leadership

My cerebral talents continue with the fourth on the list, futuristic. I'm one of those people that's always looking towards tomorrow and coming up with ideas for what could or should be.

Once again, I can see how this links into my other talents, and how each one up to this point weaves together in a way that allows me to look at what is, understand it, look at where things are heading, and help others see how we can get there. In a sense, I think blending this gift with others is truly a blessing in that, without the others, I'd envision a future that ignores the past and is ignorant of the present. This is part of why I'm not a fan of typical approaches to strategic planning, but think that the Church Unique approach offers a very healthy alternative.

But once again, the problem is, if I don't have people working with me in order to get us there, then it will never happen. I can see it all day long, but I struggle to step into the everyday and bring things to fruition, a reality characterized by my answer to the question, "If you had a mulligan for the past three years, what would it be?" My answer was quick and clear, "Before doing anything with Genesis, I'd have spent however long it took to develop a solid core team of missional Christians who were going to move into the city with me."

The other struggle with this is characterized by a question my life coach asked me the Friday before the fshbwl launched, "What's next?" It's far to easy for me to get something going, see the launch as the end of the journey, and then move onto something else. I'm horrible at maintenance. I think that's why the opening blog on the fshbwl site was as much for me as it was for everybody else.

I'm curious, does anybody else who's taken the strengths finder see all of their top talents weaving together the way mine do, or is that just a product of my connectedness?

Last summer while visiting St. Tom's in Sheffield, England I first heard of a radically different way of look at and interpreting Ephesians 4. At the time I wasn't all that sure about it but, since I'd only heard about it in isolation, put it on the shelf and didn't really explore it. However, while reading The Forgotten Ways I once again ran across the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4.

The basic idea begins in verse 7 where Paul writes, "But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift." Paul then talks about Christ being the one who reigns overall which seems to point towards his gift giving authority. Then Paul goes on to say in verse 11, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers ..."

Now historically, this list of gifts has been seen as a variety of gifts given for the leadership of the Church (note that leadership isn't always formalized). However, at St. Tom's and in The Forgotten Ways is that, rather than these five items being spiritual gifts, they are actually the five different ways that people can participate in ministry and that each of us (pulling back to verse 7) has one of these ministries.

So, which is it?

The first place to look is the immediate context. According to Paul these gifts are given "to equip the saints, for the work of ministry," and "for building up the body of Christ." Now, at this level, it's quite possible that this could happen through the five-fold ministry or through a gift-based leadership model.

The next place to naturally look would be other places where Paul talks about things like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. As it turns out, there are two of them, Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:28-29. In both of these verses, Paul is addressing the issue of spiritual gifts where some of the five mentioned in Ephesians 4 are mentioned right alongside and in connection to a variety of other gifts, a reality that undermines the idea that everybody has one of the five from Ephesians 4.

Moreover, when the rest of 1 Corinthians 12 is considered, it becomes apparent that the gifts of Ephesians 4, along with the ordered gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 are the "greater gifts" that Paul references, not in the sense that they are more valuable, but in their impact, because these are the gifts that God uses to build up the body of Christ as a whole rather than at an individual level.

So, what does this mean practically? Well, if you discover that God has gifted you with Ephesians 4 type gifts, it's a good sign that you're gifted to be a leader in your church. If you're not gifted that way, odds are, there are other places where God is going to use you with far greater impact. In the end, when we all serve according to our gifting, the Body of Christ works accordingly.

As a final note of interest, according to the Greek grammar, there are actually four gifts because pastor and teacher are grammatically united. This puts some kinks into all the work that's been to develop a whole ministry system based on five different styles.

Leonard Sweet brought up an interesting point on leadership at the Day of Homiletical Reflection a couple weeks ago (download the audio files here).

Sweet began with the basic definition of the title that defines us as Christians ... we are disciples and therefore we are followers. So, if we are, by definition, followers, why do so many Christians seek to develop their leadership skills? I know at a pastoral level there are hundreds of conferences each year on leading your church, thousands of books are published, and I had a required seminary class called, "Pastoral Leadership". Then of course you have the LCMS's Pastoral Leadership Institute.

Having attended some these conferences, read many of these books, and faithfully attended my seminary course I know that, essentially, all of these resources seek to take skills from business, the military, and government and bring them into the church. Now, fundamentally, I don't have an issue with this, assuming that what's being brought in isn't diametrically opposed to our calling in Christ. This is where the problem comes in ... we're bringing in leadership when Christ is calling us to followership and we're turning our shepherds (aka pastors) into CEO's.

I know that I for one am trying to buck this trend with Genesis. I don't want to direct, I want to nurture. I don't want to build, I want to cultivate. I don't want to oversee, I want to be in the midst of people's everyday experiences and encourage them in their faith and life. In the end you could say that I don't want to lead, I want to pastor.

Anybody know of any great books on followership?