vision is not what we have to sell to God's people for them to be involved. No, ministry is what God is doing and we are called to discern what God is doing and speaking in order to speak and do what God is already doing all around us -- to be like Jesus. He did not have a ministry of his own, but the Gospel of John is replete with passages where Jesus says that his ministry is not his own, but that he speaks what he hears from the Father and he does what he sees the Father doing. Similarly, the church of Jesus Christ does not have a ministry of its own -- it is not to be guided by utilitarian or pragmatic concerns, but rather it is to discern and participate with what God is doing in the world -- to discover his mission (missio Dei) and participate in it. This is what Tillapaugh was modeling. This is what Anderson has been describing for over 20 years. As Lesslie Newbiggin noted, we are not saved to be kept safe and comfortable, but we are called, elected in order to engage in the work of God, to participate with what God is already doing in our midst.

So what does this have to say regarding pastoring. Pastoring is not about setting the agenda for ministry. God has already set the agenda, Jesus had already revealed the agenda. Pastors are called to shepherd the people to attend to God (Eugene Peterson's term), to discern what God is doing in their spheres of influence, and to join in with God in ministry. Vision is not so much of an action that comes through a pastoral leader that then needs to be "marketed" to the congregation so that they will "buy into it." No, the Spirit is alive and active speaking in the midst of the congregation. The Spirit is impressing his will in the lives of people. Pastors, shepherds recognize this and are called to be intune with what God is saying in the life of the congregation. The vision that is then expressed is not something ex nihilo, out of nothing from on high, but something that is already present, already incarnated in our midst as the community of God's people. As the voice of God is discerned through pastoring, shepherding, worship, prayer, Scripture reading and so forth, the pastoral responsibility is to give voice to what has already been spoken in the life of the congregation. As this already Spirit-spoken vision is articulated it finds confirmation in the hearts of people because it has already been planted there by the Spirit. This requires pastoring to be a coming alongside the people of God, a being among the people of God, a being with the people of God.

How can a pastor who is cloistered in his/her study 20 hours/week preparing the Sunday message speak the voice of God already being spoken in the community? Though time needs to be spent in the study, the place for hearing the Word of God is amongst the people. Only then can the Sunday sermon speak the Word of God in such a way that it bears fruit in the lives of people, such fruit that enables people to see where God is active in the midst of their everyday world and invites them to participate with him in his mission.

Though there is much more to unpack regarding pastoring in this way of understanding ministry, I unplug here for now. Hopefully this provides enough for you to reflect upon your pastoral calling and your participation in helping the people to attend to God in their lives and their discerning and participating in the mission of God.

In the next phase I will begin to unfold some next steps in relation to pastoring as I see them. Until then, peace.

Meditation on Matthew 2:1-12

2006-01-02T22:09:00.000-06:00

As we begin this new year of 2006, periodically I would like to reflect on Scripture and readings that relate to pastoring or shepherding. Yesterday, New Year's Day, I read Matthew 2: 1-12 (the visit of the Magi) as well as the first chapter of Henri Nouwen's work, Here and Now.

The Matthean passage relates that the magi sought to find the new born king of Israel -- who will shepherd God's people. Nouwen shared that we live life either focused on the past breaking into our present, or we live life in light of the future, of God's promise, telos breaking into our present.

As I reflect on these two readings -- side by side -- I am reminded that pastors are called to be shepherds who continually remind the people we are among and apart of (the "sheep") that we live our lives as God's people not in light of our past, but in light of the dream, the hope, the telos of God -- the reality of God's vision breaking into and creating our present. As pastors, we shepherd by reminding our people of this day after day -- we provide the compass for the living of their lives as the people of God, as the people called by God to participate with God in God's mission.

Its not just about New Year's resolutions -- rather our whole life as the people of God is lived in the reality of God's promised future creating our present. Pastors, shepherds, are the ones who remind the sheep that we live not by what we done or failed to do in the past, but that we live in hope realizing that our present is guided by the future that is already fulfilled and reaching into our present to draw, not only us, but all of creation into God's culminating future, purpose, telos. What a privilege it is to live in this way, and what a privilege it is to be the ones who keep this vision, this reality in front of the God's people to guide their living and their participation with God's present activity.

Peace.

Insights Gained Through My Own Journey: Phase I -- A Trinitarian Encounter

2005-12-15T16:36:00.000-06:00

As I reflect on my own spiritual journey, both personally and professionally, I begin to discern a number of legs or phases in my journey in which my faith, perspectives on ministry, and who I am as a person growing to fullness in Christ. So far my journey has three key phases related to my ministry journey and I sense I am on the cusp of entering into my fourth phase which is engaging me in a process such as this where I am giving voice to a different way to understand the ministry to which we as shepherds have been called.

Though all journeying involves formation, the first phase of my journey involves the beginnings of my being formed for ministry by encountering God's Trinitarian character.

Though I was raised in a conservative Baptist setting I did not have a transforming encounter with Christ until I was at the end of trying to be a good Christian. It was at the point that I came to discover that there was nothing I could do to gain God's favor that I first experienced Christ Jesus taking a hold of me, embracing me, accepting me and bringing me into relationship with himself. It was through this experience, and it was an experience that completely changed the direction of my life as I yielded my life to Christ's lordship, that I embarked on an intentional journey alongside of Christ.

Up to this point my Christian experience would have been best described by my trying to keep up with Christ -- every time I would fall on my face, in my looking up from the dust I would see Christ walking over the ridge of the next hill and I would need to try to run to catch up just to make my way with him -- it was a tiring journey. Once Christ embraced me and I rested in that embrace, when I fell down and looked up, Christ was there extending his hand to me, helping me to stand up so that we could walk together. This image has become a key metaphor for not only my spiritual journey, but for understanding the pastoral role.

Over the next ten years my journey with Christ engaged me in a Trinitarian encounter with God. At the beginning of my intentional journeying with Christ my life was opened to experiencing God in the person of the Holy Spirit. As I began worshiping with a charismatic community meeting in an Anglican church in Canada, I began to be embraced by the manifest presence of the Spirit within this community and became radically aware of the present working of the Spirit continuing the ministry of Christ on earth. Through these days and my college days, I discovered the presence of God's Spirit taking hold of me, forming me, shaping me, in order to be the person God has called me to be in the service of his mission on earth. It was during this time that I sensed God calling me to pastoral ministry.

In preparing for this calling I entered Fuller Theological Seminary in 1979 where in my first year I had a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ in a radically different way which reshaped the way I live out my life in the world. Up to this point I acknowledged and worship Jesus Christ as Lord in my life, but my devotion to him was not integral to guiding every aspect of my life. During my second or third quarter in seminary I was struggling with questions I did not have answers to. I was raised to believe that engaged Christians had a biblical response for every query, that our faith was carefully thought out to address the relevant issues. However as I encountered questions I did not have answers for my faith began to be shaken. It was at this time I encountered Jack Rodgers who provided a perspective that shifted my understanding of my faith as to where the foundation of my faith lay. He stated that as finite human beings there is always going to be someone smarter than us who will be able to shake us with a question which we are unable to answer or even have adequate categories for considering. Rather than the only response being to question our faith, we need to recognize that the faith system we have constructed is faulty and not where we are to place our trust. Rather the only place to put our trust is in the person of Jesus Christ. It is he who is the basis of our faith, not our faith systems. We are to put our trust in him, not in what we have been able to systematize through our belief. What I discovered in placing my faith, my trust in Christ alone for all of my life, was that I was able to begin asking and exploring questions I did not have the answers for. The reason this was liberating is because such questions caused me to dialogue more intensely with Christ the Lord and foundation of my life. I knew that in him all things hold together (Col. 1: 17) and so in him I have the freedom to explore those things that used to threaten my faith. This liberation enabled me to not be afraid to engage all of life and to explore all of life, not by myself, but in my relationship with Christ. In this Christological leg of my journey, Jesus was beginning to give me eyes to see life--its brokenness, as well as his activity of grace, hope and peace, through his eyes, his actions, as he embraced his Father's mission for restoring all humanity and all creation--missio Dei.

My encounter with the fatherhood of God became a part of my experience when I was pastoring in a United Methodist Church in Indiana. As I struggled with the debate that was being carried on at that time concerning inclusive language, not only in terms of male and female, but also how we talk about God--whether as he, she, or ?--I picked up Thomas Smail's short book entitled The Forgotten Father. As I read Smail's insights I began to see how the Father's love for humanity, for his creation prompted his mission here on earth. It became clear to me that Christ's own ministry was not his own, but that of his Father's as the gospel of John reveals so clearly when Jesus on numerous occasions expresses that he speaks what he hears his Father speaking and does what he sees his Father doing (cf. John 5:19-20, 7:16-17, 12:49-50, 14:24, etc). I came to realize that in our walking with Christ Jesus we are called to continue the ministry which he began in partnership with God the Father in bringing about his missional purpose, his telos. This opening of my eyes to the Fatherhood of God changed the way I viewed and engaged in ministry, for no longer was the ministry I was called to my ministry, but my obedience to partnering with Christ in serving the Father in accomplishing his purposes for the restoration of humanity and creation.

As I stated this first phase was the beginning of my ongoing encounter with the Trinitarian character of God, who has continued to take hold of me and shape me in being the person he is calling me to be as a member of Christ's community. Continually my openness to the presence of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit shapes not only how I am growing as a person, but shapes how I understand and live out the nature of my calling through pastoral ministry.

The next posting will reflect on my second phase which focuses more directly on ministry.

Resources for Pastoral Ministry -- The Writings of Eugene H. Peterson

2005-12-11T14:12:00.000-06:00

There are myriads of resources -- books, websites, conferences, seminars, educational programs -- designed to help pastors to become more effective leaders in their ministry contexts. However, selecting those resources which will enable you to be the kind of pastoral shepherd you were called to be requires some discernment. The majority of the literature on pastoral ministry focuses on leadership insights drawn from business, government, or military perspectives, and though insights can be gained for the ministry of shepherding, they more designed for the pastor to take on a "take-charge" role, rather than shepherding a community to live Christianly within their context.

This site will regularly feature different authors, organizations, and resources which are based on a different paradigm for pastoral ministry rather than ones that draw mainly from the business world.

One author I have found to be helpful at a foundational level is Eugene H. Peterson. His writings, particularly his four book series on the pastoral vocation, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Ministry, Working the Angles, The Contemplative Pastor, and Under the Unpredictable Plant, provide a solid theological and pastoral understanding of the shepherding role of the pastor within a congregation.

He relates that the primary action of the pastoral shepherd within the congregation is not to "run the church" -- reminiscent of business models, but to so walk with a community of people in order to guide them to attend to God through prayer, Scripture reading and spiritual direction. Such pastoral action requires pastors to first and foremost to be amongst the community they have been called to serve, to come alongside them in every aspect of life. His insights, drawn from his years of experience and reflection within pastoral ministry are invaluable.

Though there is room for leadership, it is an understanding of leadership that is radically different from the way pastoral leadership is described in most of the literature. Where much of the literature on leadership relates the pastoral role in task-oriented terms, Peterson places the emphasis on pastoral leadership as being primarily people-oriented. This kind of pastoring, I believe, is more apt to engage a community of faith in discovering the presence and power of the Spirit of God in their midst. This kind of pastoring recognizes clearly that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, that he is building his church and that his ministry is not focused through one individual or a leadership team, but through the whole body. The pastoral role is one of helping people see and live in obedience to what God is doing in the midst of the community.

I have just scratched the surface on insights to be gained from Peterson's writings. So, in further posts I will reflect on insights that arise from his writing, but for the time being I recommend to you his writings as a beginning point for thinking differently about pastoral ministry so that you can begin to pastor differently.

Purpose and Focus of the Center for Pastoral Ministry

2005-12-07T10:43:00.000-06:00

Over the years with my serving both as a pastor in four congregations and serving pastors in their continuing education I have seen ways in which pastoring has taken a backseat to more business-oriented ways of leading in the church. As a result what has developed under the leadership of these CEO-type pastors are churches which are more "businesses in church clothes," rather than communities of faith which provide space for gospel in a broken world.

I am becoming increasingly aware, as I talk with pastors who are struggling with the kind of pastors they have become, the kind of pastors they have been pressured into, by the business-oriented approach to ministry, that there is a tremendous need to rediscover and rediscern what it means to be a pastoral shepherd, a pastoral servant.

In looking to Jesus as the paradigm for our pastoring, there is a strong focus not on "lording it over others," but in coming alongside others, being with others, being among others as a shepherd, as a servant in order to guide people in being open to see what God is doing all around them, in being open to hear what God is saying to them and to a broken world.

I believe deeply that in our rediscovering and rediscerning what it means to be shepherds, what it means to be servants, we shall come to understand more clearly and deeply what we are being called to in serving the church of Christ -- much more than embracing the concepts of leadership has.

So why this Center? Well I am discovering I am not the only pastor thinking this way. As I have interacted with pastors in different denominational and geographical settings I have witnessed a cry that there has to be more to what it means to be a shepherd of God's flock than than which is being expressed in the leadership literature ad nauseaum. We have been so inundated with leadership literature that we have forgotten the art of walking with a community of people guiding them to be connected with God. So this Center, which is starting out as a blog, is meant to be (1) a forum for connecting pastors in conversation with one another, (2) providing dialogue and learning opportunities for exploring together how we can be more effective shepherds and servants, (3) provide a resource listing for guiding our thinking and acting in new ways as pastoral shepherds and servants, and (4) to provide encouragement for one another as we seek to fulfill the calling God has placed upon our lives as pastors.

I hope you will join me on this journey -- a spiritual one, a theological one -- in which we can engage in mutual dialogue discovering together what we as pastors have been called to in serving Jesus Christ and his church.