|
In our thinking together
regarding ways that our respective Presbyteries can become more “mission
oriented,” and led by pastors and elders who learn to lead from the
“margins” as opposed to the “center,” it seems to Bart Brenner and me that
one thing that may have become muddied for some, but by no means all, of our
pastors and CLPs is the “hands-on” benefit of participating themselves in
mission. This was brought home powerfully to me through an article written
by Leonard Hjalmarson, titled “Leading From the Margins,” which is excerpted
below:
As ministry decentralizes - moves to homes, malls, pubs,
the internet, fractal networks and reduced
structure, and as we move away from positions and roles and titles to
functional leadership, we are learning to lead from the margins.
Greater numbers of people are providing
leadership today because they are leading from unusual places. They often
lack resources and formal training, but are willing to risk responding to
the call of God in their lives. They often lack the legitimation of
established structures and well-funded organizations, but they have the
approval of God.
While this movement to the margins is
outwardly a shift in position, it is also a shift in the locus of
authority. The choice to abandon worldly
status is clearly articulated by Mark Strom in “Reframing Paul,” as a
call to a new social reality:
Academic, congregational and
denominational life functions along clear lines of rank,
status and honor. We preach that the
gospel has ended elitism, but we rarely allow the implications to go
beyond ideas. Paul, however, actually stepped down in the world.
Paul urged leaders to imitate his personal example of how
the message of Jesus inverted status….
He refused to show favoritism towards individuals or ekklesiai. The gospel
offered him rights, but he refused them. Christ was not a means to a career.
Yet the agendas and processes of
maintaining and reforming evangelical life and thought remain the
domain of professional scholars and clergy. Their ministry is their career.
Dying and rising with Christ meant status
reversal. In Paul’s case, he deliberately stepped down in the world. We must
not romanticize this choice. He felt the shame of it
amongst his peers and potential patrons, yet held it as the mark of his
sincerity. (IVP 2000)
Where once leadership was seen to come from the front,
from appointed persons in defined roles,
from paid professionals, and from the few to the many, now leadership often
comes from the one walking beside us. Instead of the Wizard, it is Dorothy
who has wisdom. Instead of Aragorn or Gandalf, it is Frodo whose obedience
may be the fulcrum for change.
The implication is a relocation of authority and the
disentanglement of leadership from authority. We
won’t attempt a definition of leadership; rather I invite you to come along
on a partnership in discovery. We are searching for wisdom from the margins.
“Fresh expressions of
the church will come from the margins of society, where they will
radically reshape both our understanding of the church and the gospel” (Van
Gelder, Craig. “Response to The Haze of
Christendom,”
ALLELON.ORG, May, 2004).
As we live out new ways
of leading faithful communities,
·
Instead of leading from
over, we lead from among.
·
Instead
of leading from certainty, we lead by exploration, cooperation and faith.
Instead of leading from power, we lead in emptiness depending on Jesus
·
Instead
of leading as managers, we lead as mystics and poets, “speaking poetry in a
prose flattened world” and
articulating a common future
·
Instead of leading from the
center, we lead from the margins.
Reading this article literally gave me
goose bumps. I will be happy to share the entire text with any of you who
desire to read it.
The article raised the question in Bart’s
and my minds as to what might be a vehicle to help our pastors and CLPs
reclaim their calling as apostles leading from the margins rather than from
the center. The answer came to us almost simultaneously: “Let’s invite our
pastors/CLPs to go on a mission trip together!” The sense was that
the pastors and CLPs, freed for a week or two from the everyday stuff that
they do so faithfully on behalf of Christ’s church, could engage in “shop
talk” with colleagues, and, being in a different mission context, perhaps
capture anew the vision with which they entered ministry in the first place
– not as a job, but as a calling from God.
As we talked about it, the ideas came
bubbling out: “They could go to the Gulf Coast to work with struggling
congregations…They could do construction, or lead worship, or provide
counseling.” We thought that the Presbyteries should pick up the tab for the
pastors and CLPs to go, that the elders of the churches back at home would
assume all responsibility for worship and pastoral care in the pastor’s
absence. I called a friend at Frontier Airlines and asked him about offering
a plane to fly the pastors down to New Orleans (I’m waiting to hear back),
and, and, and!!!!!!......
And Bart said, “Chill, Chuck. Let’s ask
pastors to sit down together and think through what all of this might look
like, to plan the adventure, and to bring a recommendation to the respective
Councils of PNP and PSD.”
(Deep breath) “Okay.”
So, Bart asked a pastor in PSD, Rolly
Kemink, if he would be willing to convene a group of pastors from the two
Presbyteries to develop a plan for such a mission trip. Rolly was very
excited about the idea and agree to be the convener.
At its May 22 meeting our Council agreed to
my request to invite pastors/CLPs from our Presbytery who would be
interested in such a project to meet with Rolly and the South Dakota folks
and see what might emerge.
If we go down there my mother-in-law, Mara
Lou Hutto, will fix us a roast dinner, and my brother, Randy, will put on a
crawfish boil. What thinkest thou?
Click here for
Print Friendly Version |
