Leader… A person with a God-given capacity AND with a God-given responsibility to INFLUENCE a specific group of God’s people toward God’s purposes for the group. J.
Download ReportTranscript Leader… A person with a God-given capacity AND with a God-given responsibility to INFLUENCE a specific group of God’s people toward God’s purposes for the group. J.
Leader… A person with a God-given capacity AND with a God-given responsibility to INFLUENCE a specific group of God’s people toward God’s purposes for the group. J. Robert Clinton Leadership is….. A dynamic process over an extended period of time in various situations In which a leader utilizing leadership resources And by specific leadership behaviors Leadership is….. Influences the thoughts and activity of followers Toward accomplishment of person/task aims Mutually beneficent for leaders, followers, and the macro context of which they are a part The Study of Leadership Leadership Basal Elements WHAT Leadership Influence Leadership Values HOW WHY Leadership Basal Element The Leader The Follower The Situation Leader Life History Leader Follower Relationship Immediate Context Leader Traits Follower History Follower Maturity Macro Context Leadership Influence Individual/Personal Means Corporate/Group Means Leader Behavior Organizational Cultural Consideration Structure Structure Initiation Structure Styles History Cultural Leadership Dynamics Dynamics Power/ Authority Cultural Power Leadership Values Philosophical Motivation Efficiency/ Effectiveness Values Ethics Theological Ultimate Purpose Cultural Values The Making of a Leader God develops a leader over a lifetime. That development is a function of the use of events and people to impress leadership lessons upon a leader. Processing is central to the theory. All leaders can point to critical incident in their lives where God taught them something very important. Their growth as leaders is in direct proportion to the willingness to respond to the processing that God is doing something in a person’s life. The Character of Pentecostal Leadership Are You A Theologian? Historical Frameworks Nicholas Wolterstorff Yale Divinity School Two roles of theology in the Christian community: Non-engaged—an ideological component of life of the religious community that asserts and elaborates convictions about God Engaged role—an activity for the well-functioning of the life of the religious community “What the world needs is engaged theology that uses the language the world speaks.” Theology in service of communities of faith Understands its context socially and historically Mines Is its own rich traditions both faithful and critical to the needs and convictions of its faith community. “Can the church tolerate the separation of the theoretical task from the concrete situation of its own existence? Will theologians be permitted to do their work in cool absentia while pastors sweat out their own existence in the steamy space of the Church in the world? When theological thinking is practiced in abstraction from the Church in ministry, it inevitably becomes as much unapplied and irrelevant as pure…. When the theological mind of the minister is educated primarily through experience, an ad hoc theology emerges which owes as much (or more) to methodological and pragmatic concerns as to dogma. The task to work out a theology for ministry begins properly with the task of identifying the nature of and place of ministry itself.” Ray Anderson (Theological Foundations for Ministry) “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of the Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them Plainly, I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!” Matthew 7:21-23 Success is rejected by the Lord as having no kingdom legitimacy. Human efforts don’t even get a pat on the back. We can actually think our usage of strange fire/might-power/sign ministry carries with it God’s seal of approval. Success is viewed as selfauthenticating. Is such a task the responsibility of the pastoral leader? Matthew 7:21-23 as a case study for the absence of pastoral theologians The What, Why and Who question must precede the How questions. Theology is informed human reflection on the activity of God in concrete contexts. The leadership task of interpreting redemptive history is desperately needed. Joseph and the Moral Fabric of a Leader Genesis 39:6-9 Destiny and leadership connected to clear and fair representation of God. Samuel and the reminding of forgetful people about God’s faithfulness. The vacuum created by the phenomenon of post-modernity must be a leadership concern. I Samuel 7:12 David and leaders who understood the redemptive trajectory of God Psalm 78: 52-55 Psalm 70-72 Psalm 95:6-7 Prophets who hear from God, speak God’s words and stand between the eternal and human landscapes. Isaiah 6:1-11 Jeremiah 11:1-5 Daniel 10:7-14 Jesus’ alternative to the “Gentile” paradigms of leadership. Mark 10:35-45 The task of replicating something you’ve never seen. The Early Church Fathers Clement of Rome—We must preserve our Christian body in its entirety. Didaché—the manual of Christian morality and church discipline Tertullian—What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord between the Academy and the church? The Councils that sharpened understanding and the nature of Christ in response to heretical doctrine. St Columba and the Iona Community Centers of missionary initiative that served Christianity Scripture Community Discipline Prayer Evangelism Reason and Aquinas The imago dei Reason supports faith The liberation of the masses to trust in Christ as a response to contemporary attempts to categorize people as simple/ignorant versus learned/landed. Reformers Rigorous minds—Luther and Wittenberg Loosing the chains of oppressive religion—Zwingli in Zurich Community and church experiments– Calvin German Pietism Community is with warm hearts— compassionate action—missionary zeal to counteract inordinate stress on pure doctrine and formalism Nikolaus Zinzendorf and the Herrnhut community as a living experiment. The Moravians as a community of faith committed to intercessory prayer and missionary endeavor. Wesley—A Leader at the confluence of four rivers Biblical primary—Thorsen, p. 127 Hearts strangely warmed—Thorsen, p. 219 Men of reason—Thorsen, p 169 The religion of the primitive church— Thorsen, p. 151 Winds that Shaped Early Pentecostal Leaders to See a New Day Coming and the Shape of Ministry Leadership that Ensued Historical roots that shape North American Pentecostal roots and missionary efforts Wesleyan/Holiness root A focus on sanctification and the belief that God could intersect our lives with a Spirit empowerment to live a holy life. A supernatural intrusion in our lives to take charge. Keswick Root A focus on the second coming of Christ in revelation to an urgency for evangelism. This urgency required a higher life/deeper life. This “Baptism” thrust people into a life of commitment to world evangelism with accompanying signs and miracles. Millenarian Root The imminent return of Christ as the only solution to the world’s dilemma. The message is to radically reorder earthly priorities. A power reality that creates a people radically committed to the redemptive cause of Christ. Restoration/Primitivist Root What is needed is a radical return to the simplicity of the Book of Acts. A separate from the world dynamic exists. Anti-organization attitudes. This is the final chapter of harvest before the Lord returns. Multi-Cultural Root Participating in a new community that rejects culture’s assumptions about human relationships. Azusa St. is where the “color-line was washed away in the Blood.” The winds converge into an initial rationale 1. 2. 3. Baptism of the Spirit as an empowerment for service (Acts 1:8) A keen hope in the soon return of Christ (1 Thess. 4:16) Christ’s command to evangelize the world (Mt. 28:19-20) “Over and over messages were given in the Spirit that the time would not be long and what was done must be done quickly.” J. Roswell Flower “The Pentecostal commission is to witness, witness, WITNESS!” J. Roswell Flower Commitment to the “greatest evangelism the world has ever seen.” General Council – Fall 1914 – “Over and over messages were given in the Spirit that the time would not be long and what was done must be done quickly.” J. Roswell Flower “The Pentecostal commission is to witness, witness, WITNESS!” J. Roswell Flower Commitment to the “greatest evangelism the world has ever seen.” General Council—Fall 1914 Revealing words of pioneers “When we go forth to preach the Full Gospel, are we going to expect an experience like that of denomination and missionaries or shall we look for signs to follow?” Alice Luce “Organization will kill the work, because no religious awakening has ever been able to retain its spiritual life and power after man has organized it and gotten it under control.” William Durham The Nature of Practical Theology The world of the academy has created “handwerkslehre” which is little more than a trade school for church workers AND theology that is connected to biblical and systematic theology with no attention to the context. Practical theology has a hermeneutical nature— interpretive It takes seriously the contemporary reality—empirical data It takes authoritatively Scriptural principles—the Bible Practical theology—critical reflection on the actions of the church in the light of the Gospel and Christian tradition and critical dialogue with secular sources of knowledge with a view to making the ministry of the Church most faithful to the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ in the world. (Ray Anderson) “The reflective process by which the church pursues its efforts to articulate the theological grounds of practical living in a variety of areas of life. (Don Browning) The Pastoral Cycle Experience Response Situational Analysis of Theology Situational Analysis Theological Analysis Theology for Ministry The task of working out a theology for ministry begins properly with the task of identifying the nature and place of ministry itself taking the Bible authoritatively and the context seriously. Nature of Ministry Ministry precedes and produces theology, not the reverse. All ministry is God’s ministry • Every act of revelation is a ministry of reconciliation Nature of Ministry (cont.) The act of God is the hermeneutical horizon for the being of God. The Incarnation signals that every ministry activity has theological objectivity in and of itself. Nature of Ministry (cont.) The act of God is the hermeneutical horizon for the being of God. The Incarnation signals that every ministry activity has theological objectivity in and of itself Assumptions in Theological Reflection Making sense of this mess? How? God’s Word is authoritative • It reveals God’s character and His mission The context must be taken seriously • It is legitimate because it is the place that God revealed Himself most clearly in Jesus Christ That revelation has eternal intent-reconciliation Assumptions in Theological Reflection (cont.) Ministry must be an act of God to be legitimate • All ministry is God's ministry • It cannot be taken on a life/purpose of its own The mission of God comes most clear in Jesus Christ and its continuation is guaranteed by Pentecost Assumptions in Theological Reflection (cont.) The ongoing ministry of Jesus Christ exemplifies God’s purposes • That ministry (it’s purpose, power/pattern/character) is the standard we are co-missioned to participate in What has God done? What is God doing? VISION DISCERN II Cor. 5:17-20 Capacity to acknowledge the significance of Christ in the world To make sense of life John 5:17; Acts 1:8; 2:4 What is my purpose? The process of affirming the Christ of Scriptures at work in our local contexts Agent of Transformation What is the source of my power? Theology for Ministry Takes Scriptures authoritatively Views the context seriously Affirms that God is at work in ministry contexts Acknowledges that orthodox doctrinal conceptualizations do not guarantee ministry effectiveness or orthodoxy That ministry has theological objectivity in and of itself Theology for Ministry (cont.) John 1:12 • Revealer of God and His mission • Jesus legitimates the context with His presence • It is worthwhile; it counts. Theological Reflection Theological Reflection, Spirituality and Church Leadership Theological Reflection What is God up to? Reconciling world Gives church reason for being Discernment Integration Credibility Spirituality Church Leadership Process the identity and fulfill God-given vision Sum of human experiences in gifted relationship with living God Wholistic people Being real before the Lord Theology is action-hear and see the Word of God. Process the identity and fulfill God-given vision Theology is action-hear and see the Word of God. Prophet/Priest/O.L Reflection Cycle Descriptive Statement Affective Expression Evaluation Action Steps MINISTRY REFLECTION CYCLE Informed Understanding Discernment Ministry Event Priestly Role Prophetic Role MINISTRY EVENT Organizational Role Three Questions • Discernment – How is the Christ of Scripture present as the Christ in this ministry event? • Integration – Are you proclaiming and practicing the Word in order to touch human need and be touched with compassion for the human need? • Credibility – Will your action make Christ worthy of belief and evident in the ministry event? Steps in the Discernment Process 1. List all of your options in this ministry event 2. Pray for indifference to all options but the will of God 3. How has the over-arching purpose/goal in the event changed? 4. Write down how your understanding of God’s ministry and the mission of the church relate to the ministry event. 5. Write down how ministry roles—priest, prophet, organizational leader—relate to the ministry event. Discernment A 21st Century Necessity for Pentecostal Leaders Can the church tolerate the separation of the theoretical task from the concrete situation of its own existence? Will theologians be permitted to do their work in cool absentia while pastors sweat out their own existence in the steamy space of the Church in the world? When theological thinking is practiced in abstraction from the Church in ministry, it inevitably becomes as much unapplied and irrelevant as pure. When the theological mind of the minister is educated primarily through experience, an ad hoc theology emerges which owes as much (or more) to methodological and pragmatic concerns as to dogma. The task to work out a theology for ministry begins properly with the task of identifying the nature of and place of ministry itself. Ray Anderson (Theological Foundations for Ministry) The Achilles Heel of Pentecostals Pragmatism • Leviticus 10:1 – “Strange fire” • “Aaron’s sons Nadab & Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to His command.” • A divine task attempted with reliance on human design alone. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6 • Might – human resources • Power – human resoluteness • Spirit – divine initiative and power for God’s eternal purposes • The temptation to offer our resources to the service of God believing that they are an adequate substitute for God’s eternal resource. “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of the Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them Plainly, I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!” Matthew 7:21-23 • Success is rejected by the Lord as having no kingdom legitimacy. • Human efforts don’t even get a pat on the back. • We can actually think our usage of strange fire/might-power/sign ministry carries with it God’s seal of approval. Success is viewed as self-authenticating. So What? • How do we counteract bifurcation? • How do we resist pragmatism? • How do we challenge our culture’s immunity to the Gospel? Biblical Clues • God is at work! (John 5:17) • God continues to empower His redemptive mission (Acts 1:6-8) • Pentecost is the guarantee that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Jesus who continues His ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:22-24) • Our ministry is the continuing ministry of Christ working through us by the presence and power of the Spirit of Christ. (II Cor.5:20) Discernment of Ministry • Ministry action as “poiesis”. • An action that produces a result. • The end product of the action completes the act regardless of what the future of the product may be i.e. a ministry action can be viewed as effective simply because it added more people or people were supportive (fiscally) or people were “blessed,” or it most effectively facilitated a program’s success. • Ministry action as praxis-telos (discernment of ultimate purpose) • A ministry action that includes the ultimate purpose of that action as part of the action. – No ministry action, program or ministry structure is incidental. – It either reveals the redemptive purpose of Jesus or it has no contribution to make to God’s eternal concerns (Mt. 7:21-23). Discernment as an act of Church Leadership is the minimal expectation for our 21st century church leader (Acts 2:11-21) • Discernment – spiritual maturity to know the difference between works of human effort and the continuing ministry of Jesus empowered by the Spirit. • Discernment assumes the present tense of Jesus redemptive ministry. • Discernment assumes that Christ’s Kingdom rule extends over all human structures and efforts. • Discernment strives to “see” the presence of Jesus in all ministry actions & structures. (Not as an act of piety, but as a biblical necessity). Discerning true ministry requires • A connectedness to the life of Jesus (John 15) • An affirmation that holiness and ethics are never mutually exclusive (II Cor. 5:20) • A willingness to exegete ministry contexts with the same rigor we exegete biblical texts (Mt. 7:21-23) • A commitment to evaluating ministry methodology by whether or not it facilitates Jesus continuing redemptive ministry.