Friday, May 09, 2008
Leadership
Adrian Warnock wrote recently on Mark Driscoll's vision for leadership. This quote stuck out at me like a sore thumb:
May I suggest that one way that happens is when someone else calls you (say a nominating committee) even when you yourself do not feel particularly motivated.
As someone who has done ministry professionally and voluntarily for many decades now, I have found a personal "sense of call" over-rated. When I felt called it has almost universally been my ego, or need for ego gratification talking. The ministry I have gotten involved in out of this "sense of call" have had great initial success because of the amount of energy I poured into them. But they also generally fell by the wayside, failed, almost as rapidly as they got out of the gate, because they lacked the underpinnings to support the energy.
The truly successful ministry I have been involved in is ministry to which I was dragged, often kicking and screaming, service which I rendered out of a sense of obligation, and in response to someone else telling me I had to do it. When I quit fighting the idea and started to do the job in workman like fashion, what happened was not spectacular, but it was lasting and successful.
Which leads me to another statement from Adrian's post:
It is too easy as an individual in leadership to confuse our own emotional and spiritual states with those of the church as a whole. Which indicates to me a church built on too fragile a foundation - us, not the Holy Spirit.
Motivation and energy from leadership is vital to any organizational activity - but that is different than a "sense of call" - it is a discipline and a duty. Nominations and votes ARE CALLS. It is up to us to answer those calls and to have the discipline to do the job well.
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There has to be a sense of call or desire—it's not just a matter of being nominated and voted on. There must be a desire to be an elder. God has to clearly call you. Not in an arrogant, proud, or controlling way. If you don't have that sense of call, you will end up quitting the ministry. You must not limit the ways that God can call you. There needs to be a strong desire to care for God's people.How does one experience a sense of call? Adrian says it is not an arrogant thing, so how does one feel humbly anointed?
May I suggest that one way that happens is when someone else calls you (say a nominating committee) even when you yourself do not feel particularly motivated.
As someone who has done ministry professionally and voluntarily for many decades now, I have found a personal "sense of call" over-rated. When I felt called it has almost universally been my ego, or need for ego gratification talking. The ministry I have gotten involved in out of this "sense of call" have had great initial success because of the amount of energy I poured into them. But they also generally fell by the wayside, failed, almost as rapidly as they got out of the gate, because they lacked the underpinnings to support the energy.
The truly successful ministry I have been involved in is ministry to which I was dragged, often kicking and screaming, service which I rendered out of a sense of obligation, and in response to someone else telling me I had to do it. When I quit fighting the idea and started to do the job in workman like fashion, what happened was not spectacular, but it was lasting and successful.
Which leads me to another statement from Adrian's post:
Driscoll began by claiming that, statistically, the only variable that makes a difference to the life or death of a new church plant is the gifting and qualifications of its leader. [emphasis added]The word "leader," as a singular, strikes me as problematic - I would use the word "leadership." Even Christ had advisers.
It is too easy as an individual in leadership to confuse our own emotional and spiritual states with those of the church as a whole. Which indicates to me a church built on too fragile a foundation - us, not the Holy Spirit.
Motivation and energy from leadership is vital to any organizational activity - but that is different than a "sense of call" - it is a discipline and a duty. Nominations and votes ARE CALLS. It is up to us to answer those calls and to have the discipline to do the job well.
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