ver.: 01 May 2008
Let these lead you through the whole page:
The gospel is not just something spoken by the church. It is something spoken to the church as well. For the church is made of sinners, forgiven and charged with a responsibility. The church often forgets the gospel, or gets smug or even callous about it. The Spirit uses the written Word to remind us what the Kingdom is, what the mission is, and who we are by the grace of God alone. It takes leadership to carry out this mission in this world of people and material things. And leadership comes from leaders.
Look at the apostles. They weren't Christ on earth. They were forgiven sinners. They weren't there to rule, they were there to serve, and even the highest in authority among them was to function at all times as a servant. They weren't there to be acquiescent or nice, either. Their job was to bring to mind (1 Cor 11:24, anamnesis), to transmit (1 Cor 15:3, paradosis), to proclaim (1 Cor 2:4, kerygma), and to bear witness to (1 Cor 1:6, martyrion) Christ and His Gospel.
Christ said that the Spirit would come in his place. Our leaders, our structures, our powers-that-be or our wanna-bes, do not themselves fill that role, except as they follow the Spirit's direction and act under the Spirit's power. The Spirit, in turn, points back to Jesus Christ, not to the church or its scholars, theologians, or leaders, whether pontifical or political or clerical or from the media. Yet when the Spirit acts, it acts through these people, and through those they are responsible for. These can be the official leaders of the Church, but it's often not so. There is still that one other thing -- the one thing that distinguished King David from your average shepherd boy, Judge Deborah from your typical village woman, and the apostle Peter from your ordinary fisherman. That one thing is a gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of leadership.
Not everyone is meant to be a leader. In fact, most of us aren't. Most of us need to learn about being a good follower, a task that is no less honorable than being a leader. (But more about that elsewhere.)
Let's go even further : those who are good at doing are generally not nearly as good in leading others to do it. There are some exceptions, of course. But two different kinds of gifts, desires and skills are involved. Thus, in baseball, minor-league player Tommy Lasorda turns into a great manager, while the great player Willie Mays struggled with being a coach.
How can you tell a leader from the rest of the pack? There are some markers which show that the Spirit's been shaping someone for a leadership role:
People who measure up on such matters can develop into leaders. But of what kind, and for what level? There are (as always) more questions to ponder:
Leadership is a gift, but even the gifted could use some skills that come in very handy when leading:
Like all skills, anyone can develop them. However, having leadership skills does not make one a good leader, nor does being given a 'leadership' position. Nor does having the skills and using them in a leadership position and even being seen as a 'leader' by others make one an effective leader. (How often have we kidded ourselves about the leadership abilities of our politicians?)
Throughout history, organizations have always focused on what was. Today, many leaders are projecting ahead for what could be. While that is needed, the most pressing needs are not for thinking about the vision of the next century, but :
This is because we can't keep up well even with the present.
Churches are especially plagued by being one moment behind at
our best.
Ignatius used the terms enoikesis (indwelling) of the Spirit and henosis (union) with Christ; these were what he used as the basis of his authority, not simply the fact of his being Bishop of Antioch. His title for himself was theophoros (God-bearer). The authority of church structure and the authority of personal gifts were for the most part together in the first few centuries of the church.
The idea behind this structure is that the church forms
have authority as they manifest the Spirit and convey the
Gospel. Thus, church structures must always be proving
their legitimacy, and their sway is to come from how they show
themselves spiritually effective. (The alternative is the use
of force, and that has many unwelcome effects.) The Spirit is
not trivial to the church's life, but makes up the very essence
of its life.
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Most of us haven't a clue as to how to simply let God lead us. Too many of us do things under our own steam. We use our skills, our knowledge, our training, and our talents under our own power, but we don't turn them over to God and ask, 'what do You want of me?' Or, of this church? Skills are great, but surrender to God is what God wants. There's a difference between your having the Spirit and the Spirit's having you.
This is one of the things that Sharon Zanter Ross hit upon in the *Lutheran Forum* (Aug 1994, p.33-35) regarding her mainline-ish Protestant church (which she left in 1996): the crisis of confidence in church leadership might be linked to this sense of their choosing not to live from an imagination that is turned over to and made alive by the Spirit. "One cannot lead until one has first been inspired", Ross wrote. I don't know most of the leaders of that church, which is also my own. I can't, and won't, speak about whether they as individuals are living from that fired-up imagination. The Spirit has many of the ones I know, yet many others are rather plainly there for other reasons. The key question that follows on what Ross was writing is this: what is the collective effect of the church leaders, when taken together or added up? Most members of many, if not most, church bodies sense that the stamp of the Spirit simply isn't on their church's leadership, that the church as a whole is operating on its own power. To that extent, at least, I think Ross was onto something.
One of the most important counter-checks for the leadership of a parish or ministry or denomination or movement is to surround the leaders with people who take action to deflate the leaders' egos or to 'take them to the mat' on their deeds with words of either private or formal correction. Accountability does not just happen. It requires a system that can hold the leader(s) accountable. However, even a good system depends on having people who are determined (not merely 'willing') to hold the leader(s) accountable. Cowards need not apply. Accountability is not just a negative, big fuss sort of thing. It's also the day-to-day positive work of building up the leaders as they stay faithful. Holding leaders accountable is a sacred duty.
The very loosely-knit organizational ties of pentecostal
churches work against accountability. Within their
'congregationalist' structure, a church body finds it hard to
stop a specific leader from spouting lies about God. The leader in question
is often easily able to blow off the formal leadership of the
church body. If the church body tries to crack down, that
leader just picks up and leaves that body -- money, followers
and all -- and becomes an independent force. News about what's
wrong with someone's teaching usually spreads slower than the
bad teaching itself. That means a lot of people who don't know
better get sucked in. That won't happen when the leader is held accountable.
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When Paul spoke about how the churches are to be led, I don't think he was talking about 'hierarchy' or 'structures of command' as we normally think of them. If everyone has a Spirit-gifted role and ability in the Church, then everyone who is using those gifts in carrying out those roles is, just by doing so, in some way leading the Church. Finding out what the Spirit wants is key to how the Church is to decide about matters of theology and church practice. This is much like how our physical bodies work: while the conscious mind directs it in crucial ways, the body also has automatic or reflexive systems (like breathing and heartbeat) which continue even if the conscious mind shuts down. The brain (itself a very complex organ with many parts to it) works to maintain the whole body as a working unit. It does so based not on its own imaginings, but based on what the rest of the body is telling it via its nervous system. So if we're going to liken the church to a body, that body is less an imposed hierarchy than a cooperative venture that operates for the sake of the whole entity and not any one cell within it. It has command mechanisms (the brain and nervous system), but they are part of the whole, they depend on the whole, and they work for the sake of the whole. This is the way God made organisms. This is also the way God makes the 'organism' called the Church, and what makes it, in a sense, a living thing.
If the Spirit speaks to different people differently, in a way that furthers what the Spirit calls each of us to do, then those differences may well be at odds with each other. For instance, the Spirit may be creating the various church factions and theological approaches so that each one is present and ready when its special message would most benefit the whole Body. Or, the different approaches and factions may exist to keep up a 'dialectical tension': that is, where the groups keep each other in balance and the rest of us can live in the creative space in between.
If the leaders try to force a unity rather than
grow a unity, they may well be squelching what the
Spirit's trying to do. It may even be killing the very social
mechanisms that the Spirit is using to make the Body do its
job. The gifted leader uses the gift for the same purpose that
governs other gifts : building up the Body. It is about leading
others to blossom in the gifts God has given them.
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Many Pentecostalists and US Baptists have a special problem with top-level authority. Some believe that their top leaders mark the return of the formal office of 'apostle'. Others wouldn't call their leader that, but act like it's so. All direction, command and vision come not from Scripture or confessions or a discernment process or a track record, but from the unquestioned 'God-given' authority of the top leader, the 'mighty men of God'. The members of the church are to operate "under their covering", "in submission" to them. That is a star system. Even if somehow the star him/herself stays humble, the followers will not allow the good spiritual effects of that humility to take root in themselves. Neither robots nor the brainwashed are humble; they are automatic and pre-programmed. The humble choose the course of following God, and following whomever God calls to be leaders, by accepting the Spirit's leadings.
No leader or hierarchy has any inside scoops on God; they know nothing you cannot find out for yourself. (There are many real mysteries of the faith, but our leaders are as mystified by them as everyone else.) Christianity rejected the idea of secret wisdom in its first 200 years, when it rejected Gnosticism. 'Secret wisdom' was called 'heresy' then, and it is even more of a heresy today. We only know what has been revealed, and Jesus as found in Scripture is the hub of all that has been revealed about God. Anyone can learn from Scripture, anyone can pray for the Spirit's guidance, anyone can use their minds and the tools of discernment. When it comes to knowing God, no person or organization or office has anything that anyone else does not have.
Pentecostalists are not the only ones who don't grasp this. For some Catholic and Orthodox believers, their bishops are given a similar status. In those traditions, bishops are seen as 'successors to the apostles', and thus they bear the apostles' authority. Some take it to the next step by way of a surreal premise: that somehow the Holy Spirit suspends the bishops' being flawed human beings when they act to lead the church. This has been disproven time and time again in the history of the Christian church. Under the cover of this lie, ungodly leaders have repeatedly taken the church up the path of hypocrisy, murder, war, undisciplined living, and corruption. The rightful powers of a bishop are the powers of someone gripped by the Spirit to be a servant of the Body of Christ and those in need. When discernment and correction are suspended, what one gets is a master and not a servant. And that is neither an apostle nor a bishop, and is not to be followed.
To God, each of us is a star in some way. That's why the power of the Spirit was spread around. When we surrender control of our gift to some authority figure or organization, we lose that sense of spiritual equality. We start to see ourselves as inferiors who are less able to serve God on our own accord. We start believing we're unable to have the Spirit work through us except when that authority figure says so. This lie defies the Spirit's chosen way of working. Each Christian can rely on the Spirit. No leader or authority can give it to or take it away from those who trust in Jesus.
This is not to say that people should avoid following
leaders. It is important that we allow ourselves to be held
accountable by another, to follow the path being forged by
someone who has earned our respect and whose authority is
recognized by those with whom we fellowship. Most of us are
called to spend most of our time as followers not leaders. We ought to find enough
humility in ourselves to admit that we quite often don't know
how to get where we need to go. We commonly lack the courage or
inner stability or vision to get it done. Or, God might have given us a different task than leadership. We are usually better
off trusting in someone who can understand it or accomplish it
better than ourselves, someone who has the vision to lead the
way. But our followership must always remain
second-order at most: we follow God, and the
leader is not God's mouthpiece. The way we can spot a
true leader in the Spirit is that they not only speak and act
with authority, but that they do so as servants. We follow, but as partners and teammates,
not as stooges.
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" 'Do-so' is more important than 'say-so'."
------- Pete Seeger
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual
power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
------- Martin Luther King Jr., *Strength to
Love*
"COMMITTEE: (n.) a body that keeps minutes and wastes
hours."
------- a definition found on-line
"Most worthwhile achievements are the result of
many little things done in a single direction."
------- Nido Quebin
"Leadership should be born out of the
understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by
it."
------- Marian Anderson
"Management is doing things right; leadership
is doing the right things."
------- Peter Drucker
"The shift from teacher to facilitator ultimately
requires wrestling with our own motivations. The bitter,
resentful, angry pastor is not a pretty picture -- and yet,
it's a reality in many churches. ... After years of being the
star of the show, many pastors find it hard to take a back seat
and let others take the spotlight. Becoming a facilitator
requires dying to pride and recognizing just how much identity
we've drawn from our position of power."
------- Spencer Burke, *Making Sense Of the
Church*
Thou camest like a rushing Wind,
To fill th' Apostles' souls with strength
that Faith and Love 'gainst every shock
of earth and hell might stand unmoved.
------- from John J. Keane's *Sodality Manual*,
SEXT., Fortitude, Hymn, v.2
We are cautious, slow to move,
at the bidding of Thy love;
O descend, Thou Heav'nly Dove,
we beseech thee, move us.
------- "We Are Gathered In This Place", v.5, by Joel
Underwood
Holy Spirit, Power divine,
Fill and nerve this will of mine;
By Thee may I strongly live,
Bravely bear, and nobly strive.
------- "Holy Spirit, Truth Divine", v.3, by Samuel
Longfellow
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