Leadership from the Ground Up
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Jay Voorhees, pastor and Methoblogger, has a great commentary in the current United Methodist Reporter. He looks at styles of pastoral leadership, and he emphasizes the necessity of both empowering laity for ministry and modeling leadership by being willing to take on grunt work. Read his article here.
I think Jay makes some great observations in this piece. The pressure of ministry often causes pastors to want to focus on the things they are absolutely expected to do: preach, lead worship, visit the sick, lead committees, etc. But the top-down approach to ministry can cause a pastor to get detached from the basis of ministry, which is about relationships. Jay uses the example of mopping up after a church event. Let your church members see you being willing to do that, and it can make all sorts of impressions that a dozen great sermons won't.
I've read a critique lately of the UMC's decision to abandon the age-old metaphor of "representative ministry" in favor of the "servant-leader" metaphor. While I understand the worries, I think Jay's article shows why servant-leadership is such a powerful model. Ultimately, the church is a community of Jesus' friends. It is not heavenly filling station for getting your spiritual gas tank topped off each week. It is not some magical place where sacraments mediate grace that you can't get anywhere else. It is, instead, a place where grace is available precisely because of the community that is present. And the pastor should recognize that his place is within the community rather than above it.
I think Jay makes some great observations in this piece. The pressure of ministry often causes pastors to want to focus on the things they are absolutely expected to do: preach, lead worship, visit the sick, lead committees, etc. But the top-down approach to ministry can cause a pastor to get detached from the basis of ministry, which is about relationships. Jay uses the example of mopping up after a church event. Let your church members see you being willing to do that, and it can make all sorts of impressions that a dozen great sermons won't.
I've read a critique lately of the UMC's decision to abandon the age-old metaphor of "representative ministry" in favor of the "servant-leader" metaphor. While I understand the worries, I think Jay's article shows why servant-leadership is such a powerful model. Ultimately, the church is a community of Jesus' friends. It is not heavenly filling station for getting your spiritual gas tank topped off each week. It is not some magical place where sacraments mediate grace that you can't get anywhere else. It is, instead, a place where grace is available precisely because of the community that is present. And the pastor should recognize that his place is within the community rather than above it.
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 9:15 AM
3 Comments:
That was a well written article and echos much of what I have thought for years.
I am always amazed when I meet pastors who feel they are "too good" to do certain tasks. They have a Master's degree, after all. Geez.
May God have mercy on us all.
Jesus washed his disciples feet. The least we can do as pastors is mop some floors and clean some tables. Plus it gives us time to talk and bond with those we are working with.
Amazing blog. There is hope for the United Methodist Church, God willing:
http://confessingumc.org/v2/
http://www.ucmpage.org/
http://lifewatch.org/
http://www.themissionsociety.org/
http://www.goodnewsmag.org/
"God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." - John 4:24 (KJV)
"I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out." - John Wesley
"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." - Revelation 3:16 (KJV)
"Try all things by the written word, and let all bow down before it. You are in danger of [fanaticism] every hour, if you depart ever so little from Scripture; yea, or from the plain, literal meaning of an text, taken in connection with the context." - John Wesley (Works, 11:429)
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