I am indebted to my friend Paul Arnott for this Leadership wisdom...

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher

~~~

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

NOVEMBER 2005

In this edition some thoughts from me on the importance of seeing the big picture as leaders, Chad Hall reflects on the state of the North American church and we hear from author Larry Crabb, who suggests that there is more to life than success and control.

Leadership and the Big Picture

By Paul Arnott

Effective leaders need to be able to see the big picture. Seeing only part of the picture can be dangerous. President George W. Bush and global terrorism is a good example of what happens when a leader fails to grasp the full implications of a situation. Bush launched the so-called war on terror in the wake of the attacks on the US on September 11th 2001. He said at the time that the United States would wage a war on terror, which would result in the eradication of terrorism from our world. Since then terrorism has continued unabated. President Bush made two crucial mistakes because he was unable to read the big picture or terrorism. First, he assumed that it would be possible to fight a war against terrorism that would cripple or eradicate it in a relatively short period of time. He failed to understand how widespread and how resilient the terrorist network is. Second, and this is related to the first reason, he misread why this brand of terrorism came into existence. Most North Americans have no idea why so many people from the majority world hate the US. They see themselves as a global peace-keeper which has the best interests of the world at heart. But, many people in smaller countries are both fearful and distrustful of the US. When I visited Argentina last November the vast majority of people I spoke to, including the Christians, were totally opposed to the war in Iraq. They believed the US was in Iraq for it's own (oil) purposes and not for the sake of the average Iraqi. The Leader of the Sojourner's community Jim Wallis spoke these prophetic words to President Bush in 2002: "Unless we drain the swamp of injustice in which the mosquitoes of terrorism breed, we'll never defeat the threat of terrorism." Wallis Told Bush: "If we don't devote our energy, our focus and our time ... to overcoming global poverty and desperation we will lose not only the war on poverty, but we'' lose the war on terrorism." (From an edited version of an article by Ron Suskind in The New York Times Magazine, reproduced in The Age, October 31, 2004, pp13-14.) President Bush and Jim Wallis haven't spoken since. Jim Wallis is right. There is a great deal of injustice that has been perpetrated by the US, or which the US has done nothing to even try to right. George W. Bush failed to see the big picture that required the problems of poverty and oppression to be tackled before the problem of terrorism. This means the US war on terror will fail. And may have enormous implications for us all. To fail to see the big picture is a failure of leadership. This is why it's so important to take the time to reflect on the way things are and to do so in an emotionally intelligent and prayerful way. The plight of the Palestinian people in the Middle East is a terrible one. We forget how many of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted and marginalised as a result of what is happening in the Middle East. While we in the West ignore this plight terrorism will gain more and more adherents, through sheer desperation. Because the problem is systemic we need to address the whole problem not just part of it.

Why Church Isn't Really a Church by Chad Hall, Leadership guest columnist

Anyone familiar with Bill Hybels has heard it: "The hope of the world is the local church." On dozens of occasions, I heard the phrase and nodded in agreement. The phrase led me to commit or recommit myself to serving the local church. The phrase caused me to weep. The phrase gave orientation to my life and to my work.

But lately when I hear it, my response is different. No commitment. No tears. No direction. Just a one-word question filled with doubt: "Really?"

I'm starting to believe the hope of the world cannot possibly rest with the 501(c)3* not-for-profit religious organizations dotting our landscape and holding themselves out to be "churches." It just can't be true.

It's not that I doubt God or the unique and saving nature of Jesus; I truly believe Jesus is the hope of the world. I do not doubt that God's plan is to empower and inspire ordinary people to carry the life-giving message of salvation. I do not even doubt that communities of believers are the God-ordained means for carrying out this grand plan. What I doubt is that what passes for "church" these days is the manifestation of Jesus in our world. I even doubt that my own church is a church.

Jesus died for this? Why all the doubt? Like other congregations, the one I serve strives to be an authentic church, but we get in our own way. Simply put, our chief aim is not to connect people to God, each other, and the world, but to build an organization that does so. The distinction is subtle but significant.

Building an organization isn't an inherently evil thing to do, nor is it necessarily counterproductive to spiritual aims. Indeed, modernity gifted humans to become more efficient and effective in building organizations. Businesses, governments, and charities give us meaningful and productive work when they are better organized. There's nothing wrong with that. But building an organization is not the same as being a church, even if the aim of the organization is to do the work of Jesus.

Building an organization is an intoxicating substitute for being a church, because it allows us to work toward being a church without really being a church.

The pain of all this strikes church leaders especially hard. Deep down, not one of us believes the organization we serve is a true expression of authentic Christian community. Each of us thinks, "THIS is what Jesus gave his life for? No way!"

We are right to be suspicious. But we are also knee-deep in this pursuit of church and we find it easy to ignore the obvious sense of dis-ease that bugs us. After all, we attend seminars and conferences, we read books and go to school, we pray and fast, we develop our leadership and preaching skills-all to the aim of organizing the church so that it can express and grow the Kingdom of God. But we never get there. The organization gets tweaked, and sometimes overhauled. We try an array of programs, processes, personalities and powerfully alliterated points. But a real live church is still beyond our experience. We just cannot organize well enough to accomplish the goal of building a church. The best we will do is to build an organization that is well-structured, well-balanced, and well-aimed at being a church. But the organization will never be a church.

Whatever your definition of authentic church is, you know the congregation you serve is not there. Nor will it ever get there.

If not church, what is it? So what are these organizations we call "churches?" I have come to believe that there are three possible answers.

(1) Barriers. These organizations are barriers to church. The Bible is clear that all humans are created for the purpose being in communion with their Creator and fellow creatures. So when some hapless creature goes looking for communion in the most obvious of places (a church) and finds a group of people committed to building their religious organization on the backs and souls of spiritual seekers, the hapless creature goes away disappointed and disillusioned. Or worse, the creature assimilates and adopts the values and vision of the organization being built. Either way, the organization stands in the place and in the way of church.

(2) Non-players. These organizations are non-players, having little to do (positively or negatively) with church. Jesus is doing His work in and through people all around, and these so-called churches are not uniquely related to this work any more than are the public library, Little League, or Sears. The fact that some organization members are also participants in true church is merely coincidental.

(3) Catalysts. These organizations are catalysts for church. However, let us not mistake the catalyst for the community. At best, an organization can create communities of faith in which people live out Jesus-like lives and extend the reign of God. Organizations can equip these communities, can gather potential communicants together, and can facilitate the formation of authentic Christian community. But the organization is not the thing it is trying to form. It is a means, not the end.

The organization many of us have joined and even led is not really a church, but the organization might lead to "church."

How can we respond? What does all of this mean? I do not know if this means anything for you, or even if it should. This is my story, so all I can do is tell you four things it means for me.

First, I feel a great sense of relief. I can finally quit trying to make a tree into an apple, so to speak. The 501(c)3 not-for-profit religious organizations will not and do not have to become authentic Christian communities. Thank God! This shift in understanding means I don't have to get bent out of shape when a given congregation is filled with systems, values, behaviors, and people who are anything but the body of Jesus. I think many pastors might feel the same relief as they give up on making their congregation into a church-a task akin to climbing to the moon.

I am also relieved that Jesus is at work through channels other than local congregations. His Spirit is at work birthing churches in factories, neighborhoods, homes, support groups, chat rooms, and hospitals. These churches do not need to legitimize themselves by getting attached to a brick-and-mortar organization.

Third, I am not giving up on the local organization. I am now free to help these organizations produce churches rather than become churches. Any congregation is at once a mixture of all three possibilities: barrier, non-player, and catalyst. Some are such barriers, that there is little hope. Others are non-players to the extent that a new vision is needed. And some are catalysts that can ratchet up their church-producing efforts by modifying their organization and getting out of their own way. I can best serve congregations by working to diminish the barrier qualities, reveal the non-player qualities, and grow the catalyst qualities.

I think this is worthwhile work.

But more important than anything I do related to helping churches (again, a seductive replacement for being church) is the issue of who I am and who I am becoming. I desperately want to be part of an authentic Christian community more so than giving my energy to building a church. I am a young guy, but when I add up all of the hours, energy, books, prayers, and anxiety I have directed toward figuring out how to build a church, it is enormous, and it towers in comparison to the attention I have given to exploring and living out true Christian community.

Mine is a slow conversion.

For decades I have honored the local church as the hope of the world. Now, I have to learn how I and the community to which I belong can be this hope. As long as I shove that responsibility onto an organization, I will find the hope dimmed. The worship will never be engaging enough; the programs will never run smoothly enough; the small groups will always need some missing ingredient; too few, too many, or not the right kind of people will join the organization. And the organization will need me to fix it-and that's where my treasure will be.

Living out "church" So how can I start living out church? This seems to be an especially difficult task for a pastor. But I am going to give it a try. I'm starting by finding other Jesus followers who are interested in being church more than building church. I'm asking, "Who are the folks around me who might allow me to travel with them on their spiritual journey, and whom might we invite to travel with us?"

I am also attempting to be sensitive to where my loyalties are whenever I attempt to get someone to be a part of the congregation I serve. Do I have their best interest in mind, or do I simply want to build my organization? Do I hold out hope that they will experience and become part of a church, or are my aims less noble. These are tough questions, but leadership is a tough endeavor so I should expect no less.

Finally, I am looking beyond the congregation I serve to find, develop, and celebrate church where I see it. This means that my church might not be a part of the congregation I serve. And this also means that I must refuse to treat everyone in my congregation the same. Hopefully, some congregants will be a part of my church, but most won't. I'm going to deal with that fact and not refuse to experience church with some simply because I will never experience it with all.

If you're doubting that the local 501(c)3 is the hope of the world, here are some suggested next steps you might consider:

* <http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=19908&p=10063 28> A Peculiar People by Rodney Clapp (InterVarsity Press, 1996): a great exploration of how Christians might live out our peculiar heritage in today's world. * <http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=22599&p=10063 28> The Gathered and Scattered Church by Eddie Hammett (Smyth and Helwys, 1999): how Christians are impacting the world by getting away from the church and how the organized church can facilitate this movement.

Chad Hall is lead pastor of Connection Church (or is it?) in Hickory, North Carolina, and he operates the website <http://www.coolchurches.com> CoolChurches.com.

* 501(c)3 is the tax exemption code the U.S. government gives to not-for-profit, charitable organizations, including churches.

Copyright (c) 2004 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal. Used with permission. October 25, 2004

<http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/003/> Leadership Journal, Summer 2004

American Idols Larry Crabb says there's something better than control and success. The Leadership Interview

The Colorado sunshine bathes red rock formations on the slopes surrounding Larry Crabb's house. Outside the living room window, shaggy deer nose sparse bits of grass. "Donkey deer," Crabb explains. "On the East coast, deer are very attractive. These are not the most attractive deer. They're probably eating my flowers right now."

They are.

One ugly deer peers in the window as the popular conference speaker, psychotherapist, and professor listens to a quote from one of his 16 books, a hopeful hypothesis about the church, <http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=14566&p=10063 28> The Safest Place on Earth:

Brokenness is the release of spiritual power and the revealing of hidden idolatry. It's the most underrated virtue in the Christian community. -Larry Crabb

"A spiritual community consists of people who have the integrity to come clean. It is comprised of those who own their shortcomings and failures because they hate them more than they hate the shortcomings and failures of others, who therefore discover that a well of pure water flows beneath their most fetid corruption."

Leadership: Have you seen such a place?

Larry Crabb: When Philip Yancey read the book, his comment to me was "It seems to me you've written about a place you've never seen but hope you will someday."

I've now seen it in a church we helped start back in Indiana. They are an incredible community of people who live in an ongoing brokenness with joy. And my wife and I are now in a spiritual formation group we started over two years ago with three other couples. We're close to it. I think in twenty years I'll still tell you we're close to it. Spiritual community is like a good marriage. It's good, but never ideal. We're getting closer to it.

Spiritual community as you describe it seems to be a place where we can be honest about our sins and open about our weakness. How does that include pastors?

I think the missing element in most pastors' lives is community. Pastors spend time in the Word. They're willing to spend time on their knees. At least some are not that willing to open up their hearts to another brother or sister and say, "Can you help me discern?"

Everything is usable by God to help me enter into deeper relationship with him. If that is not the first thing, then whatever is first is an idol. -Larry Crabb

Discern what?

Impotence, inability, that there's nothing of eternal value I can do apart from the Spirit.

On one level, brokenness is simply the release of spiritual power, the Spirit doing his thing and power coming out. It only happens through brokenness, which I think is the most underrated virtue in the Christian community today. But beyond the release of power, there's this deep understanding of our weakness.

Strength, then, is not a virtue to be cultivated. It is a reality to be released. It's something that is already there. It gets released increasingly over the course of your lifetime as brokenness becomes more complete.

Has that been your experience?

That's my testimony. Brokenness wasn't much a part of my life until the last few years. And it feels like it's an increasing thing. But I don't find brokenness to be a morbid thing at all. There's something alive in me that brokenness has simply surfaced.

The first of Luther's <http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=525571&p=1006 328> 95 Theses was about brokenness, that Jesus willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance. In other words, brokenness is the ongoing, lifelong reality. It isn't something you get past. It's a continually deepening revelation of your own impotence without the Spirit. That's why you meet people in their eighties, godly men and women, who say, "I think I'm just beginning to grasp the gospel."

What do we discover when we are being broken?

Hidden idolatry.

About a month ago I was reading through Ephesians. I had decided to seize a free day for a brief spiritual retreat. I was reading Ephesians through for the fourth or fifth time when I began getting some clear thoughts I hadn't seen before. I was thinking, This will work for my next book. This will work for the conference I'm doing in a couple of weeks.

I began writing these things down when, it was one of those mystical moments, I could sense the Lord saying to me, This is just between you and me. I'm not asking you to use this for your purposes. I'm asking you to just enjoy the food I'm giving you. I had to put down my pen. I felt like an alcoholic must feel putting down his drink. I had discovered my own idolatry. Rich thoughts from God had become something I could use in a way to accomplish my agenda. They were my idol.

How do you learn to recognize your own hidden idolatries?

First, be aware of the category. If you don't know hidden idolatry exists, you'll never see it.

Second, have a couple of close spiritual friends who will say, "You drive me crazy with this. Can I talk with you about this?" One of my best friends often says this to me. One strength of mine is good preparation when I speak, but my weakness, one friend points out, is in over-preparing. "Go see a movie," he told me once when I planned to spend an afternoon reviewing notes for a presentation. "It's the most spiritual thing you can do today."

Michael Card, the songwriter, told me the biggest thing he learned from counseling was that his gift was not his identity. That he can sing and strum his guitar and create music is not his identity. "If it is, I am an idolator," he said.

For many pastors, their gift is their identity; their strength is their weakness, their idol.

In his last sermon, one of my mentors who was on the faculty at Masters Seminary, told the students, "The greatest impediment to your spiritual intimacy is your giftedness. Because you are gifted, you are going to be able to make life work in the church without ever knowing God well."

How do you embrace this impotence, rather than despair of it?

It's pride that keeps us from going all the way into brokenness, stopping at the level of despair rather than getting to the bottom where we find not despair but hope. There's a line in C.S. Lewis's book <http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=52381&p=10063 28> A Grief Observed, on the death of his wife, that stands out for me: "You never know how much you believe in the strength of the rope until you're hanging by it over a cliff." I think brokenness is one of the most joyful realities in the Christian life. It lets you discover that the rope holds. The rope is God.

Weakness is so opposite of our culture today. Even ministry is about progress and success.

A pastor said to me, "I had been so busy managing everything at my church that I had never allowed myself to feel the profound level of emptiness that was in my soul. My spiritual dryness kept me working 80 hours a week so I wouldn't feel the emptiness that I'm feeling now. It's overwhelming."

He went back to his church and confessed his brokenness, an emptiness that all that church activity could not begin to fill. He preached the sermon of his life, another friend told me.

When I admit, In my weakness I can do nothing to fill my emptiness, there is opportunity for the Spirit to move us into closer relationship with himself.

In the current interest in spiritual disciplines, is there an effort to make spiritual health systematic and manageable?

That's a subtle danger-that they become another technique. The demand for a system that can be managed is probably at the core of what it means to be unbroken. When somebody says, "What do I do to make this happen?" I think that's a cry of the person's heart, but it's not the deepest cry. There are lots of things that can be managed, but at the deepest level of spiritual growth, I don't think it can be managed.

I was challenged on this by Brennan Manning. We were speaking together at a pastors' conference. I asked him where he was headed when it was over.

"I'm going on a seven-day silent retreat," he said.

"Why?" I asked. I had never done a seven-day silent retreat. I couched it in delicate language, but I said, "What do you get out of this? Are you a different person because you're doing this?"

He was bewildered. "I never thought of what I'd get out of it," he said.

"Then why-"

"I just figured God likes it when I show up," he concluded.

That was a paradigm shift for me. Here was a man whose focus was simply on union with God. When you're older and your children want to come home to spend time with you, it feels kind of nice. Maybe God feels the same way.

I meet pastors who are frantically trying to put into place the next system that will make it all come together-for themselves and for the church. C. S. Lewis said, "Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things."

We have so many things to handle in ministry. How do we sift it down to the "first things."

Our first thing is union with God, the enjoyment of God as my supreme treasure. (I'm indebted to John Piper for this answer.) No matter what happens in my life-whether the church falls apart or gives me a million bucks and a year-long sabbatical, if my teenage daughter gets pregnant or my kids become missionaries-everything is usable by God for me to enter into deeper relationship with him. If that is not the first thing, then whatever is first is an idol.

I was talking with a pastor whose two older children's actions were breaking his heart. He said, "Tell me how to respond biblically so I can win them back." That's a second thing question-completely legitimate, and it deserves an answer, but it's second place.

The first place question is "What does it mean in the middle of this heartbreak for me to draw closer to the Lord for his pleasure?"

Pastors aren't alone in putting second things first. How do we make this a priority in our spiritual communities?

In the church context, pastors are in a tough position because of the expectations of members, of the board, and expectations of what successful pastoral work looks like. It's usually about goals with visible results-getting someone over addiction, making a marriage better, building a church to double its size.

A good friend, Jim Kallam, who pastors Church at Charlotte [North Carolina], tells how several years ago as the church was growing, the elders said to him, "Let's get a building program going."

Jim could feel that this was the next thing he wanted to give his soul to. He thought, We're growing, we could get a capital campaign going, we could be one of the primary churches in Charlotte. Then something in him was broken by the idolatry of that. He just relaxed and said, "Let's not rush here. Let's make sure our hearts are right before God." And he felt content that if this building project never happened, he would be okay with that.

After prayer and time, they built. But it was second thing, second place.

How can we be broken before our people in such a way that they don't lose trust or confidence?

Don't start in the pulpit. That's not the place to start. And it's not about "vulnerability," a term that comes out of the therapeutic culture. The assumption is that if you're open about your pain, that's the essence of healing. I don't agree with that. "Authenticity" is a much better word. Authenticity says, Here's where I am in my journey to knowing God better, as opposed to vulnerability, which is Here's where I am hurting most. Vulnerability can be narcissistic.

Where can we be honest about our weakness?

Nobody should ever go to the grave with secrets-but it happens with 99 percent of people. There should be somebody in my life from whom I've hidden nothing. In many cases, it may not be my spouse. It may be a friend, a spiritual director, a pastor, somebody who knows my worst. That's the first level.

The second level is a small group. In my case, it's our spiritual formation group of four couples. There I don't need be to be a star or a leader. I'm just another pilgrim with a bunch of struggling pilgrims.

With those pieces in place, a pastor will not feel the compulsion to hide or to reveal, because it's already taken care of before he gets in his pulpit. Then he's able to live out of his brokenness for the sake of his congregation and not for his own healing.

Your model community appreciates open, caring interaction, where people "have the integrity to come clean." Can this be taught?

It starts with a recognition of impoverished theology. Eugene Peterson was scheduled to appear at a conference on spiritual formation. I phoned him to ask what he would speak on. "Our Trinitarian theology in the evangelical church is thin," he said.

Until it gets thicker, we're not going to make much progress in this whole area of spiritual formation. God is in eternal community, a radically other-centered relationship where the Father is always saying, Isn't my Son something?! The Son's always saying, Look at the Father. And the Spirit is always saying, Look at Jesus.

Until we start pondering the mystery of the Trinity, we won't have a clue that we're a million miles from it in terms of community. People need to be overwhelmed by the Trinitarian community.

How do you put that in practical terms?

Are you familiar with the word perichoresis? It's a word fourth-century monks came up with to help laymen think about the Trinity: peri meaning "around" and choretic coming from "choreography." It's "dancing around." When Peterson teaches the Trinity, he says to visualize the Trinity having a square dance. Can you hear the rhythm of the Spirit and enter the dance?

It think it means God is having a good time. When we understand community like that, we will realize we're missing something here.

Copyright (c) 2004 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal. Used with permission. Summer 2004, Vol. XXV, No. 3, Page 24

Paul Arnott

State Director

Church Missionary Society Victoria

Phone 03 9894 4722

Mobilising For Mission

To See Lives Changed By Christ

"The Son of Man came here not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Mark 10.45 NLT