Frontier Leadership?

I attended a national conference titled ‘Frontier Leadership’ earlier this year. With good intentions the title inspires us to seek new ways and new ideas of pioneering new initiatives for the future. I fear ‘Frontier Leadership’ has become yet another cool catch phrase like ‘Fresh Expressions’, ‘Emerging Church’, ‘Future Directions’ and the like.

I have been part of these conversations actively for around 7 or 8 years as a Christian minister working with Churches of Christ. While I wrestle with all the realities and challenges that face the Church in the 21st century, I’m not convinced that the mainstream churches are coming up with anything radically new to inspire younger leaders for Christ’s mission to a radically different world to the one we constructed our churches for.

I am a minister of a church that has been established for 95 years, I fit into the category of traditional ministry within a traditional church model. I’m not sure that our church would fit into any of the titles I’ve stated above but I live with the belief that the Spirit of God who actively moves among us can create new things from the old, can bring forth new inspirations and stir in the hearts of the faithful people of God. Whether we are ‘emerging churches’ with cool names or traditional congregations established for a long period of time we must live with the belief that through available and faithful people God can create something new and use us to usher His kingdom into the 21st century. All is not lost, the church is not dead or dying, God is refining and reshaping for something new.

I have begun addressing some of these challenges through my Masters studies and my ministry with Blackwood Church of Christ. I have attended numerous conferences and participated in even more conversations and I’ve come up with a theory – although not all conferences I’ve been to support this. The theory is; there is no one solution, there is no big idea, no program, no 10 steps or 12 steps for that matter. There is no one answer to the challenge we face.

Frontier Leadership is this: being available to the pioneering Spirit of God who moves among us and goes before us. We seem to forget that God’s done this before. This is not the first time human beings have come to the point of realizing we don’t have the answer or the map to give us directions into some promised future. Our answer in the past, which worked for a while, is to look to the guru with the answer. That guru leader provides the vision, inspiration and way forward. The risk in looking to this as Frontier Leadership is that we suppress the grassroots movements of the people of God, we neglect the priesthood of all believers and we make idols out of the guru leader listening to the voice of the leader over the stirring of the Spirit.

Yes the old constructs are being deconstructed and maybe for our own good. What I’m seeing beginning to emerge is the imagination of the people of God once again daring to go to the margins and provide leadership in places the church has been absent from. But here’s the critical realization. There is no one big thing! There’s lots of little things each one of us can do and do well. When we engage God’s mission to the world with the conviction of the Holy Spirit we see Christ’s promise come to life, we can achieve immeasurably more than we can imagine.

Watch this space because I want to start telling the stories that are emerging in and around my ministry context. Stories of grassroots movements, the small yet meaningful ways people are engaging God’s mission to the world; the stories of what I think are modelling frontier leadership.

Shalom, Mark

Faithfulness

I renamed this blog around the theme of radical discipleship because at the time, discipleship for me was about radical action. I haven’t changed my mind about that, however since this year began I’ve been reflecting on discipleship a little differently and, I think, engaging with it on a deeper level.

I think what lies closer to the heart of radical discipleship is radical faithfulness. I’m not exactly sure how many other themes will resonate with me around the heart of discipleship and i don’t have a plan to blog about it daily or weekly. but just musing out loud whenever God lays something on my heart and if this sparks conversation then i am happy to engage with it. however I’m not looking for solutions or answers or the next 10 steps program. I’m looking for people willing to engage the conversations that lie at the heart of our faith communities. What ought to shape us as the people of God and what does that look like?

Faithful discipleship, the more I think about it and attempt to practice it, is actually quite radical and counter cultural.

Tonight I was prepared to run a service we call Sacred Space. We started this in October last year out of a need within our community to have a worship space that wasn’t busy but reflective and prayerful. There are lots of spaces to listen for God and space to be. Each Wednesday evening at 8pm  6 or 7 people (sometimes more, sometimes less) would enter the space for half an hour. We would pray, listen, hear scripture read out loud, light candles and share communion. It was healing and life-giving. We had a break over Christmas and recommenced this month.

At our first service for the year one person showed up. So I went through the motions of the service, sharing readings and prayers and sharing communion together. The next week (last week) 3 people showed up. Tonight, no-one showed up. So what did I do? I ran the service. i read out loud the welcome and the prayers, the scripture readings and then my own unscripted reflections about communion and relationship with God through Christ, all out loud. Am I crazy talking to myself? No actually it didn’t feel like that at all.

Maybe the old me would have packed up and gone home disappointed that no-one showed up. By the conviction God has laid on my heart is faithfulness. i think faithful discipleship is responding to a call even if no-one shows up, even if no-one recognizes you, even if all seems lost. Radical discipleship is about being faithful.

The them of tonight’s sacred space was radical enough from the Gospel reading Matthew 5:38-48. The prayers and reflection, the space and communion were all based on the theme of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute you. But God did a work in me because I was available and faithful. The space was essential for me, i needed to be there even if no-one else was. And so I was grateful to be there in the half hour space hearing the words of scripture out loud and communing with God out loud. And if anyone were to walk in late they could still join the space .

So what does it mean to be faithful and how counter cultural is it really? What sorts of things are we faithful to? What demands our attention and where do we give it? Does God deserve our faithfulness?

 

Shalom

Mark

More than Sundays

How often have you stood there in a church service, singing a worship song and in the middle of the song you ask yourself…’what on earth am I singing about?’ Furthermore, what are we all doing here standing in rows, facing the front and the back of each others heads in uniform like robots? This may not be the case in some more charismatic/pentecostal churches, but when you look around it seems you in a room full of stunned people going through the motions

A foolish revolution

Back in 2007 I was reading Shane Claiborne’s ‘The Irresistable Revolution‘. It was such a refreshing ‘get to the point’ read and timely reminder of our primary call to be Christian. That same year Shane was the speaker at UNOH‘s Surrender conference and Verity was asked to worship lead throughout the conference.

Nooma – a just voice for the feminine

I love the Nooma DVD presentations featuring Rob Bell. Since I’ve been on Facebook I have signed up to be a ‘fan’ of Nooma which means I am invited to watch the premieres of each new video they release. They usually have them available to watch for free for 2 days then they take it off and the only way you can see it is to buy the DVD.

The latest Nooma DVD is called ‘She’. It’s hard to say which is my favorite Nooma but this one certainly grabbed my attention. I think it actually gives a welcome and liberating voice to the women of this world who have suffered marginalization and oppression at the hands of the church (dominated by men in leadership). I am grateful for Rob’s voice of justice and I know many women (and men) who would welcome this message. Sadly I know many women and men who would not welcome this and i hope they would be open to dialogue and teaching on this issue.

Rob Bell speaks of a number of feminine images and metaphors use in the bible to describe God that may come as welcome relief to those who feel alienated by the dominant masculine images we have of God. Is that attributed to the male dominated leadership we have had over the centuries? We have only been taught a half truth about who God is and now our language and our songs refer to God in the masculine where in fact much reference to God in scripture is gender neutral language or as Rob says, ‘God transcends and yet includes what we know as male and female’. He talks about how in the Genesis ‘poem’ created man in the image of God and female in the image of God. There is a masculine dimension to God and there is a feminine dimension to God.

I think it’s a shame due to the constant oppression of women in all levels of church leadership that we have in a sense being robbed of much teaching and pastoral ministry expressing the fullness of the nature of God. What’s worse is that the bible in which we find so much Good News about the equality of gender and the diversity of the gifts, has been used against women to shut them down and hold them in a lower class when it comes to authority on scripture, teaching and expressions of ministry as gifted by the Spirit of God.

And what about women in leadership? If you get a chance in the next 12 hours to view the screening of this presentation ‘She’, have a look at how Rob describes women as integral to the leadership of the early Christ movement. And if you think the Apostle Paul is against women in leadership i encourage you to not only read your bibles again but take some time to learn about the context into which he is speaking and the culture. We do great injustice to scripture when we can’t be bothered even with a little exegetical work. Rob Bell even argues that Paul was the first person in history to argue for the equality of the sexes when he writes to the Galatian Church stating that ‘in Christ there is neither male or female.’

Rob says, ‘if you don’t have her perspective, if you don’t have her wisdom, if you don’t have her leadership, you’re not just missing her, you’re missing out of something central to who God is’. He goes on to apologize to women who have been made to feel second class by the church. Good on ya Rob, we need more voices like yours.

If you are female and reading this and can relate, I want to encourage you. We desperately need more women taking up ministry with the church. We need more women preachers, teachers and pastors. I look forward to experiencing something more of the fullness of the expression of who God is through God’s people.

Shalom
Mark

Healer – exposed or misunderstood?

I don’t normally buy into scandalous stories that come out of failure’s of the Christian church, but this one has caused quite a stir not only in the media but among my friends and colleagues. I’ve even had a friend from new york email me wondering if i can confirm the rumors they are hearing in the USA about Michael Guglielmucci.

In responding to this story I am aware that I have as much trust in the integrity of the media to report a true story as much as I do trust in the integrity of the mega church culture in Australia. I am suspicious of both and their practises concern me.

For the story and the video Hillsong apparently don’t want you to see, click on this link

So is the story true? (this was the question posed by my friend in USA). I can only assume at this stage that it is given the stir among my friends. It’s interesting that when you go to YouTube to take a look at this infamous video of Michael Guglielmucci singing the song ‘Healer’ at Hillsong Church in Sydney, with an oxygen tube strapped under his nose, you get this message:

“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Hillsong Publishing”

I have friends and acquaintances who like to bag Hillsong at every opportunity but I don’t think they need any help this time. So why have they taken it off air? What don’t Hillsong want you to see? Are they trying to protect their faithful believers from being misled or hurt? Most will have seen the video already so why rip it off? Why is it so hard for the Christian church (in general) to let their ‘dirty laundry’ air, show that yes we too can have egg on our face, we’re prepared to be held accountable for it and yes we will journey with the untidiness, uncomfortable exposure and hurt together. It’s all just a bit much to ask I guess. As the story allegedly exposes, we Christians like to create our own alter realities that we can control. We don’t really want to deal with the cold hard facts. It becomes a political game of avoiding truth and we construct our own version of it.

Even tough I don’t live far from Edge South Church and I have friends who attend the church so deeply affected by this controversy I really don’t know much about the whole situation. All i knew was that Danny’s son Micheal was very sick and it was hard on the family and now this story comes out in today’s paper. I guess more truth will be shed on the issue when Michael himself gives a statement to the media tomorrow.

However here is my reflection regardless of the outcome. The damage is done. not only does this story damage the reputation of the church, and it’s ability to operate with integrity and transparency, but Michael’s family must really be struggling right now as is his church. I agree with the spokesperson, Michael and the church really need our prayers. But I would broaden that out to the Church in general. It will take so much longer to restore trust in those who have been hurt by misleading claims and even harder for all christian communities to gain the trust of those who sit on the fringes a criticise. Yes it’s easy to criticise the Church particularly those who have built themselves up on a culturally acceptable model of raising pastors and musicians into celebrities and making promises about the impossible them seemingly making it happen. And the critics will show no mercy now that the media has exposed one as (allegedly) lacking in integrity and falling from the pedestal on which one has constructed and the church around them has allowed them to construct.

My sadness extends far beyond this single story and towards the greater issue of the belief among some Christian Churches that they must build their own kingdoms and draw hordes of people towards it by any means possible. I’ve heard stories from friends who have been involved in some of the more well known mega churches that make me shiver and my skin crawl. Stories about method and theological reason behind some bizarre practises that seem to be counter Gospel.

The Jesus movement to me seems to be counter cultural as I read in my bible, yet there are Christian communities who seem to be confused and in doing everything to be ‘relevant’ and attract the crowds, they lose integrity in the message.

Last I checked, when a couple of disciples said to Jesus they wanted to have celebrity status and power he shut them down and said that if they want to be great they must be humble, they must be transparent in their motives, they must serve as a servant not be served, because the first will be last and the last will be first.

We have a lot to learn still about getting it right. It’s not about making up dramatic stories to attract the sympathy of the masses, it’s not even about getting people to come to ‘church’ (I have a whole other reflection about the church so stay tuned). And the foolishness of the Gospel is this; that we have integrity in presence and relationship with others, that our lives be transparent so that those who look at us with judgemental and criticising eyes will see ordinary broken people just like them, struggling along but at least struggling honestly, together. It’s to not conform to the ways of the world but to live counter culturally as a transformed expression of the Spirit of God.

Shalom
Mark