Last week I defragged my computer and did a virus scan. It has been running kind of sluggish so some housekeeping was in order.
Last week I listened to Len Sweet, author of many kinds of progressive Christianity books and articles, describe the church's need to be defragged and rid of her viruses.
I later asked Len, in a Q and A time, If you could defrag the Church of only one virus, which one would you choose?
"Wow, there's so many," he said. He paused, thinking about it, and then finally answered, "I’m not sure I’d call this a virus, but let me be contentious here. For 30 years we’ve done nothing in the church but talk about leadership. And in the last 30 years we’ve had a leadership crisis- the church is doing the worst it’s ever done. It’s hard to find the word leader in the New Testament"
He added more about the need to emphasize followership rather than leadership in the Church. "Paul didn’t think of himself as a leader: “follow me as I follow him.” He is a chief follower of Jesus."
Astutely observed. I think he's right. There is an unspoken sense of leadership in the church as being somehow a promotion of one's spirituality. This might be in part due to the business-like atmosphere and model that many churches mimic. Pastorol teams are often made up of prominent businessmen and wealthy members. It may not be intentional, but it certainly sets a tone that to be included in leadership is to be promoted within the faith community as if it were a job promotion.
Nothing wrong with job promotions. But the Church is not a business. She is a bride, she is a kingdom, a carrier of the life of Jesus. And he said, Follow me.
Last week I listened to Len Sweet, author of many kinds of progressive Christianity books and articles, describe the church's need to be defragged and rid of her viruses.
to defragment (third-person singular simple present defragments, present participle defragmenting, simple past and past participle defragmented)
- (computing) To run a process that collects fragments of files and sorts them into contiguous sections on one or more hard disks or hard disk partitions, thus speeding up file management.
I later asked Len, in a Q and A time, If you could defrag the Church of only one virus, which one would you choose?
"Wow, there's so many," he said. He paused, thinking about it, and then finally answered, "I’m not sure I’d call this a virus, but let me be contentious here. For 30 years we’ve done nothing in the church but talk about leadership. And in the last 30 years we’ve had a leadership crisis- the church is doing the worst it’s ever done. It’s hard to find the word leader in the New Testament"
He added more about the need to emphasize followership rather than leadership in the Church. "Paul didn’t think of himself as a leader: “follow me as I follow him.” He is a chief follower of Jesus."Astutely observed. I think he's right. There is an unspoken sense of leadership in the church as being somehow a promotion of one's spirituality. This might be in part due to the business-like atmosphere and model that many churches mimic. Pastorol teams are often made up of prominent businessmen and wealthy members. It may not be intentional, but it certainly sets a tone that to be included in leadership is to be promoted within the faith community as if it were a job promotion.
Nothing wrong with job promotions. But the Church is not a business. She is a bride, she is a kingdom, a carrier of the life of Jesus. And he said, Follow me.
The great illusion of leadership is....follow this link for the rest of this quote....
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:)
:-) back at ya!
I loved this answer by Len ... we all would do much better if we remembered that we are all followers.
I think it followed what Alan had to say about ReFounding, too!
Thanks for your posts about the gathering. I haven't had a moment to put my thoughts together yet, but I've been commenting on those who have....
Pam:
Please read my poem:
http://www.billdahl.net/poems/sheepmanship-a-poem-about-leadership/
Pertinent.
Bill