Thursday, April 14, 2011
Shoot, we're not going to be ready when we graduate!
“We have been trained in Bible and theology. We know our roles in ritual and pastoral care. Yet we are asked to oversee multimillion-dollar facilities and operations, to be versed in human resources...”
This summarizes the foundation of the article well. Feela notes here and throughout the article that seminary is great but leaves us with a half-filled quiver of leadership arrows (my words). This is only the first half of the problem. The rest centers on how we balance the ‘real’ focus of our job as pastor with all of these periphery things, which are so apparent to our flock, and have such clearly visible consequences if we falter on them.
Feela says, that our real focus isn’t to create community, but to discover the community that exists in our context and develop it to look more like what Christ has for it through discipleship, and communal efforts towards single purposes. He calls our blurring of focus Mission Drift. Feela suggests 3 things to keep us focused on what is central to our role as pastor. 1)center on worship and preaching corporately. Don’t get bogged down in individual issues, there are just too many. 2)be authentic in everything; be sure facilities, personnel, prayer etc. are used to bring forth the kingdom, not to provide a benefit that is disjointed from God’s calling for our body, 3)two way transparency; not only should the pastor be transparent but must demand the same from his parishioners so their daily lives work towards the bodies mission.
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Dibbs.
ReplyDeleteFeela’s most notable comment in the article is, “Believers are not called to build community, because they will inevitably do so in their image.” The same is true of leadership. If we resolve to create a leadership style/method based on nothing less than Jesus, we do so out of our sinful nature (what I suppose Feela is speaking of here). If Paul is indeed correct when he tells the Colossians, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:3), we need to take it seriously. If all that we are is to be encapsulated in Christ, our communities ought to be shaped that way as well.
ReplyDeleteAs to your title, Miles-
I do think we can be prepared for what is next, given our perspective is correct. Maybe this is an oversimplification, but if we rely on God, and the power that comes from His Holy Spirit, HE can prepare us. To what God calls us, He will equip us. This is not to say that God will not place us under loads that seem too hard to carry. Many times God is simply calling us to share that load together—with a community to which He has called us.