by Tom Johnston
Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. John 4: 35 ESV
This is an amazing scene: Jesus having had a dialog with the Samaritan woman, the disciples have returned from getting take-out food and are weirded-out by the fact that the Rabbi is talking to a woman – and not one of good reputation to boot! They are so wrapped up in the day-to-day of life and so stunned by Jesus breaking some serious social and religious taboos that they miss the fact that the entire village is now surging out of the town and coming up to see Jesus. They are so caught in their own moment that they fail to realize the work of the Father – Jesus’ “food” – which is at hand. They could not see the harvest before them, they were still looking for something in the future, specifically, the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom through Jesus. Looking for the Kingdom in the future, they missed the Kingdom in their now.
Are we like the disciples? Is the Church in the West so caught up in the concerns of day-to-day life (read: American Dream) that we miss seeing the harvest? Are we so caught up in the politico-religious Culture War in our country that we can’t see the white fields? Can it be that, looking to see people assured of eternity, we actually miss the opportunity to lovingly serve them in the now, and demonstrate for them the presence of God’s Kingdom rule on Earth? In many ways we need to have our eyes opened to see the potential harvest in our now.
It is our belief that in each generation there is a harvest of souls to be gathered, and it is Christ’s desire to see these people enter into His Kingdom community. But do we have time to see and engage the harvest? Are we so busy running like the rats in the proverbial race that we have no time for the harvest? As we shift our life from zero to 60 every morning are we zipping past the people whom Jesus is calling to Himself? Maybe we are plugging into our personal iPod-of-a-life and tuning everyone else out.
Or, are we placing are harvest hope (read: bets) on some cataclysmic future series of events which will drive people to Jesus? (Like His love isn’t enough to win their hearts?) Earthquakes, forest fires, tsunamis, stock market crashes, you know, God roughing us up a bit, so we get it. Sure would be a whole lot less work for us!
It could be we are still hoping to win the Culture War by electing the right candidates to office and passing laws which will Christianize everybody. Get the right people in the right places and – zingo – the next thing you know everybody is wearing a white shirt and tie and parting their hair on the right side of their head and it is 1957 all over again. God forbid we have to cross some social barriers to minister to unfriendly people who look different from us! Much easier to get the vote out and pass laws instead!
Here is the reality of it all – 7 out of 10 people within walking distance of you right now as your read this are not going to go into eternity knowing Jesus. You don’t need to meet anyone new to share Christ – you already know the harvest – maybe you just can’t see it. And those people that you know don’t need to be attacked by terrorists, struck by falling space junk or come to financial ruin so Jesus can get through to them. They just need us – Jesus’ people – His Church, to live like Him in front of them. His love embodied in our arms, our hands our words, our actions of service. Yes, some will still reject Him – but we will increase the population of the future Kingdom, and quite probably pull a little bit more of that future into our now.
The clock is ticking on this generation’s opportunity. May God open all of our eyes to see the harvest in our day – and that our harvest is ready now.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Servant Leadership
by Mike Chong Perkinson
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say. Emerson
Leadership Tension: One can do the right thing and do it poorly or one can do things right while doing the wrong thing. This is possibly why many ministries flounder.
It is said that a manager is one who gets things done right, while a leader is one who gets the right things done. Management follows good leadership. Let me use for example a group of people that are tearing up a field so that a baseball park might be built on it. No matter how good the management is, it is all worthless if the group of people are working on the wrong field. Leadership is the ability to find the right field. We are in great need of spiritual leaders; being busy is not our goal, but doing what is right and pleasing to the Lord for the benefit of the Kingdom is. As a result, the most effective leader is one who is willing to serve and be led by the Master Himself. We want people who are servant leaders and not leaders who simply want to be served. Keep in mind, we are never beyond a task (that is, above doing it). If our Master can lower Himself to the service of a slave as He washed the disciples’ feet; surely we can allow ourselves to not be above any task.
Five questions are in need of answering by us on a regular basis. They are:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say. Emerson
Leadership Tension: One can do the right thing and do it poorly or one can do things right while doing the wrong thing. This is possibly why many ministries flounder.
It is said that a manager is one who gets things done right, while a leader is one who gets the right things done. Management follows good leadership. Let me use for example a group of people that are tearing up a field so that a baseball park might be built on it. No matter how good the management is, it is all worthless if the group of people are working on the wrong field. Leadership is the ability to find the right field. We are in great need of spiritual leaders; being busy is not our goal, but doing what is right and pleasing to the Lord for the benefit of the Kingdom is. As a result, the most effective leader is one who is willing to serve and be led by the Master Himself. We want people who are servant leaders and not leaders who simply want to be served. Keep in mind, we are never beyond a task (that is, above doing it). If our Master can lower Himself to the service of a slave as He washed the disciples’ feet; surely we can allow ourselves to not be above any task.
Five questions are in need of answering by us on a regular basis. They are:
What are we leading/managing? Too often we lead a structure and not people. We are more interested in building a ministry than doing ministry with people. Our focus is always to build people and not our ministry. I realize this is obvious, but people are the ministry. The following is the way I seek to build people (taken from Matthew 5:13-16):
“Light the lamp” -- Help people light their lamps through the Holy Spirit. This is the stage of salvation and healing. Many who come to you, even those who know the Lord, are dry and without life and in tremendous need of healing.
“Let your light shine” -- Help people practice individual spirituality in their private life. We want people to grow as Christians from the inside out.
“Set it on a lampstand” -- Help people share the reality of God’s work in their life to everyone they come in contact with by word and deed. This tends to come more naturally when people’s lives are changed. This sets us up for our “virus” approach to evangelism. We desire to infect people with Jesus. The best way to do this is to catch the “virus” of Jesus ourselves and be the church anywhere, everywhere, and all the time.
Why are we leading? This should be brought before the Lord on a regular basis. He will purify our motives as we grow as leaders. Practically, if you discover you are leading out of an incorrect motive, don’t quit. Let God purify you as you lead. The single greatest need of spiritual leaders today is to ignore the voice of flesh that beckons us to be noticed and successful and learn to hear the voice of God that beckons for us to be humble and for Christ to be noticed.
Where is the leadership going to take you? Do we really know where we are trying to take the people? Keep in mind, it is ludicrous that others can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there. This does not imply that you have to be an alcoholic to minister to alcoholics. Rather, it clarifies for us the key of being servants and broken before God. Are you actually living out what you are leading? The destination is more than systems and numbers, it is about character and the forming of Christ in people.
What are the values we embrace? And do they fall in line with what we are doing? All too often, people will do the opposite of what they profess to value. For example, they say they believe in servant leadership, but rarely serve when the opportunity comes. We know we are actually servants in our hearts the moment we are treated like one and we are ok with it.
Is the ministry growing? This is where the American success mindset has really impacted us. We tend to believe that growth is best monitored by numerical increase. Always remember, a large ministry does not mean anything more than a large ministry. It does not necessarily mean the people are growing in Christ. By this, I am not suggesting we do not want more people to get saved nor am I being critical of large ministries. Remember big is not better. Small is not better. Better is better. Our focus is not get to bigger, but to grow big people. We will let the Lord take care of the increase. Here is the criterion I use to determine if my ministry is growing or not:
Are people’s relationships with God stabilizing? Before we can change the world, we need to see God change the world of individuals.
Are people’s relationships with each other growing?
Is concern for the lost and broken increasing in the fellowship? Are they beginning to reach out?
Are we beginning to reproduce ourselves? This will involve discipleship of Christians and non-Christians. Where the presence of the Lord is, life will happen. As Acts 2:47 seems to indicate, people coming to Christ is a by-product of our relationship with Jesus – the lived way with Christ, with others and for others.
May we all become servant leaders, who desire nothing more or less than living our lives to the King and His Kingdom. To help us prepare our hearts for such I offer you this prayer.
THE SERVANT LEADERS’ PRAYER
Don’t give us blessings--give us grace to be unquestionably obedient to Your every last command and desire.
Don’t give us status--give us a place to serve.
Don’t give us things for our use--use us.
Don’t give us a mansion to live in--give us a springboard to take Christ’s love to the whole world.
Don’t give us good jobs--put us to work.
Don’t give us pleasure--give us perspective.
Don’t give us satisfaction--teach us sacrifice.
Don’t give us entertainment--enable us.
Don’t give us good salaries--give us strength to do Your will.
Our great joy in life is in pleasing our Lord--and there is no other joy comparable.
- Gordon Aeschiman
God raise up servant leaders!
Tell me what you think. Let’s talk about it.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Becoming What?
by Mike Chong Perkinson
Any developmental process must consider the aspect of becoming; that is, dealing with the growth of the organism from a single cell into multiple cells. In other words, it is not so much what an organism is that is critical but what it is becoming. The purpose of a thing defines the essence or the nature of a thing.
When it comes to church growth and leadership issues, the emphasis tends to fall towards function and the goals the group is pursuing. This is not to say that such consideration is wrong, but to assert that the old adage of “putting the cart before the horse” is often in play when it comes to building church leadership structures. What we are inferring is that the theological basis and purpose of the church is often assumed and left unclear, often misunderstood. The pastor or leader is pressed by competitive demands of success and financial pressures to produce something that is worthy of recognition – a product if you will. Without addressing the matter of pride and selfish ambition, the pastor naively pursues pastoring with an agenda to see people come to know the love of God but finds the demands of the organization and the product overtake the desire of the pastor to truly shepherd God’s people into a life of spiritual fullness.
The movement of our church age is more towards building bigger churches than it is building big people. Remember big is not better nor is small better – better is better. With such a system in place, one has to be suspicious of the underlying values and philosophical base that supports such a structure. All too often, at least in our opinion, we see powerful leadership structures, built within the holy walls of the church with great organizational skill and powerful results that resemble the things of the Kingdom in operation but lack in the deeper dimension of actual Kingdom life that is expressed most clearly in the Fruit of the Spirit.
To put it simply, we have worldly leadership systems and values baptized into the world of the church and pawned off as God’s wisdom and design. By this, we are not suggesting that worldly leadership structures are bad in and of themselves or that the church does not need assistance in organizational development. Instead, it must be acknowledged that the church is an organization that resembles the world’s organization and is in need of organizational assistance. However, the church is not a business, although it has many similarities, it is a design of our Father who, by His sovereignty, has ordained the church to be His primary vehicle of edification for the body of Christ. The church then needs to operate by the values and philosophical base that is set in the scripture regarding its existence and conduct. It is clearly defined in scripture who we are to be and how we are to function as the people of God. We need to be able to stop and consider “why we are” before we ask “who we are.” The “why” question answers the “who” question and releases us to find our purpose and our being at the same time. Once we have answered the nagging question regarding our existence, we can safely engage into the arena of life and function freely. Being always precedes doing and function always comes from life. Philosophically, it is impossible to separate being and function. Let me explain, will and function exist like two sides of a coin, both operating and carrying on a different role and yet, are uniquely tied to the coin. The coin is being (the state of “isness”). When we look at the coin, we can differentiate various elements of it like heads and tails or will and function. However, the various pieces make up the whole and that we call a “coin.” For there to be function we must have being just like heads and tails would not exist without the essence called the coin. (Obviously this illustration can be extrapolated further with more detail – for our purposes we simply want to illustrate the inter-connectedness of being and function.)
The church has fallen prey to the forces of our society in that it has embraced, almost unknowingly, the values of a success-driven society that puts function in front of doing; to the point of ignoring being all together. God is more interested in who we are becoming as persons. Our pathways for spiritual formation in the church should then be built upon the “irreducible core” of helping people develop in their love for God, love for each other, and the making of disciples as life is lived out.
And so, who are you becoming? What is church becoming? How do the ministry processes and systems in your church help you develop disciples that love God, love others, and make disciples? How are you doing in living out the “IC”?
May we all become the people God has built us to be reflecting His glory as we live life. After all, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” (Irenaeus)
Any developmental process must consider the aspect of becoming; that is, dealing with the growth of the organism from a single cell into multiple cells. In other words, it is not so much what an organism is that is critical but what it is becoming. The purpose of a thing defines the essence or the nature of a thing.
When it comes to church growth and leadership issues, the emphasis tends to fall towards function and the goals the group is pursuing. This is not to say that such consideration is wrong, but to assert that the old adage of “putting the cart before the horse” is often in play when it comes to building church leadership structures. What we are inferring is that the theological basis and purpose of the church is often assumed and left unclear, often misunderstood. The pastor or leader is pressed by competitive demands of success and financial pressures to produce something that is worthy of recognition – a product if you will. Without addressing the matter of pride and selfish ambition, the pastor naively pursues pastoring with an agenda to see people come to know the love of God but finds the demands of the organization and the product overtake the desire of the pastor to truly shepherd God’s people into a life of spiritual fullness.
The movement of our church age is more towards building bigger churches than it is building big people. Remember big is not better nor is small better – better is better. With such a system in place, one has to be suspicious of the underlying values and philosophical base that supports such a structure. All too often, at least in our opinion, we see powerful leadership structures, built within the holy walls of the church with great organizational skill and powerful results that resemble the things of the Kingdom in operation but lack in the deeper dimension of actual Kingdom life that is expressed most clearly in the Fruit of the Spirit.
To put it simply, we have worldly leadership systems and values baptized into the world of the church and pawned off as God’s wisdom and design. By this, we are not suggesting that worldly leadership structures are bad in and of themselves or that the church does not need assistance in organizational development. Instead, it must be acknowledged that the church is an organization that resembles the world’s organization and is in need of organizational assistance. However, the church is not a business, although it has many similarities, it is a design of our Father who, by His sovereignty, has ordained the church to be His primary vehicle of edification for the body of Christ. The church then needs to operate by the values and philosophical base that is set in the scripture regarding its existence and conduct. It is clearly defined in scripture who we are to be and how we are to function as the people of God. We need to be able to stop and consider “why we are” before we ask “who we are.” The “why” question answers the “who” question and releases us to find our purpose and our being at the same time. Once we have answered the nagging question regarding our existence, we can safely engage into the arena of life and function freely. Being always precedes doing and function always comes from life. Philosophically, it is impossible to separate being and function. Let me explain, will and function exist like two sides of a coin, both operating and carrying on a different role and yet, are uniquely tied to the coin. The coin is being (the state of “isness”). When we look at the coin, we can differentiate various elements of it like heads and tails or will and function. However, the various pieces make up the whole and that we call a “coin.” For there to be function we must have being just like heads and tails would not exist without the essence called the coin. (Obviously this illustration can be extrapolated further with more detail – for our purposes we simply want to illustrate the inter-connectedness of being and function.)
The church has fallen prey to the forces of our society in that it has embraced, almost unknowingly, the values of a success-driven society that puts function in front of doing; to the point of ignoring being all together. God is more interested in who we are becoming as persons. Our pathways for spiritual formation in the church should then be built upon the “irreducible core” of helping people develop in their love for God, love for each other, and the making of disciples as life is lived out.
And so, who are you becoming? What is church becoming? How do the ministry processes and systems in your church help you develop disciples that love God, love others, and make disciples? How are you doing in living out the “IC”?
May we all become the people God has built us to be reflecting His glory as we live life. After all, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” (Irenaeus)
The Leadership Bypass
by Tom Johnston
Very often when we discuss the issue of leadership development in the local church we are really discussing how a particular church develops leaders to serve within the context of that specific church. Most of us as pastors are engaged in leadership development for the needs of our own ministry. Certainly, such leaders are needed, but let us suggest to you a broader view, a Kingdom view. Jesus said,
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Luke 10:2 ESV
Leadership development in our churches must be about the harvest, not just about getting people to run our programs and church activities. Jesus’ concern expressed here is for the ingathering of people into His Kingdom, and not just the maintaining of those of the wheat who are already in the barn. As our good friend and mentor Dr. Bob Logan always says, we need to raise leaders from the harvest for the harvest.
While the care, nurture and discipleship of existing Christians are essential parts of the church’s ministry, and as such requires devoted leadership, we have allowed our leadership development track, to a great extent, to be driven by the needs of those already in the church. In doing such, we have spiritually neutered our “leaders,” validating their attendance at meetings and the performance of tasks within ministry programs. We have not, by and large, had the expectation that those called “leaders” should be involved in spiritual reproduction – sharing their faith and making disciples for Jesus Christ. Many of our leaders are nothing more than mid-level program managers in our local church organizations. Could it be that we need to let our developing leaders bypass serving the church through the myriad of things we seem to find to do (and some which really need to be done) and let them directly engage the harvest? We need an HOV lane on our development pathway for leaders, allowing them to zip by the slow moving traffic of the church ministry and operations, and let them engage directly in the harvest.
Another way we need to create a “bypass” for our leaders is to use developmental processes and sponsorship structures that empower people to go beyond us. We often find churches where the pastor uses the “Undergrowth Principle” – “you can grow as long as you’re under me.” Can someone get by you to a fuller expression of their gifting and calling, perhaps surpassing you in fruitfulness and effectiveness? Do you have an open-ended leadership development process, or does their road come to an end at the inside of the metaphorical door of your church? Robert Clinton has suggested in several of his works that we often encounter problems with people in the churches we care for simply because we are in the way of their further spiritual development. He suggests that many of those we call “rebellious” are actually people who have out-grown the current opportunities to learn and serve in our churches, and if we could facilitate them into new opportunities for both – perhaps in an expression of church beyond our own local setting, we would be serving the needs of the Kingdom more completely.
None of us have enough leaders – and the harvest awaits. We need to establish our churches as “leadership development engines” and see our role not just as shepherds but as equippers of the saints – and cut those saints loose in the harvest fields. Make leaders – lots of them, and give them over to Jesus, and watch what He does with them – in your local church and beyond.
Very often when we discuss the issue of leadership development in the local church we are really discussing how a particular church develops leaders to serve within the context of that specific church. Most of us as pastors are engaged in leadership development for the needs of our own ministry. Certainly, such leaders are needed, but let us suggest to you a broader view, a Kingdom view. Jesus said,
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Luke 10:2 ESV
Leadership development in our churches must be about the harvest, not just about getting people to run our programs and church activities. Jesus’ concern expressed here is for the ingathering of people into His Kingdom, and not just the maintaining of those of the wheat who are already in the barn. As our good friend and mentor Dr. Bob Logan always says, we need to raise leaders from the harvest for the harvest.
While the care, nurture and discipleship of existing Christians are essential parts of the church’s ministry, and as such requires devoted leadership, we have allowed our leadership development track, to a great extent, to be driven by the needs of those already in the church. In doing such, we have spiritually neutered our “leaders,” validating their attendance at meetings and the performance of tasks within ministry programs. We have not, by and large, had the expectation that those called “leaders” should be involved in spiritual reproduction – sharing their faith and making disciples for Jesus Christ. Many of our leaders are nothing more than mid-level program managers in our local church organizations. Could it be that we need to let our developing leaders bypass serving the church through the myriad of things we seem to find to do (and some which really need to be done) and let them directly engage the harvest? We need an HOV lane on our development pathway for leaders, allowing them to zip by the slow moving traffic of the church ministry and operations, and let them engage directly in the harvest.
Another way we need to create a “bypass” for our leaders is to use developmental processes and sponsorship structures that empower people to go beyond us. We often find churches where the pastor uses the “Undergrowth Principle” – “you can grow as long as you’re under me.” Can someone get by you to a fuller expression of their gifting and calling, perhaps surpassing you in fruitfulness and effectiveness? Do you have an open-ended leadership development process, or does their road come to an end at the inside of the metaphorical door of your church? Robert Clinton has suggested in several of his works that we often encounter problems with people in the churches we care for simply because we are in the way of their further spiritual development. He suggests that many of those we call “rebellious” are actually people who have out-grown the current opportunities to learn and serve in our churches, and if we could facilitate them into new opportunities for both – perhaps in an expression of church beyond our own local setting, we would be serving the needs of the Kingdom more completely.
None of us have enough leaders – and the harvest awaits. We need to establish our churches as “leadership development engines” and see our role not just as shepherds but as equippers of the saints – and cut those saints loose in the harvest fields. Make leaders – lots of them, and give them over to Jesus, and watch what He does with them – in your local church and beyond.
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