Monday, April 04, 2005
On Christian Leadership
Transforming Sermons pointed me this past weekend to a series of posts at a blog called The Ancient Christian Faith on leadership. The first installment is here and the second is here, with more to come. The set up for the series, which TS also quotes, is astounding.
Despite a deep temptation to do so, I am not ready, nor do I think I should, jettison the existing institutions. If God can redeem me, certainly he can redeem an institution. I seek in my leadership in my particular institution to be one of God's instruments for bringing about that redemption. But, it is a struggle. The map that tells me my destination is plain, but the road, now that is hard. What I am looking for right now is not a better map, but a better road, or at least help in traversing this very difficult road I find myself on. I seek not reformation, but renewal.
It has become an unending source of bewilderment for me to see how many people admit to the un-edifying instruction coming from ?other? churches, but respond quickly with, ?But ours is different.? Yet when you visit their church you are greeted with the same spiritless pabulum. So, what was the difference? I suggest that the answer is ?Them?. What we really have found in these cases is not the good or bad preacher, but the tendency of people to acquiesce to a sullen mediocrity for fear of futility in the hunt for quality. Tragically, the result of such a decision to acquiesce often means the cessation of their Christian growth, an unconvincing witness to the community, the possible loss of their children to secularity or even to another religion, or worse, the irrecoverable fall into life among the church?s living dead never again to hear the word ?Arise!? The thought that the Church just might be biblically out of step, systemically wrong, or downright deceived, rarely occurs with any conviction. Or, if it does, it does so without an anchor in hope. The result is no action taken.The model for leadership that the author goes on to develop is excellent, and I agree with everything he has written to date. However, I am afraid he is not breaking any new ground. Models for Christian leadership have been around about as long as there has been Christian leaders. My question is, shall we say, a little more on the practical end of things. How do we move current Christian leadership closer to the kind of models that the author presents? He says there is little hope for the institutions, but that hope remains in Christ. So how do we bring the hope of Christ to the institutions?
I believe the living God wants to change that, that He wants to offer a new wineskin to replace the one being abused. This 'new wineskin' happens to be identical with the "new wineskin" Jesus offered at His first coming, but which has been hopelessly lost to the "ravenous wolves" who "came in not sparing the flock." While it seems quite clear that there is little hope remaining for these bastard institutions that have usurped Christ's purposes, true hope remains with Christ Himself. He is not bound in any sense to these perversions - despite their claims that He is - and is ready to start again with anyone who hungers with an obedient faith. Thus, hope is only as far away as God Himself, and if you hold a Bible in front of you, that same living God is ready to renew the foundation of your faith, if you're ready to do the work. A new Reformation awaits.
Despite a deep temptation to do so, I am not ready, nor do I think I should, jettison the existing institutions. If God can redeem me, certainly he can redeem an institution. I seek in my leadership in my particular institution to be one of God's instruments for bringing about that redemption. But, it is a struggle. The map that tells me my destination is plain, but the road, now that is hard. What I am looking for right now is not a better map, but a better road, or at least help in traversing this very difficult road I find myself on. I seek not reformation, but renewal.
