Leadership Conversation
Navigating modernism & postmodernism Clash between two philosophical approaches of life &
leadership
Navigating maintaining and mission Clash between focusing “inside” and “outside” the Church.
Navigating between clergy and laity Clash between authority and empowerment
Leadership Conversation
How do pastors address these clashes?
What are the greatest challenges pastors face in becoming a missional leader?
What does it mean to be a missional leader?
Effective Leadership
Discovering Yourself (Self-Awareness)
Serving a Purpose (Missional)
Developing Shared Values (Vision)
Creating Change (Transformation)
Empowering Others (Equipping)
Leadership Approaches
Bureaucratic-boss & hierarchy.
Participatory-involve others in decision making.
Charismatic-people dependent on you as leader. Prophetic Voice.
Missional-focused on God’s mission in the world.
Missional Church
Missional is not a program or project, but the Church’s very nature is to be God’s missionary people.
“A missional church is a community of God’s people who live into the imagination that they are, by their very nature. God’s missionary people living as a demonstration of what God plans to do in and for all of creation in Jesus Christ.” Alan Roxburgh, The Missional Leader
A missional congregation lets God’s mission permeate everything that the congregation does — from worship to witness to training members for discipleship. It bridges the gap between outreach and congregational life, since, in its life together, the church is to embody God’s mission.
Lois Y. Barrett in Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness
Missional Leadership
Missional Churches need missional leaders.
Movement from professional pastor to missionary pastor (K. Callahan).
Movement from focus on inside the church to outside the church.
The nature of leadership in the local church will determine the focus of pastoral leadership.
Leadership in a “churched culture”
Ministers serves inside the church
Laity ministers in the world World seeks the church
Leadership Revisioned
When ministers focus inside the church, that’s where the laity focuses
No longer do we train laity who, in turn, do the mission in the world
No longer do we serve inside the church and laity outside in the world
Focus: “in the world,” not “in the church”
Missional Outpost
Focus on relational characteristics
Living on the edge of its resources
In the worldFulfillment of life
searchesValue of missional
leadership God’s missionaries
Church-cultured local church
Focus on functional characteristics
Conserving & holding resources
In the ChurchPleasant programs &
activitiesValue internal
leadershipCaste system of
pastor/laity
Life and Leadership
Callahan says “there is a direct correlation between a persons philosophy of life and one’s understanding of the nature of leadership.” (37)
Nature of leadership, theology of the Church, Emerging trends in culture, & Philosophy of life are interrelated.
Leadership/philosophy/theology
Manager=materialism/institutionalism
Boss=Hierarchy/sacramental hierarchy
Enabler=Developmentalism/process
Charismatic=Apocalyptic/Covenant community.
Discussion Questions
How do you balance pastoral ministry and missional leadership?
Are you a missional leader? Is your congregational missional? Why? Why not?
In what ways can you as a leader foster a missional focus in your congregation?
Missionary Pastor
The nature of leadership is one of discovery and fulfillment.
Philosophy of life is pilgrimage.Theology of the Church is primarily of
mission What does it mean to have a missional theology
of the Church?
Culture is dynamic and changing
Qualities of Missional Leadership
1. Theology of the church is a theology of mission, not a theology of institutionalism.
Three theological streams of thought about the nature of the church
Sacramental-Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox
Prophetic-Lutheran, Presbyterian Covenantal-Baptist, Assemblies of God
Nazarene-sacramental and prophetic.
2. An adequate understanding of the relationship of faithfulness and success in terms of mission:
Being successful is being true to the “mission.”
To be faithful to the “mission.”
3. Confident that compassion and community are more helpful motivations than challenge, reasonability, and commitment.
Often pastors focus on the latter than the former.
Leadership Values Compared
Proactive
Relational
Missional
Intentional
Reactive
Organizational
Institutional
Passive
Leaders are Summoned
Leadership is made or born? Or Summoned?
“Leaders are called into existence by circumstances. Those who rise to the
occasion are leaders.” (L. Sweet, Summoned to Lead, 2004).
Servant Leadership
Robert Greenleaf term “Servant-Leading” and “Servant-learning.” (Servant Leadership)
Servant-Leadership is a disciplined spiritual journey dedicated to the growth of persons and institutions undertaken in the context of community rooted in relational power exercised for the common good.
Leadership
Traditional LeadershipTraditional Leadership Servant-LeadershipServant-Leadership
Exercise of CommandExercise of Command Exercise of Compassion Exercise of Compassion
Pursuit of ControlPursuit of Control Nurturing of CommitmentNurturing of Commitment
Goal of ProductivityGoal of Productivity Goal Developing PeopleGoal Developing People
Individual PerformanceIndividual Performance Team Performance Team Performance
OrderOrder Freedom Freedom
HierarchyHierarchy Participatory Participatory
GuidelinesGuidelines Relationships Relationships
Characteristic of Servant-Leadership
Listening receptively.
Acceptance of others & having empathy.
Foresight and intuition.
Awareness and perception.
Having highly developed powers of persuasion.
Servant-Leadership
An ability to conceptualize and to communicate concepts.
An ability to exert a healing influence upon people.
Building community in the workplace.Practicing the art of contemplation.Recognition that servant-leadership begins
with the desire to change oneself. Larry C. Spears, The Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-
Leadership