The Transformational Journey: Jesus as Transformational Leader

The past two weeks we have looked at how Jesus led toward the goal of transformation. Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer, authors of Transformational Church, see Jesus through a similar lens and offer ten observations about his leadership, the first five of which are recounted this week:

1.      Jesus invested in people. Jesus invested in people because he believed in people…Jesus demonstrated incredible confidence in the potential of people to let him use them for a higher purpose.

2.      Jesus saw long and far. Jesus’ leadership was evident in John 17:20 when he said, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their message.” Jesus was living beyond the moment. With the pressures of local church leadership, it is possible for us to shorten our sight. We must never reduce God’s desire to inconsequential measurements. Transformational church leaders are looking further than ever before. Instead of a two-year church calendar, we need to plan for the next century of impact. Jesus prayed for thousands of years into the future.

3.      Jesus sent people away from him on mission. Luke 9:1-2 and 10:1-2 give the picture of Jesus sending the believers away to do ministry. He sent them to touch the hurting and work for the harvest. The environment around Jesus had disciples constantly coming and going.

4.      Jesus grieved for communities. “As he approached and saw the city, he wept over it…(Luke 19:41-42). Jesus was heart-broken over the rebellious nature of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. Jesus wept over a community and calls us to love ours. “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, yet you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37)

5.      Jesus led a balanced life. By the use of the word balance, we mean his perfect investment in multiple environments. Jesus knew the value of time away from the crowds. On several occasions he retreated from crowds to spend time in prayer. The Bible reports, “After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan” (Matt. 15:39). He pulled away from the crowds to rest and pray.

Rather than ask ourselves WWJD, perhaps a better question is What Would Jesus Be? Before we seek to ignite transformation in our congregations (or presbytery), we might do a bit of self-reflection. As leaders, how would we rate ourselves? At which of these five actions are we most like Jesus and least like Jesus? How can we lean into our strengths? How can we invite and enlist those around us to help us minimize the damage we do because of our weaknesses?

The Transformational Journey: The Great Curiosity

As churches (and a presbytery) who seek to grow ever deeper into the mission dei, the mission of God, we must ask ourselves what it looks like to walk the transformational journey toward the faithfulness, courage and compassion we are called to have for the sake of Jesus Christ. Put another way, what does it look like when a congregation (or presbytery)practices Jesus-styled leadership?

            Jesus’ giving of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is well-known, well-loved but not often well-practiced. As such, it is a bit of a curiosity; indeed, we might call it the Great Curiosity. How can we learn from Jesus for our own leadership?

1.      Jesus received doubt. Perhaps the greatest curiosity is that when the resurrected Jesus stood before the disciples, “some doubted” (28:17). Even the greatest leader ever was doubted by his followers. As teaching and ruling elders, not everyone is going to be on board with the decisions we make. That’s okay!

2.      Jesus moved toward the disciples. Rather than be offended or taken aback, Jesus “came to [the disciples]” immediately following their expression of doubt. It is a leader’s temptation to experience others’ doubt of our leadership as rejection and to move away. Not Jesus. In the face of doubt, Jesus connected at deeper levels.

3.      Jesus gave clear instructions. In the Greek text, “go” is not in the command form and has the connotation of “as you go.” The command is “make disciples” (28:18). That is our mission – God’s mission dei. As leaders we do not need to guess what our mission is, nor do we need to write a mission statement for our church; such has been given us already.

4.      Jesus grounded mission in identity. The making of disciples is connected by Jesus with baptism (28:19), which is the sacrament of identity. Who we are gives inspiration and passion to what we do. Because we are God’s beloved – a truth we learn in baptism – we seek to share the fullness of this gift with others.

5.      Jesus reinforced truth with action. Jesus understood that a truth such as our belovedness is an abstraction if it is not reinforced with daily practices of active obedience (28:20). As leaders, we need to call Jesus followers to demonstrate right theology through right practice – be doers of the Word, especially as we seek to live into our own belovedness and teach others of their belovedness.

6.      Jesus was present. Leaders like Jesus stay connected to their people (28:20). The call to practice courageous faith requires knowing that we are not alone, never alone. God does not call us to individualism but invites us into community.

On the mountain of the Lord, Jesus broke through human doubt to invite divine faith. Can we do the same after our encounters with Jesus? With God’s help, all things are possible. But before we seek to ignite transformation in our congregations (or presbytery), we might do a bit of self-reflection. As leaders, how would we rate ourselves? At which of these six actions are we most like Jesus and least like Jesus? How can we lean into our strengths? How can we invite and enlist those around us to help us minimize the damage we do because of our weaknesses?

Change is not a four-letter word,

Brad Munroe

The Transformational Journey: Walking toward Emmaus

As churches (and a presbytery) who seek to grow ever deeper into the mission dei, the mission of God, and who live in an evolving society that finds “no religious affiliation” and “done with church” (the nones and dones) as faster growing segments of the population that “mainline Christian,” we must ask ourselves what it looks like to walk the transformational journey toward the faithfulness, courage and compassion we are called to have for the sake of Jesus Christ. Put another way, what does it look like when, as a congregation (or presbytery), we’re just stuck in the same place? What kind of leadership is required to get unstuck?

Jesus’ walk to Emmaus with Cleopas and the other disciple is an excellent illustration of the kind of leadership required to get unstuck. Jesus takes six leadership actions that help Cleopas and his brother discover a new sense of God’s purpose:

1.      Jesus comes alongside. “As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them…” (Luke 24:15) Leadership is relational, connectional, a contact sport.

2.      Jesus asks questions. “He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" (24:17) Leadership is inquisitive, interested in the insights, opinions and input of others.

3.      Jesus listens to their answers. “‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘He was a prophet… Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see’" (24:19, 24). Leadership is open to others’ stories and experiences; leaders intuit implicitly that transformation begins from a particular time, place and circumstance.

4.      Jesus interprets what is happening. “’Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (24:26-7). Leadership frames our communal conversations, helping guide and direct them without controlling the outcome.

5.      Jesus lets the disciples determine their own future. “As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’So he went in to stay with them” (24:28-9). Leadership allows others the freedom to respond in compassion and courage, in faith, in hope and in love.

6.      Jesus reveals to the disciples their shared community. “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…” (24:30-31). Leadership cultivates community and caring, the sense that we are all in this together.

Cleopas and the other disciple returned to Jerusalem and ignited a revolution. Can we do the same after our encounters with Jesus? With God’s help, all things are possible. But before we seek to ignite transformation in our congregations (or presbytery), we might do a bit of self-reflection. As leaders, how would we rate ourselves? At which of these six actions are we most like Jesus and least like Jesus? How can we lean into our strengths? How can we invite and enlist those around us to help us minimize the damage we do because of our weaknesses?

Change is not a four-letter word,

Brad Munroe

The Way Forward: Money follows Mission

One of the prevailing temptations in ministry is to leap too quickly to solutions, especially for the kind of folks reading this note, the vast majority of whom are leaders in their churches. Leaders become leaders by solving problems, by being perceived as capable and willing to tackle the difficult work of bringing God’s good news into people’s lives and the life of our communities. As leaders, then, we are tempted to leap before we look, for problems come fast and hard and the next one is just around the corner.

Nowhere is this temptation more prevalent that when dealing with money. “Being good stewards” is our polite way of raising concerns about money; “Butts and Bucks Anxiety” is sometimes closer to the truth. When money concerns present themselves, leaders’ leap before we look impulse often kicks in with renewed vigor, for, unlike the federal government, churches must live within a budget. Such a response is natural, inevitable and is indeed being a good steward. However, in the urgency of the moment we sometimes fail to distinguish between the short-term, limited and provisional decisions that must be made right here, right now and the longer-term, broad and wide, strategic choices that must be made for the health of our congregations. Or, in this instance, our presbytery.

As I have discussed these past few weeks, the presbytery is beginning to engage in a conversation about our budget, about how we spend money, for we have an unsustainable budget deficit of $180,000 caused by a complex array of factors. In the short-term, we will make some limited and provisional decisions about how to decrease the deficit, review reserve funds toward possibly redesignating them and look at gaps in our current structure that might save us a few bucks. Much more significant will be the ever broadening, ever widening conversations focused on the longer-term, strategic choices that must be made. To give focus to these more strategic questions, I have proposed a set of three questions with which to approach our budget. These questions work for a local congregation just as well as they do for a presbytery:

·         What are we constitutionally required to do?

·         What are our core commitments that are a function of our identity and call from God?

·         What are other considerationsthat are, perhaps, important yet do not reflect our deepest identity and calling?

These three questions suggest a hierarchy of values, and as such function as a lens through which one can examine and explore who a presbytery (or congregation) is, what kinds of things they must do to remain true to their identity before Christ and their unique calling from God, and what may be one or more things that are bound to make Jesus happy but which are not foundational to the shared missional vision of the congregation (or presbytery). All this is a way of speaking the truth leaders have known for years: money follows mission; first mission, then money. Yes, we need to talk about the budget deficit. But first we need to know who we are and whose we are; we need to examine, explore and embrace our mission.

Resisting the temptation to leap before I look,

Brad Munroe

The Way Forward: Engaging Adaptive Questions

Last week I summarized the Presbytery’s current fiscal dilemma ($180,000 budget deficit in 2015) and suggested the way forward together will require us to move beyond merely discussing things in terms of technical fixes but rather engaging the adaptive challenges associated with our life together (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfLLDvn0pI8).

Today I would like to suggest some questions that help organizations such as a presbytery (or your congregation) engage the adaptive challenges presented by our ever-evolving world of complexity:

o   Questions to ask that are already being discussed

o   Questions to ask that no one seems to be talking about

o   Issues we see that need to be addressed, at least from our point of view

o   Opportunities before us that are either (a) a bit outside the box kind of thinking, (b) really outside the box, (c) wild hair ideas, or (d) whatever is beyond a WHI

o   People who need to be around the table of conversation (beyond us)

o   Sacred cows that no one seems to want to talk about (remembering sacred cows make gourmet burgers)

o   Elephants in the room (a more extreme example of the above)

What would it look like for your Session to have the kind of conversation in which these questions are engaged? Such a conversation requires implicit trust, radical humility, deep sensitivity, uncommon honesty and a willingness to listen, listen, listen. Only communities of care are able to engage in such conversations.

My wife, a licensed therapist, likes to tell couples that she is “on the side of the relationship,” which is to say that a healthy relationship means all parties listen and all parties are heard; yet each party also takes personal responsibility to serve the relationship with both courage and respect. Only communities of care are able to engage in such conversations.

What will it look like for our presbytery to have the kind of conversation in which the above questions are engaged? We are about to find out. I am bringing these questions to the Resources Committee, to the Leadership Team and, in April, to the Presbytery meeting in plenary. And I invite you, through whatever cohort or sub-group in which you participate (e.g. CNAM, Hispanic Fellowship, one of the theological cohorts), to begin to engage these questions. Together we will be a community of care able to engage in such a conversation.

We are all on Team Jesus,

Brad Munroe

Seeking Congregational Renewal: Presbytery Transformation Grant 2

It is with great pleasure that I announce that your presbytery leadership has finalized our grant application to General Assembly for a Presbytery Transformation Grant. Pending approval by General Assembly, this grant will help fund retreats, educational seminars, online training, personal coaching and demographic studies to be utilized by congregations to catalyze their efforts toward congregational renewal. These activities will be designed to benefit both ruling elders and teaching elders, as our conviction is that shared leadership for ministry is essential to congregational transformation!

Our presbytery’s transformation grant application focuses on several themes:

1.      Promoting Congregational Evangelism – skill development for individuals, ideas for congregations, sharing the Gospel in Word through faith sharing

2.      Leading through Change – skill development for pastors and Sessions on steps required to lead a congregation in changing contexts, with adaptive rather than technical processes

3.      Cultivating Multi-Cultural Ministry – steps that encourage movement in the direction of becoming more multi-cultural as congregations, and what steps that stifle such movement

4.      Initiating Congregational Renewal – learning to evaluate one’s changing neighborhood, demographics and ministry challenges and concrete steps to take toward discussion, planning, and action

5.      Moving toward Missional Ministry – learning the theology and specific practices that help congregations move toward building community and compassion with and for their neighbors: mission + relational = missional

6.      Ministering to Millennials – learning the new cultural ethos of younger generations and how churches can respond in helpful ways relationally, missionally and, of course, technologically

The grant request to General Assembly is for $50,000 and is a matching fund grant. Our portion of the matching funds will be taken from our mission priority reserve account. We will use these funds to underwrite the aforementioned retreats, seminars, online training, coaching and demographic studies. If approved by General Assembly, transformation grant activities will begin in August in conjunction with the combined presbytery meeting, so…Stay Tuned!

Seeking to Row in the Same Direction,

Brad Munroe

Seeking Congregational Renewal: Presbytery Transformation Grant

It is with great pleasure that I announce that your presbytery leadership has finalized our grant application to General Assembly for a Presbytery Transformation Grant. Pending approval by General Assembly, this grant will help fund retreats, educational seminars, online training, personal coaching and demographic studies to be utilized by congregations to catalyze their efforts toward congregational renewal. These activities will be designed to benefit both ruling elders and teaching elders, as our conviction is that shared leadership for ministry is essential to congregational transformation!

            Our presbytery’s transformation grant application focuses on several themes:

1.      Promoting Congregational Evangelism – skill development for individuals, ideas for congregations, sharing the Gospel in Word through faith sharing

2.      Leading through Change – skill development for pastors and Sessions on steps required to lead a congregation in changing contexts, with adaptive rather than technical processes

3.      Cultivating Multi-Cultural Ministry – steps that encourage movement in the direction of becoming more multi-cultural as congregations, and what steps that stifle such movement

4.      Initiating Congregational Renewal – learning to evaluate one’s changing neighborhood, demographics and ministry challenges and concrete steps to take toward discussion, planning, and action

5.      Moving toward Missional Ministry – learning the theology and specific practices that help congregations move toward building community and compassion with and for their neighbors: mission + relational = missional

6.      Ministering to Millennials – learning the new cultural ethos of younger generations and how churches can respond in helpful ways relationally, missionally and, of course, technologically

The grant request to General Assembly is for $50,000 and is a matching fund grant. Our portion of the matching funds will be taken from our mission priority reserve account. We will use these funds to underwrite the aforementioned retreats, seminars, online training, coaching and demographic studies. If approved by General Assembly, transformation grant activities will begin in August in conjunction with the combined presbytery meeting, so…Stay Tuned!

Seeking to Row in the Same Direction,

Brad Munroe