Leadership from the Ground Up

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.