In their book Follow Me to Freedom, authors Shane Claiborne and John Perkins have a conversation about leadership and followership. In the first chapter, they discuss characteristics of Moses’ life and how they can be generally applied to the area of leadership. First of all, they talk about leadership as the passing on of a promise, hope and a vision from one generation to the next. Perkins says, “When God blesses, the blessing is not stagnant: it moves and multiplies. The idea is to plant a seed, then water it and grow it – and then give it to the next generation. The blessing is not for one person (it is not just for you or me alone). Rather, it was given to Abraham and is now given to us so that we might be a blessing to others. That’s the real purpose of ministry.”[1] I agree that as leaders in the church, we are entrusted to pass on hope and the vision of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has been given to us. The promise has been given to us so that we could share it and pass it on to others. Moses knew his identity, knew the faith that had been passed down from generation to generation. It all began with Abraham, who has given a promise that he would be blessed so that he could bless others. Leadership has a very similar quality. We are given this responsibility not for our own benefit, but so that we could pass blessings on to others.
[1] Shane Claiborne and John Perkins, Follow Me to Freedom: Leading and Following as an Ordinary Radical, (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 17.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the forward motion you articulated in your post, Joel (and the forward motion articulated by Perkins & Claiborne). I love the statement, "what we pass along is a hope and a vision that can be carried forth" (Perkins, p.24). I love even more Perkins' clarification that the words of a blessing in and of themselves are meaningless - without the fulfillment of that promise. VIsion is not birthed merely out of memory, but out of experience. If we desire to pass vision, we must enable those we are leading to taste and see the fruit of that vision. I also love Perkins' assertion that we have no excuses to be less than what God says we are. Moses was "conceived to be aborted" (Perkins, p.26), but that Moses' past, even eventual failures do not determine his identity or capability. Moses the kid who shouldn't have existed and didn't belong lead God's people out of slavery. Rahab the prostitute ended up in the lineage of Jesus. Regardless of what lies in our past, as Claiborne says, "we cannot remain victims if we are ever to see freedom - we cannot forget the past, but the past does not hold us captive" (Claiborne, p.26).
ReplyDelete