2014
Bishop’s Monthly Columns
Mission
Table Leadership (Part 1)
Note: quotations in italics are from The Mission Table by Stephen P. Bouman
(2013, Augsburg Fortress), pp. 71-80. .
“ As [Jesus] walked by the Sea of
Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his
brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to
them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left
their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers,
James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father
Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat
and their father, and followed him.”
(Matthew 4:18-22)
“The only
constant is change.” This statement,
which sounds oxymoronic,[1]
sums up so much about how life “feels” nowadays—perhaps especially life in the
church.
Almost
nothing that used to work still works.
The culture, rather than supporting faith and communities of faith,
seems indifferent if not hostile to the things of God. Patterns of “doing church” that sustained us
for decades, if not centuries, seem outdated, ineffective. We grow weary from trying to rethink just
about everything.
Stephen
Bouman captures the dynamic at work well when he writes:
The decline of
institutional religion is calling us into ministry in a new context here in
North America. Yet the United States
remains unique in the world when it comes to spirituality. Eighty percent of the US population is still
convinced that God is real. So here is
our context: institutional forms of religion are collapsing while most people
still believe in God. We are awash in
spiritual hunger. In this in-between
place, we do not yet know what forms will emerge. All things are possible. In such a time as this, what kind of
leadership can come alongside congregations, communities, and spiritual seekers,
helping them to imagine new mission tables, revised old ones, and learn from
what they see emerging?
Not For Sissies
I’m struck,
as I work within our synod, how difficult it can be to surface leaders for
mission tables. Folks are willing to sit
around the circle and participate—but don’t ask anyone to serve as chair or
convener (thankfully this doesn’t happen all the time!) It is as if people sense that leadership,
too, has changed in the church. And
leadership nowadays is definitely “not for sissies.”
Yet there
has never been a time in the whole long life of God’s people when leaders have
not been called forth—when leadership has not emerged. And even today, the need for leadership has
not diminished. Despite the ways that
church leaders in the 21st century may need to learn how to lead
differently from the way leadership has functioned in the past, some bedrock
realities about leadership have not changed:
Leadership in a missional church is
spiritually-grounded. Leadership at its best emerges from men
and women of God who pray, worship, dwell in the Word, serve, give and struggle
for justice. Writes Bouman: “Mission
leaders build tables that are spiritual oases of service and solidarity with
the lives of communities in this secular yet believing context.”
Such
spiritual leadership doesn’t produce Supermen or Wonder Women leaders,
though. Bouman draws attention to the
biblical picture of humility in leadership that characterized Moses and Jesus
himself. Such humility “wears well” in
our 21st century context, in which the church is often on the
margins, no longer at the center of things. “The church’s mission needs leaders infused
with the presence of God, confident in the promises of God, and filled with the
hope that comes with being humble before God.
In that humility is strength, integrity, resolve and a single-minded
embrace of the possibilities the risen Christ makes present.”
Leadership in a missional church is
baptismally-endowed. When I preach at ordinations or installations
of pastors, I often remind them, “You didn’t get yourself into this mess! God has called you!”
The same
goes for the whole people of God, not just pastors. When God saves us through our baptism into Christ, the Lord simultaneously sends us to serve Christ’s mission of
reclaiming the whole creation and making all things new. Therefore, “we cannot talk about leadership in the church without talking about
the call every Christian receives at baptism to be part of God’s mission in the
world, to be part of the priesthood of all believers. The church today needs leaders who are
committed to agitating and winsomely engaging its members and neighbors around
that call.”
So, what
does such spiritually-grounded, baptismally-endowed leadership look like today?
A Mission Leader is
Relational
Every year,
on Pentecost Sunday, we read from the second chapter of the Book of Acts. I wonder, though, if we always notice both
the public and the relational sides of this amazing
story. The public side is what we’re
most familiar with: the Holy Spirit
descends in a fiery public demonstration of evangelical power, leading Peter to
preach a sermon that immediately draws 3,000 persons to be baptized into Christ. Wow!
But the
relational side of the Pentecost Story is just as amazing (see Acts
2:42-47). Immediately those who are
baptized enter into relationship with one another! The impulse to gather together seems to be
intrinsic to being joined to the Risen Christ.
Community—the first church—is
formed and takes shape. The public
event of Pentecost produces the relational reality of the church-in-mission.
We live in a
time when the relational side of the church’s life needs to come to the
fore. This might come as a surprise to
us as we’ve watched life in the 21st century unfold. Doesn’t it seem as though life has become
more “atomized” as persons seem mesmerized by their precious digital devices? We watch people walking down a sidewalk,
each one focused on his or her iPhone or Droid—it’s amazing that they don’t run
into one another more often!
But look
more closely. Our hi-tech world
carries with it a hunger for hi-touch encounters. The implication for a church in mission is
that leaders will “put in the time and
energy needed to build relationships within the congregation and in the
community….Relationships are the synapses[2]
of mission.”
A Mission Leader Pays
Attention to Institutional Relationships
In other
words, a mission leader cannot afford—ever!—to be a lone ranger. Writes Bouman: “Studies
of new mission starts have shown that where local networks and relationships
are strong, and connected to the wider church, so is the fledgling
ministry. It takes a village of tables
to nourish and raise a new one.”
For this
reason our synod continues to provide a means whereby we cultivate connections
with new ministries. I invite you to
ponder and pray for the ministry partners we support together through our life
as the Northwestern Minnesota Synod: http://nwmnsynod.org/?post_type=ministry-partners
A Mission Leader Has an
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Phyllis
Tickle, in her book, The Great Emergence,
observes that “about every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to
hold a giant rummage sale….about every five hundred years the empowered
structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be at the time,
become an intolerable carapace[3]
that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur.”[4]
If we are
living through one of these 500-year-rummage-sales, and if new forms of “doing
church” are emerging, chances are the leaders God is calling forth will seem
similar to entrepreneurs in the business world. Entrepreneurs aren’t shopkeepers or
minders-of-the-store. They have no
knack for conducting “business as usual.”
They are the visionaries who dare to try new things—and to risk failure
in the process.
But
entrepreneurs in the church can make us nervous. They color outside the lines. They
try things that don’t always succeed. Their imaginations sometimes lead to
flights of fancy. We worry they might
“throw the baby out with the bath.”
In truth,
though, the church of Jesus Christ has always been blessed with such reckless
risk-takers. Many of us sense that we
need them now more than ever. If
entrepreneurial leaders make us nervous, perhaps we need to all get in our cars
and visit a mission start church.
Starting new ministries is just as much a part of our DNA as “preserving
sacred traditions.” As Bouman reminds
us:
“In the past, planting churches has generated a restless
excitement. Our communal memory of
excitement and bold risks for mission will be a path to the renewal of our
beloved tables for the life of the world.”
A Mission Leader is
Clear About the Power of Money
Because we
are creatures of time and space, seeking to serve God’s mission in the real,
tangible world all around us—nothing we set out to do in service to God’s
mission will happen without financial resources. Even though our patterns for how Christians
live out the spiritual gift of generosity are changing—along with everything
else!—we will continue to need mission leaders who
·
Cultivate
in themselves and others a sense of stewardship that is wide and deep;
·
Built
strong, sustainable financial models for ministry; and
·
Courageously
ask for sacrificial support.
In next
month’s column we’ll continue to look at characteristics of mission
leaders. Feel free to read the rest of
Chapter 5 in The Mission Table, as
you ponder your own gifts and passions as a missional leader in a changing
church.
God bless
you for being the mission leader God, in your Baptism, has called you to be!
Lawrence R.
Wohlrabe serves as bishop of the
Northwestern
Minnesota Synod of the
Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.
For
reflection and discussion:
- As you ponder your own calling to be a mission leader, how have faith practices and your baptism into Christ shaped you?
- What’s noticeably healthy about the relational life of your congregation? What could enhance your relational life together?
- What connections does your congregation cultivate with any of our synod’s partners in ministry?
- What sometimes holds back mission leaders from boldly asking for sacrificial support?
This is the eighth in a series of
monthly bishop’s columns during 2014 on the theme, The Mission Table. These
columns are designed to equip the disciples and leadership groups such as
church councils, for faithful and fruitful ministry. Feel free to use each column for personal
reflection or group discussion, e.g. church council meeting devotions/discussion. Readers are encouraged to purchase and read The Mission Table: Renewing Congregation & Community
which can be ordered at http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/search?ss=The+Mission+Table&c=-1&x=52&y=14
.
[1] An
“oxymoron” is a figure of speech in
which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for
effect.
[2] In
the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve
cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell (neural or
otherwise).
[3] A
carapace is a hard shell on the back of some animals (such as turtles or crabs)
[4]
Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence:How Christianity is Changing and Why
(Baker, 2008), p. 16.
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