Serious Intent Before changing your church model

Todd Hunter is really putting out some good ideas to steal, I mean, keep.

Merely messing with models of church is not going to get us where we want to go.

Without a serious intent (For instance, check out William Law: A Serious Call to Devout and Holy Life.) to pursue spiritual transformation, our self-centered characters will overwhelm any system of church AND keep us from submitting our personal, God-given kingdoms to the Kingdom of God. I am not saying this to bash the church. On the contrary, I am wondering if the church or “how one does church” really matters or is at all to blame—within reason, of course. And of course there are some better ways than others. We are all trying to find a better one.

But, the people I most admire and respect in life are not focused on “church” as a place, event or thing. They just quietly participate in non-descript churches and submit themselves to be used by God, to be ambassadors of his Kingdom in those communities of faith…as everywhere else in there their life: no dualisms. That attitude—whole life self-surrender—is rooted in a different kind of life: life from above, eternal life. It is what we must pursue for our selves and those we serve. It will make most models work.

But again this does not mean we abandon our pursuit of better models. It means that models are second; spiritual transformation is first, in community, for the sake of the world.

For Christlikeness—life in the Kingdom will overcome:

The works of the flesh: selfishness, etc.
Paranoid fear of others, especially “leaders”
The need to get your own way
Meanness and manipulation
Doing “whatever it takes” to feel safe and secure
The routine ignoring of the Spirit
The routine ignoring of the agenda of the Kingdom
Etc.

Christian Leadership

Another stolen post from Todd Hunter

This is what I think is the right question regarding spiritual leadership: “What does it mean to lead a group of people who are supposed to be following someone else (God)?”

My answer: it means to coordinate, empower, bless, care-for and guide the sovereignly given activities of the Holy Spirit.

A few months back someone (sorry, can’t remember who) in our conversation passed on the following story. I think it is a great metaphor to get someone started down the road to effective, ethical spiritual leadership. It is from The book of Great Music by Isaac Stern in China.

"The conductor is not a powerful person. It appears so, but is not so. On the surface it seems that the music is produced by the power of the conductor to tell everyone what to do and when to it. He may have to do that, but it is not what makes the music. If he does too much conducting, the real music will not be heard, but only his idea of it.

A good conductor does not merely tell everyone what to do; rather he helps everyone to hear what is so. For this he is not primarily a telling but a listening individual: even while the orchestra is performing loudly he is listening inwardly to silent music. He is not so much commanding, as he is obedient.

The conductor conducts by being conducted. He first hears, feels, loses himself in the silent music; then when he knows what it is, he finds a way to help others hear it too. He knows that music is not made by people playing instruments, but rather by music playing people.”

I realize every metaphor breaks down at some point, but I thought this might be a good way to reshape our imaginations a little bit and shape our hearts a bit to hear the voice of God—follow him—in a way the liberates the God-calling and gifts of others.

Viral

I got this from Jon Reid. I did it, and you should too.

Step 1: Watch the Sarah McLachlan video World on Fire.
Step 2: Go over to Mike Todd's post about The Gospel Experiment. Follow the instructions. It's OK, Mike works with relief organizations and knows what he's doing.
Step 3: Post about this on your own blog. Tell a friend.

Fastinating that without watching the video, I probably would have skipped making a contribution on to Mike Todd's experiment.

Fastinating that if I had just watched the video and there was no suggestion of Mike Todd's experiment, I probably would have skipped making any kind of contribution.

I think this is another example of how it happens when Jesus (through others) says, "follow".