Before you head off into this Memorial Day Weekend, here are three things that I have read and been thinking about this week. I hope they are as helpful and challenging for you as they have been for me.
I hope we will pause this weekend to remember and honor those who have served our country and given their lives.
Have a great weekend!
#1
A vision cannot settle for capturing the imagination if it does not, even more, capture the hands and feet of those for whom it exists and do so in such a way as to change the behaviors to be consistent with it. – The Missional Church and Leadership Formation by Craig Van Gelder
I have found that it is easier to capture the imagination with ideas than hands and feet with action. Week after week with inspiring worship services does not a disciple make. If we are not careful, inspiring experiences can act as a bubble bath that makes us feel squeaky clean on the outside but do not move us to further growth in grace. Discipleship is about behavior change to align with that of Jesus. Feelings have their place but we can’t be satisfied with feeling good. The goal of Christ is to make us good as he is good. We must take those feelings and put them into action to do that.
#2
The paradigm shift that I am after is from pastor as program director to pastor as spiritual director. – Under the Unpredictable Plant by Eugene H. Peterson
Yes! is what I say each time I read this quote. I spend some of my work week in meetings to help run the organization. That is necessary work that allows for the other side of my “job” of curing souls to happen. I guess everyone is wired differently in terms of which side of the equation they feel gifted and fed by. I find that a 30/70 split between program director and spiritual director is the balance that is workable for me in my context. Program pastor often has easy to see benefits such as increase in attendance and giving. Spiritual director pastor is like farming in that it takes time and effort and patience before we begin to see fruit if at all. That is why I think some of us default to more of the program paradigm because it feeds our need to succeed and it provides tangible signs to the congregation that you are not only working but are good at what you do. The more difficult work of spiritual director is the most pressing need in the congregation however. It is the non-urgent but important work that if not done consistently will eventually less discipleship taking place. It is the work that sows seeds for generations to come inside and outside the walls of the church.
#3
Children rarely succeed in rising above the maturity level of their parents, and this principle applies to all mentoring, healing, or administrative relationships. – A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman
A word of caution for all of us pastors. We may very well be the limiting factor in the discipleship of our congregation. The best thing we can do is to be more of a passionate disciple than a passionate leader. Passionate disciples will always make more disciples. Passionate leaders may, or may very well not. Our goal as pastors is the maturity of the congregation as they follow Jesus closer and closer. We need to be careful that our goal not be that they like us more or are more committed to our cause but rather they love God and their neighbor more.
todd nelson 