Transforming Church

• Thinking clearly
• Acting on principle
• Defining self by taking action
• Coming to know more about their own instinctive reactions to others
• Learning to regulate those reactions
• Staying in contact with others
• Choosing a responsible course of action

Differentiation is a process that takes place in relationships. It is about balancing two life forces—individuality and togetherness—when interacting with others.4

I do not want to overemphasize the catalytic power of pastors in Christian community. However, I am highlighting it here because I believe that it has heretofore been underemphasized. What I want to point out in this discussion is that their systemic position in Christian community gives them a powerful presence for transformational, enzymatic action.

As relational beings, our very presence in community (as human beings) impacts others around us. This presence in the pastoral office is augmented because of the deferential posture Christian communities often take with regards to their pastors. To dismiss this reality is to be remiss. To understand this position as only that of feeding the spiritual egos, wants and needs of others is a travesty. To place this presence and its functioning in the service of the crucified and risen One and the future he points to is the essence of pastoral leadership.

In fact, it is Jesus and the news of his death and resurrection and the future they disclose that provides for the shape or “posture” of all pastoral leadership. This cannot be underemphasized: family systems theory is not functionally Christian or Christ-centered. It brings to light how groups of individuals function and influence one another. In this conversation, what must be discerned is that our differentiation in Christian community is not grounded in our own selves or egos. Rather, it finds its life and motivating energy in the very work of God in creation through the power of the cross and resurrection.

At a recent church conference, author and speaker Len Sweet spoke about what he believes are the operating system and the connective interface of a 21st century church.5 He stated that the acronym he uses for the church’s operating system is M.R.I., which translates as a 21st century church that is missional, relational, and incarnational. The church’s interface with a postmodern culture is what Len calls E.R.I.C., or experiential, relational, image-rich, and connective. In other words, for the church’s operating system to communicate with our present world it must have a user interface that is E.R.I.C.

Using the same information technology metaphor, I want to suggest that the operating system for pastors ought to be what I illustrated in “The News” in Part 1: a resurrection witness, grounded in the resurrected Jesus pointing to the future reign he discloses. Furthermore, I want to suggest that
if the enzymatic, transformational action of this leadership is this resurrection witness, that this expresses itself through at least four “postures” or faces. These postures are the posture of discipleship, the posture of perspective, the posture of birth, and the posture of engagement.

The Posture of Discipleship
There has been so much ink spilled on the topic of leadership, both in the culture and the church. Strangely, I have read nothing that grounds our church’s capacity for leadership in what Len Sweet likes to call “followership.” Perhaps this is because it lacks the overt sexiness of the leadership terminology. Followership, in a room full of narcissistic personalities, takes too much of the emphasis off of the self. Nevertheless, it is where we have to begin.

In his comprehensive work, Pastor, Will Willimon looks at the pastoral office and work through a multiplicity of lenses.6 Interestingly, he does not explicitly come to the topic of pastor as disciple until the last chapter of his book entitled, “The Pastor as Disciplined Christian: Constancy in Ministry.”7 Even so, his work grounds the notion of discipleship through a pastoral lens only. I want to suggest however that discipleship as followership begins not with a follower’s identity as a leader, but simply in the baptismal calling of a follower of Jesus the Messiah. To be a disciple is to call someone other than oneself Lord, and to call Jesus Lord is ultimately to be subject to him.

I believe that a “subjected leader” is the starting point or “enzymatic posture” for all leadership in the church. The daily source of strength for the Christian vocation of the baptized comes not from an office of leadership in the church but through a daily relationship with and following of Jesus. What we are talking about here is the differentiated expression of a life that is being formed and transformed by the movement of the disciple’s life from the story of the world to the story of God’s resurrected future. A life that takes on this shape has Jesus at the head, and is filled with his grace, power, and his Spirit of abundance.

I wonder as I write this if this does not evoke an “of course!” It should be obvious should it not? And yet in my experience, albeit anecdotal, and in the many and varied books on leadership I have encountered related to leadership in the church, the pastoral leader as first and foremost a follower who is subject to Jesus seems to be anathema. Let me state this clearly: followership of Jesus is not only the ground of being for the discipleship of the baptized, but for the Christian leader as well.

The Posture of Perspective
Much can be said for what is called a leader’s vision. Author and researcher George Barna defines vision as “a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God to His servants and is based upon an accurate understanding of God, self, and circumstances.”8 One of the key features for Barna is that vision is imparted to leaders specifically and not to groups. Contrast this with author Jim Collins, whose seminal, decade-long research, collated into his book Good to Great, has rocked the business and social sectors and leadership paradigms everywhere.

Collins maintains that vision is something that is discerned when you get the right passionate people, in the right seats, doing what they can do together better than anyone else.9 So vision gets defined and gains clarity as the organization moves daily towards doing better what it is uniquely passionate about. Len Sweet, adding his own unique perspective, maintains that vision is not something seen, but rather heard.10 Vision in his articulation is “seen” through “hearing.”

I think that the Christian vision is a fixed vision disclosed by Jesus in his resurrection. The Lutheran systematic theologian Walter Bouman used to tell his students that he was a mystery novel buff. What was surprising however was the way in which he read his novels. He would read the first two chapters to learn the characters and discover the tension that had to be resolved and then would flip to the last chapter to read how it all turned out. He pointed out that inevitably, this changed how he participated with the middle of the novel. In other words, it did not hold the same level of tension for him. He used this personal peculiarity to make a point.

“This is the Christian life,” he would say. “Because we know how it all comes out in the end through the resurrection of Jesus, we have the joy of participating in our present without the same fears and anxiety. God has our future in hand.”11

As a posture of leadership, the posture of perspective is grounded in a future held by God. It is leadership that is able to frame in conversation and action the challenges of the present in light of the God who holds the last word, a word of life, in our tomorrow. This posture discerns the work of God in our midst. In light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ it expects transformation in Christian life and community to be the rule rather than the exception. This sort of leadership dreams big for the kingdom because it understands the work of the church to be grounded in the God who is today on the move and who ultimately raises the dead.

The full scope of this article in its parts began with a look at leading in the new age. This part introduced the first two transformational postures in leading. Next part will look at the other two postures in leading, and the final part the conclusion and outcomes. As a bonus it will also feature the full bibliography.
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1 Steven S. Zumdahl, Chemistry, 3rd Ed. (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company, 1993), A30.
2 H. Robert Horton, Laurence A. Moran, Raymond S. Ochs, J. David Rawn, and K. Gray Scrimgeour, Principles of Biochemistry, 2nd Ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996), 119.
3 Peter L. Steinke, Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What (Herndon, VA: Alban, 2007), 19.
4 Ibid., 19.
5 Beyond Survival: Thriving through Spiritual Leadership, Sheridan Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Nebraska, November 1-3.
6 William H. Willimon, Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry (Nashville: Abingdon, 2002).
7 Willimon, Pastor, 315-36.
8 George Barna, The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God’s Vision for Your Ministry (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2003).
9 Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t (New York: Harper Collins, 2001), 13
10 Leonard Sweet, Summoned to Lead (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 56.
11 Walter Bouman, Ph. D. died as professor emeritus of systematic theology, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, in the summer of 2005. He died with courage and without anxiety as his body gave in to cancer. He said in his last months with regards to the gospel, “I have lived my life trusting in it, and now I bet my life on it.”