Church Planting Series, Part thirty
It’s Oscar time of year! Yes, you may be a connoisseur of the red carpet, a viewer of the very famous, a watcher of designer outerwear, a groupie of the acting-gifted. Or maybe not.
I’ll be honest, whenever I see Hollywood awards shows, I feel like they’re very self-indulgent. An award extravaganza amounts to actors throwing a big party and patting each other on the back publicly in order to self promote, create more revenue, and position themselves for bigger and better contracts.
But in the midst of the glamorous gowns, the insipid speeches, and the drawn-out demagoguery, could there be a bright spot? Is there a lesson to learn?
Recently, I heard Reggie McNeal speak about apostolic leaders. Addressing what was created to be a living organism, the Church, McNeal commented that the Church needs to celebrate the right things. The living, breathing, changing, on-the-move Church needs to rejoice in the risks it takes. It needs to share success stories of outstretched arms of salvation being brought to the hurting and lost.
McNeal said that apostolic leaders and a truly apostolic Church “make heroes of the right people.”
Could it be that the Oscars are closer to apostolic leadership than the Church?
Think about what the Church does with its risk-takers, change-agents, and new idea people. Too often, it buries them beneath criticism. It shuns them. Even when these on-the-edge entrepreneurs are solidly proclaiming Biblical truth, the Church has responded with complacency or cruelty.
A local pastor may suppress the gifts of a layperson. A denomination may hiss over the newest local church that is growing. Why? It may be that no one wants to risk compromising the glory of God. But I think there’s another reason. I believe that the Church, in part, is imprisoned in unhealthy fear and ungodly egocentricity. Instead of lifting up others for the sake of the Kingdom, the church has fallen into the trap of pushing others down for the sake of itself. It is madness. It is contrary to our calling.
So, as we create enemies, Hollywood makes heroes. As we decline, Hollywood identifies and lifts up its best to increase its market share.
What if we decided to follow Hollywood’s lead? Not in Hollywood style, of course, but in God’s style. What if we made heroes of good and faithful servants? What if we celebrated and learned from missional risk takers? What if we listened to people who had new ideas—-and tried them out! What if we lifted up exceptional Kingdom advancers to increase Jesus’ market share?
How will you lose yourself and make a hero of one of Jesus’ servants this week?
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Making Room
Church Planting Series, Part twenty-eight
Where will new Kingdom leaders come from? Are we developing them? Are we making room for their ideas and mistakes? Do they have a significant place around the leadership table? Two observations make this question even more urgent.
Observation #1: I was on a run in Florida recently and saw a group of 70-year-olds whiz by me on road bikes. Each was dressed like Lance Armstrong. These guys were flying.
I turned a corner and saw a man in his eighties dressed in his technical running gear, adjusting his playlist selection on his iPod.
These guys are not like my grandparents were. They’re still center stage, grabbing the gusto, and living life to the full.
The result? A good number from the late Builder generation and early Boomer generation still hold strong places of leadership in the church. They will be actively leading for a long time. The key questions are:
Will they make room for the leadership voices of new generations?
Will they intentionally identify and mentor new leaders?
Observation #2: My older brother is like many in our generation. He and his wife waited to have children. He is now 50-years-old and has a 5-year-old child.
A significant number of people in the U.S. are getting married older, waiting to have children, and having fewer children.
The result? The age gap between parents and children is growing. Instead of 30 or 40-year-olds succeeding their parents’ generation in leadership roles, many 20-year-olds will be in that position. The key questions are:
Will these 20-year-olds have access to a faith-maturing, leadership development process from their parents’ generation?
Will these young leaders be given a chance to reach their generation for Christ in new ways that fit who they are?
If we don’t make room for a new generation of leaders, share leadership and Kingdom lessons with them, and allow them to have a meaningful voice, they may find themselves alienated from the church and ill-equipped to bring Jesus to a broken world.
Are you actively making room?
Next Time: Making Room for the older and younger, together in the church.
Where will new Kingdom leaders come from? Are we developing them? Are we making room for their ideas and mistakes? Do they have a significant place around the leadership table? Two observations make this question even more urgent.
Observation #1: I was on a run in Florida recently and saw a group of 70-year-olds whiz by me on road bikes. Each was dressed like Lance Armstrong. These guys were flying.
I turned a corner and saw a man in his eighties dressed in his technical running gear, adjusting his playlist selection on his iPod.
These guys are not like my grandparents were. They’re still center stage, grabbing the gusto, and living life to the full.
The result? A good number from the late Builder generation and early Boomer generation still hold strong places of leadership in the church. They will be actively leading for a long time. The key questions are:
Will they make room for the leadership voices of new generations?
Will they intentionally identify and mentor new leaders?
Observation #2: My older brother is like many in our generation. He and his wife waited to have children. He is now 50-years-old and has a 5-year-old child.
A significant number of people in the U.S. are getting married older, waiting to have children, and having fewer children.
The result? The age gap between parents and children is growing. Instead of 30 or 40-year-olds succeeding their parents’ generation in leadership roles, many 20-year-olds will be in that position. The key questions are:
Will these 20-year-olds have access to a faith-maturing, leadership development process from their parents’ generation?
Will these young leaders be given a chance to reach their generation for Christ in new ways that fit who they are?
If we don’t make room for a new generation of leaders, share leadership and Kingdom lessons with them, and allow them to have a meaningful voice, they may find themselves alienated from the church and ill-equipped to bring Jesus to a broken world.
Are you actively making room?
Next Time: Making Room for the older and younger, together in the church.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
A New Generation
Church Planting Series, Part seventeen
I was hanging out with some young ministry leaders over the weekend. These college students and recent graduates were fired up in their faith and ready to reach the world for Christ. But they were thinking differently about ministry.
I asked one person what ministry path he was thinking about. He responded, “My life is my ministry.” He is forging ahead to become a math teacher, making every moment of his life outreach for Christ and using every opportunity to serve inside and outside the church.
Another young leader heard me make the comment, “The church is not a building; it’s the people.” He let out a loud “Amen” and proceeded to talk about the small group he is in and how they serve and reach the lost.
A young woman told me how she came to know Jesus and how she started reaching her young classmates who were on the fringes of the mainstream.
My friend told me about his college student daughter who is looking for a church while she’s away at school. One front-runner was a “church under the bridge” that met with and served the homeless.
A seminarian getting ready to graduate told me about his desire to partner with a friend to become “worker-priests” and simply live with inner-city residents to see how Jesus might open doors for life transformation with the Gospel.
There is a new generation of young ministry leaders. This generation is not thinking as much about career in ministry as they are about contributing to the expansion of the Kingdom. These leaders are not thinking as much about mega-church building as they are about making Christ’s difference in the world. These Christ-followers are thinking not as much about stardom as they are about sacrifice. These servants are not thinking as much about charging into the world with a big impact as they are about changing the world one person at a time.
How can we be good stewards of these new generation leaders? Shall we funnel them into old systems of training and church structure? Shall we tell them that they are idealists who need to get real and get with the old, established programs? Or shall we let these leaders soar by giving them permission, training, mentoring, support, and maximum flexibility to allow for a new movement of transformational ministry for Jesus?
Church is moving outside the walls. A new generation of leaders wants to bring Jesus to the world in a powerful way. Can we join them? Can we contribute to this new movement? Can we be part of a decentralized, smaller, servant-oriented, fluid network of faith communities that infiltrate neighborhoods and cities with Jesus? What will that look like? What steps must we take to get there?
I was hanging out with some young ministry leaders over the weekend. These college students and recent graduates were fired up in their faith and ready to reach the world for Christ. But they were thinking differently about ministry.
I asked one person what ministry path he was thinking about. He responded, “My life is my ministry.” He is forging ahead to become a math teacher, making every moment of his life outreach for Christ and using every opportunity to serve inside and outside the church.
Another young leader heard me make the comment, “The church is not a building; it’s the people.” He let out a loud “Amen” and proceeded to talk about the small group he is in and how they serve and reach the lost.
A young woman told me how she came to know Jesus and how she started reaching her young classmates who were on the fringes of the mainstream.
My friend told me about his college student daughter who is looking for a church while she’s away at school. One front-runner was a “church under the bridge” that met with and served the homeless.
A seminarian getting ready to graduate told me about his desire to partner with a friend to become “worker-priests” and simply live with inner-city residents to see how Jesus might open doors for life transformation with the Gospel.
There is a new generation of young ministry leaders. This generation is not thinking as much about career in ministry as they are about contributing to the expansion of the Kingdom. These leaders are not thinking as much about mega-church building as they are about making Christ’s difference in the world. These Christ-followers are thinking not as much about stardom as they are about sacrifice. These servants are not thinking as much about charging into the world with a big impact as they are about changing the world one person at a time.
How can we be good stewards of these new generation leaders? Shall we funnel them into old systems of training and church structure? Shall we tell them that they are idealists who need to get real and get with the old, established programs? Or shall we let these leaders soar by giving them permission, training, mentoring, support, and maximum flexibility to allow for a new movement of transformational ministry for Jesus?
Church is moving outside the walls. A new generation of leaders wants to bring Jesus to the world in a powerful way. Can we join them? Can we contribute to this new movement? Can we be part of a decentralized, smaller, servant-oriented, fluid network of faith communities that infiltrate neighborhoods and cities with Jesus? What will that look like? What steps must we take to get there?
Monday, January 19, 2009
MLK Day – A Reminder of the Prophetic Voice
In his book “Soul Survivor,” Philip Yancey discusses how thirteen mentors impacted his faith life. The book is profound and moving—a worthwhile read.
Yancey begins with Martin Luther King, Jr., highlighting his “prophetic” role that called churches and the nation to awaken from the sinful slumber of racism.
Of course, the prophetic role is rooted in the actual prophets of God in the Old Testament. Yancey’s comments on these prophets remind me of the prophetic legacy we are all called to live. Our voice, as believers, is to be a prophetic voice in a slumbering sinful world. Yancey says:
“The word ‘prophet’ comes to mind because King, like those Old Testament figures, endeavored to change an entire nation through a straightforward moral appeal. The passion and intensity of the biblical prophets has long fascinated me, for most of them faced an audience every bit as stubborn, prejudiced, and cantankerous as I was during my teenage years. With what moral lever can one move a whole nation? Studying the prophets, I note that virtually all of them followed a two-prong approach.”
“First, they gave a short-range view of what God requires now. In the Old Testament, this usually consisted of an exhortation to simple acts of faithfulness. Rebuild the Temple. Purify your marriages. Help the poor. Destroy idols and put God first. The prophets never stopped there, however. They also gave a long-range view to respond to the people’s deepest questions. How can we believe that God loves us in the face of so much suffering? How can we believe in a just God when the world seems ruled by a conspiracy of evil? Prophets answered such questions by reminding the audience of who God is, and by painting a glowing picture of a future kingdom of righteousness” (pp.23-24).
But the clincher of the prophetic power, as King pointed out, was in the cross. In virtually every speech King repeated, “Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian one must take up his cross, with all its difficulties and agonizing and tension-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering” (p.25).
Yancey sums up the prophetic voice: “A prophet calls us to daily acts of obedience, regardless of personal cost, regardless of whether we feel successful or rewarded. And a prophet also reminds us that no failure, no suffering, no discouragement, is final for the God who stands within the shadows, keeping watch above his own. A prophet who can convey both those messages with power may just change the world” (p.30).
During a time of economic downturn, political transition, war and violence; at a time when there are rampant attacks on everything Godly, we can grumble and withdraw, or we can voice, and actively live, the heart-changing Word of God.
You can check out or you can speak up. You can retreat into your own world or you can charge ahead with creative, constructive, and compelling service for the people of God.
On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let us remember that we are called to be prophetic voices.
Yancey begins with Martin Luther King, Jr., highlighting his “prophetic” role that called churches and the nation to awaken from the sinful slumber of racism.
Of course, the prophetic role is rooted in the actual prophets of God in the Old Testament. Yancey’s comments on these prophets remind me of the prophetic legacy we are all called to live. Our voice, as believers, is to be a prophetic voice in a slumbering sinful world. Yancey says:
“The word ‘prophet’ comes to mind because King, like those Old Testament figures, endeavored to change an entire nation through a straightforward moral appeal. The passion and intensity of the biblical prophets has long fascinated me, for most of them faced an audience every bit as stubborn, prejudiced, and cantankerous as I was during my teenage years. With what moral lever can one move a whole nation? Studying the prophets, I note that virtually all of them followed a two-prong approach.”
“First, they gave a short-range view of what God requires now. In the Old Testament, this usually consisted of an exhortation to simple acts of faithfulness. Rebuild the Temple. Purify your marriages. Help the poor. Destroy idols and put God first. The prophets never stopped there, however. They also gave a long-range view to respond to the people’s deepest questions. How can we believe that God loves us in the face of so much suffering? How can we believe in a just God when the world seems ruled by a conspiracy of evil? Prophets answered such questions by reminding the audience of who God is, and by painting a glowing picture of a future kingdom of righteousness” (pp.23-24).
But the clincher of the prophetic power, as King pointed out, was in the cross. In virtually every speech King repeated, “Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian one must take up his cross, with all its difficulties and agonizing and tension-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering” (p.25).
Yancey sums up the prophetic voice: “A prophet calls us to daily acts of obedience, regardless of personal cost, regardless of whether we feel successful or rewarded. And a prophet also reminds us that no failure, no suffering, no discouragement, is final for the God who stands within the shadows, keeping watch above his own. A prophet who can convey both those messages with power may just change the world” (p.30).
During a time of economic downturn, political transition, war and violence; at a time when there are rampant attacks on everything Godly, we can grumble and withdraw, or we can voice, and actively live, the heart-changing Word of God.
You can check out or you can speak up. You can retreat into your own world or you can charge ahead with creative, constructive, and compelling service for the people of God.
On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let us remember that we are called to be prophetic voices.
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