I’ve been in three or four really good conversations this week about the power structures of the modern church. Top down leadership from the “paid staff” where we (as the pastors) do most of the work, make most of the decisions, etc. This hurts the possibility for the community of faith to make decisions together, as a community (i am not talking about moving pianos, what color to paint the walls, etc. I am talking about how we, as the people of God, decide what it means and looks like for our particular community to love God and be a blessing the world). Still learning how this looks on a practical level, but is a great conversation…
Alan Roxburgh has some good thoughts…(from this blog)
“Leadership is about empowerment, mentoring and equipping coalitions of people. Coalitions are not power groups advocating issues or positions. They are centers of energy coalescing around emerging missional imagination. They are settings where people can dialogue about the changes in culture and interface with the biblical narratives. Coalitions help people work with one another discerning call and gift. Coalitions are gatherings of imagination and energy where people experiment and innovate ways of engaging their contexts as God’s people. They are places where people learn what it is to live with and for their world out of missional practices. A leader cultivates, mentors, and equips such coalitions. The skills and capacities for leading groups of people are different from those of the classic small groups movement. They require more than gathering people together around a study guide or teaching series. Action-oriented coalitions are the creative womb from which missional actions are birthed.”
–Alan Roxburgh