In Ron Martoia’s book morph!, he argues the point that if there is to be true change within a church, that change must start within the leader. In his own journey, he had to realize that a struggle that came out of his desire to help people was an unhealthy attachment to other’s acceptance. He had to overcome this to begin to make the touch decisions necessary for his church to “morph” into who God was calling them to be. But this had to flow from Ron’s core identity. Martoia says, “Inner life growth is the core of leadership development.” God is committed to this transformation because he knows that the overflow, according to Martoia, is how this same change takes place in the church.
I really like this understanding of how change comes to a church and the importance of overflow in a leader’s life. Martoia talks about having seen himself as a teacher and as a pastor, but he had never saw himself as a leader, as the leader. When he realized that as he changed, the church would change, it allowed him to make his focus transformation. It wasn’t about focusing on being an authentic and relevant church. It was about him being authentic and relevant.
So what areas do we need transformation in our lives? Can you see the correlation between the place that your church is at and where you are personally? Does your church struggle in the same ways that you do?
dibbs!
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts in this post. This idea of change, or morphing as this author puts it, has been at the forefront of my mind recently. My church is currently going through a revisioning process. We are trying to figure out what it means to be the church in our community and how that plays out in the everyday life of our church. The point that your post brings up, however, is that change does not and will not happen unless it begins with the leader (or leaders) of the church. This is a concept that could be extremely beneficial as we look at how these changes can take place. According to this paradigm, the change does not begin in the congregation, but within us as the leaders of the church. The changes need to begin within our own lives, and when this takes place, we can expect to see change within the rest of the church. More often than not, I think what happens is that we as leaders in the church try to come up with the next best program or three step paradigm shift to bring about change in the church. Instead, we need to start change in ourselves, and the church will follow.