sustain:if:able kiwi

pioneers and pastors part 2 – the community

In an earlier post, I focused on the individual and how the relationship between pioneer and pastor might actually be held in creative tension rather than poles part. In this post I plan to focus on the congregation. As with the first post, this is birthed out of 15 years of experience both pioneering from nothing and pioneering within an existing set up.

I actually have enormous reservations about the titles pioneer and pastor when they get applied at a group level.

If one is a pioneer, then it is easy for the community to get lazy, because the missional energy has been embodied in one person. “Oh, we have a pioneer, and we’re doing mission (because we pay them to do mission for us).” If one is a pastor, as defined in modernity, then it is easy for the community to get lazy, delegating being pastoral into one person. “Oh, we a have a pastor who does that stuff.”

This is even more so when applied in parish based systems. As I understand it, in parish based system the church is responsible for the whole village. Turn around and call for pioneers, and what on earth have our “pastors” been doing? And who are they caring for now?

So we need some way to apply pioneer to the community and pastor to the community, to be a pioneer/astoring body.

I find Philip in Acts a perplexing, teasing sort of character in this regard. He has three faces. A first face is as a deacon, serving to ensure justice in his divided community. Seems to me that is pioneering, setting up justice-enacting ministries. Yet it is also pastoral, a practical caring. A second face is as the evangelist, in Samaria and then most notably, with the Ethiopian Enuch. Definitely a pioneer. Who is taken by the Spirit to another place, and does not gain another mention until Acts 21:7-9, when he has four daughters one of whom prophesies. He has disappeared from a “pioneering” ministry. Lost his mojo? Lost the cutting edge, the excitement of pioneering mission? Yet has given his life to discipling a family, which continues the mission of God.

What “box” would the church of today have ordained Philip for I wonder?

Part 3 – an alternative lens is here

pioneers and pastors? poles apart or creative tensions

Mark Berry has written an honest and thoughtful reflection on leadership, using the lens of pioneer and pastor. He’s used the angle of entreprenuer to ask why we don’t allow some leaders to start and move on. (This of course flies against the big mantra/urban legend in Kiwi Baptist churches at the moment “long term ministry = healthy churches.” However, while there is one anecdote, I am still waiting for some systematic or statistical analysis of this). The comments on Mark’s post, including the facebook discussion, have tended to go in a structural way. Personally, denominational structural discussions drive me crazy. Most of us can’t fix denominational structures. But what we can do is reflect upon how we structure our own lives, where we place our energy, what drains our energy, what replenishes our energy.

So, here, practically are some of my reflections, based on 9 years pioneer/astoring at Graceway, starting from scratch, and now 6 years pioneer/astoring at Opawa, helping a 95 year old church explore a mission future. Both contexts have strengths and weaknesses. Both have required my pioneering and pastoring skills. (more…)

team building processes

A focus of the last few months has been some team building processes among us here at Opawa. So I thought I should post our processes, for those interested in building teams.

A team starts with bringing people on board. Initially we used tools including a presentation, an interview/s and reference checking. This allowed us to see a person, nervous and all, speak to a group, to explore values and beliefs with them, and get a bead on their track record.

Then a few years ago, we realised that we were still pretty naive as a church and that there were people with real competencies that could help us. So we asked a human resource person to input into our processes.

As part of that review, we made some changes to our recruiting. Firstly we began to ask much more questions focused on behaviour. Like “Can you tell us about a time when you got in a situation over your head?” Such questions are not seeking right or wrong answers, but to gain an angle on how people react under pressure, on how they resource themselves and thus how they might respond. Secondly, we begun exploring personality profiling. It is one tool among many. But it gave us yet another take on a person. In addition it gave us an idea of how they might be in a team and how they might best like to be coached. So we had a heads up on whether a person likes lots of encouragement, or likes to be left alone.

Which was all well and good. But in the last few months, we’ve taken another step.

We’ve flipped the personality profile on its head. If every person is a uniquely gifted person, then that means that each team has uniquely gifted people and thus will have a unique culture. No two teams are identical. A team that works well in one context might not another. This lead to us taking two half days out as a team. (Using the excellent expertise of the human resource people).

In the first day, the team, with their consent, shared their personality profiles with each other. What was known only to the individual and to the selection group was now named among us as a working team. Light bulbs went off as people shared their strengths. Heads nodded in understanding as weaknesses were named. Having shared as unique individuals, we then looked at ourselves as a whole. All the personality profiles were laid on top of each other. We were so encouraged by the way we need each other and we complement each other. We realised that in the grace of God, our roles in the team actually suited our personality profiles.

We went away, to meet again in a month’s time. This time the aim was to form a unique code of practice for this unique team. Together we went through a process, sharing our dreams of what a healthy team would look like, categorising and prioritising, working on how, with our unique configuration and work/life balance (we’re all part-time), we can make these priorities work.

It’s been an energising process. We know each other better. We respect our individuality more. We have a language to move forward. We are taking a shared responsibility to make this work.

So that’s a bit of our journey. It’s not an area I feel confident in, nor had any training in while at theological college. So for me it’s all been guess work and intuition. In putting this up here, I am sure that many of you readers will be doing the team building thing heaps better. So please do enrich by commenting on what you’ve done, the practises that you’ve engaged in to build a healthier team.

spirituality of change

I sat with my spiritual director last week. Where was God since we last met, was the question. And so I reflected on my sunflower prayer from a few weeks ago:
As the sunflower tracks the sun,
God, help me track your warmth and love this day,
And grow, unfold, bloom,
into my full splendour as your child, Amen.

So what would stop you following God’s warmth through a sun/day, Steve? my director asked. The question floored me. I searched within myself. I fumbled and fudged and we moved on.

Thirty minutes later, we returned. Somehow the conversation slipped back to that same question (sneaky spiritual director). So what would stop you following God’s warmth through a sun/day, Steve?

And I knew the answer. It was time for me to stop looking in and look out. To name what I have been afraid to name. That when external change happens, some people don’t like it. It’s not the same and it’s not the good old days. Change is hard and I don’t understand/agree.

To use the sunflower analogy, other people can stop following the sun. And when they stop following, when they fold their arms, they run the risk of acting in ways that, in fact, can stop others following the sun. This is heightened by my sensitivity and intuition. As I travel through my sun/day, I feel the resistance and as I feel it, I am tempted to stop following the sun, and start tracing the shadow.

Here’s the rub. The cold hard rub. When do I as a leader stop listening to these people? When do you say enough is enough? When do you say, if you are not following the sun, it is quite likely that your input is no longer life-giving to us in our journey of change? (more…)

leadership in (external) change

God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need of it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution. Amen

Change can come from internal factors, it can also come from external factors. Opawa is in the midst of external change at the moment, enjoying new faces as local community folk find us a place to call home. It’s a great privilege, but given that our community is lower-socio economic, it also brings its challenges. It’s church, but not as some used to know it.

In the midst of this, the prayer by Michael Leunig (When I Talk to You a Cartoonist Talks to) caught by eye. It became our benediction on Sunday morning. It formed the basis of our staff prayers on Tuesday, while change in various ways occupied much of the Board meeting on Tuesday evening.

Reflecting on change, someone pointed me to Jesus. And how often in the Gospels Jesus seemed to be saying, “I’m moving on. Will you come with? It will change you. It will change your world? Will you join me in living the Kingdom?”

What is challenging is the fact that often, if people said no to change, Jesus simply moved on. Which is an important thing for us as a church to hear. In God’s grace, we are being changed. It’s not easy. It never is. It never has been. Such is the call of Jesus. “Will you join me in living the Kingdom?”

I find this hard. I like to please people and I’d love to bring everyone with me on the change journey. I am wary of a leadership style which sounds like God’s way=my way; or the highway. But at times, Jesus demanded change and kept moving, even as people struggled. How, as leader, does one know when recognise this time?

you sticking your head above the parapet again boy?

The Tall Poppy Syndrome is a pernicious, cowardly trait. Laidlaw College seeks an end to its hold over the imaginations and wills of New Zealanders. The fact that we have named a big vision makes us a target. We welcome the support of those with the faith, heart and guts to back something that just might make a difference.

— concluding paragraph from Mark Strom, Principal where I lecture (Laidlaw College) here (and listen to some of the vision for Laidlaw here).  I think he’s right. Stick your head above the parapet in New Zealand, do something a bit different, have an opinion, have some passion – and watch the backchat and backchatter.

So what might be the spiritual practices by which Kiwi leaders might maintain their desire to lead? How about these as a starter …

1. Listen within, to your own sense of calling and passion, rather than listen to the voices without.

2. Develop a good circle of friends who will be honest with you.

3. If passion is a well, for every bucket of negativity withdrawn, add a bucket and a half of passion.

4. Respond to criticism with humour and grace ….

What have you found helpful? How do we develop Kiwi leaders of courage and imagination?

leadership-in-community

Question: How do I cultivate [a] conversation of imagination and hope rooted in the biblical narratives, without manipulating people into a pre-arranged plan? How do I invite people in when I have been thinking about this for several years and they may only be at the beginning?

Response: This is a recurring challenge for all leaders (whether missional or emerging). Our models of leadership are often take change, I know best. We’ve seen the way that experts take power away from communities. We don’t want that.

Yet equally, we are gifted. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” It is dishonest to us and to a process to deny our gifts and insights.

I wonder if a way forward is then to ask ourself: what were the key stories, insights and questions that shaped my journey? In other words, not what are my answers, but what were my questions.

And then use the questions with others. In other words, think about what shaped you, and then invite others to be shaped by those processes. Out of that shared learning comes leadership-in-community. This is a different type of leadership, that lies in contrast to the “what you need to do is ….” style of leadership.

As part of this type of leadership, it can be also helpful to reflect on how we all learn differently. You might be a book learner, while others might be more hands on. So this type of leadership-in-community involves thinking about the different ways people can gain insights. (For more on this, see my post about building onramps here). So in my missional leadership coaching clusters, I am exploring using doing, hearing, watching, thinking. Offering a whole different range of access points.

so what should a pastor be doing?

What should a pastor be doing with their time? It was a question I asked myself on Wednesday. It was evening and the church carpark was full.

Side door is one of our 5 congregations and they were at worship. They have brought a whole lot of plates and were going to throw them at the cross as a way of exploring the place of anger in Christian faith. Is that where a pastor should be?

In the foyer a block course was starting. How to read the Old Testament for all it’s worth will spend 7 weeks exploring tools to read the Bible better. Advertised across our 5 congregations, this is most likely to appeal to Sunday morning where we are doing the Old Testament minor prophets. Is that where a pastor should be?

Across the road the youth group are meeting. Most of the youth group are local community kids from unchurched families and they’re just back from a weekend camp. I have organised for them all to be getting prayer postcards from our Sunday morning congregation, who had prayed the pastoral prayer on Sunday by hand writing prayers for every person who went on camp. Is that where a pastor should be?

At a nearby home, a group are gathering to start the planning for a church camp in February 2008. Is that where a pastor should be?

Well, I’m the pastor and I’m at none of these. I’m in my office doing pre-marriage preparation with a couple. Not regular Opawa church goers, I’ve built a good relationships with the family and so have been asked to marry them. So that’s where the pastor is. Is that what a pastor should be doing? What sort of message is my absence sending to each of the other activities?

leadership in zones of change

I spoke for about 2 hours recently to a group of ministers. My topic was “Mission with a Kiwi accent” and I explored a number of mission stories as they have emerged for us at Opawa, mixed in with some reflection on Scripture and change dynamics and cultural engagement. It seemed to go well, with a good deal of energy in the room and some good interest in some of their churches entering into the Missional Leadership Coaching course I run.

Toward the end I showed them this diagram; view image – 96K from Al Roxburgh and Fred Romanuck.

The diagram describes the life of an organism from one of rapid development (green zone), to organisational efficiency (blue zone), to death. This is a healthy and natural life cycle and can be applied to church life.

Each zone requires a different type of leadership to move to the next stage of the life cycle and it normalises and legitimises all stages of life. On the spur of the moment, without really thinking, I asked the group of gathered clergy to self-identify. How many were in a green zone church? And a show of hands. A blue zone? And another shows of hands. Red zone? And a further show of hands.

It was an interesting exercise to do, and a way of gaining insight into a group of churches. And then on the way home for me to reflect on the different leadership and change challenges generated, say, if the grouping was mainly green, or mainly blue, or mainly red.

what is Kingdom leadership in the midst of change?

Note: this post has been churning in my head for 18 months and has nothing to do with any current circumstances. It was helped by this comment on the Allelon site.

People respond to change in different ways. Most change theory draws a bell curve and notes that if you suggest a new idea, some love it, others hate it, while the majority adapt, but at varying rates.

Leadership tensions emerge when those who hate change start to dig in, actively resisting change. A common leadership response is to leave them behind. This can be done in a variety of ways: stop listening, manipulate, change leaders, change constitutions, play power games, etc.

Another common response is to simply give in to those who dig in. This means that a minority are dictating the future of the majority.

At our most recent AGM I told the story of taking my 2 children for a holiday walk to a nearby river. One child (no prizes for guessing which one) decided she was “the leader” and strode off ahead. The other dawdled behind, then hurt her knee trying to cross a fence. She decided she could no longer walk. Effectively, she was simply going to dig in.

This is exactly the situation many change processes find themselves in at some point or another. Should “the leaders” stride off, leaving some behind? Or should we let those who are “dug in” dictate the pace, meaning we are never likely to get back to camp?

The task of leadership demands getting both the strider and the dug in back to camp, because that is where healing is.

To achieve that required helping both sides to sit in each other’s shoes for a moment. The “strider” needed to listen to another’s pain, while the one in pain needed to see the big picture.

I am struck by how often simply the act of listening to people is followed by a shift in attitudes and understanding. Perhaps this is the real task of leadership in transitional churches, to remain aware that God can speak through any and all, to help people keep listening to each other, to keep articulating a shared reminder of the big picture.

there’s a sheep in our church

Michael won the Opawa Baptist Leadership award today, for an act of outstanding leadership in our community.

It started with a sheep. The Biblical text was Luke 15:1-10, and involved 3 stations themed around lost and found. On Friday I joked to one of the worship leaders that we needed a sheep. “Oh,” he said, “my father is a farmer. Let me check.” Later he left a message. “Sheep will be at church at 9 am on Sunday.”

I arrived, planning for the sheep to be outside. You know, one lost sheep outside the church. Would have worked well. But the sheep was already inside, on stage, installed in a wooden pen, tarpaulin on floor, hay scattered around, sitting quietly. So much work had already been done. Such a quiet sheep. I didn’t have the heart to suggest a move.

All went well until the second song. I think it was the violin, but suddenly the sheep is on his feet on the edge of the pen, staring wildly around the church. The eyes of the gathered children are on stalks. One brave boy inches forward. I shake my head, but the boy doesn’t get my body language. He grabs some hay and tries to feed the sheep. The sheep goes nuts, and jumps clean out of the cage.

Boy jumps backwards and I jump forwards. Afterward someone says they have never seen a pastor move so fast. I grab the sheep and press it against the wooden pen.

I am wearing my Sunday clothes and I have to preach in about 10 minutes. I am wearing a cordless microphone. If I try and get the sheep back into pen, I risk losing the microphone in a flurry of hooves. If I try and take the microphone off, I risk losing the sheep. I am stuck.

I am holding a sheep, in my Sunday clothes, in front of a watching congregation. I am about to go down in history as the pastor responsible for a sheep lose in Opawa church. I am starting to refresh my CV.

Suddenly Michael is beside me. Local teenager from the community. Middle finger bandaged after a rugby game that week. Calmly Michael picks up the sheep. Together Michael and I place the sheep back into the pen. No-one else in the congregation has moved. But young Michael has stepped forward, taken initiative and saved my day.

One of my beliefs is that we are all leaders. This is based on my understanding of leadership as influence. We all influence people, so by definition we are thus all leaders. You don’t need to have a position or a title, to exercise influence. You might exercise influence for good, or for bad. But we all influence others and we are all leaders. Michael earned the Opawa Baptist Leadership award today, for an act of outstanding leadership in our community.

leadership resourcing

I met monthly with a group of leaders at Opawa, each tasked with providing leadership of an area of the church: from community ministry to facilities, from spiritual growth to children.

We gather for an hour to catchup, pray, evaluate and support each other. This year I wanted to further ground us in Scripture with a particular focus on wanting to let Scripture resource what are very unique and different roles. 1 Corinthians 3 and 4, are for me, wonderful leadership texts, offering 6 images of leader – as servant, gardener, builder, resource manager, cross carrier and parent.

So at the end of each meeting I have given our leaders a “takeaway” – a concrete symbol, with the Bible text attached and the questions – what challenges you, what encourages you. They are invited to sit with that symbol over the month, and return to share what it means for their leadership. (The attached photo is of a towel, representing leader as servanthood, and seeds, representing leader as gardener.)

The first round worked brilliantly, with great discussion and really honest sharing. It takes very little of our meeting time, and yet sits with people over the month, inviting them to apply the Scripture to their leadership living.

I blog this, wondering if the use of symbols as takeaways for ongoing group work, might be of some help to readers.

leader as gardener goes global

I am a very proud lecturer. One of my students, Jocelyn, has just had a piece of work; titled Leader as Gardener, published in The Officer, a magazine that goes out to Salvation Army leaders all around the world.

Jocelyn was in my Pastoral leadership class earlier this year. As part of the class I invited students to explore 6 images of leader in 1 Corinthians 3 and 4;
– servant; 3:5; servants who waited on you
– gardener; 3:6-9; you are God’s garden
– builder; 3:9-17; I laid a foundation on which others
– resource manager; 3:18-4:7; Christ’s oikonomos [estate manager]
– cross carrier; 4:8-13; we are fools for Christ
– parent; 4:14-21; “fathers” to help you grow

Each student was given practical tasks – like to garden, to serve, to play with a child, to build something – and then invited to blog about what they learned about leadership from these practical experiences. Jocelyn blogged about leader as gardener (here).

She must have then re-worked the piece, because she bounced sort of Tiger-like into Bible College yesterday, beaming, with a September edition ofThe Officer magazine open. Jocelyn is a very gifted student and a very creative and able writer. Well done you.

bi-vocational realities

Si Johnson writes: I would also want to suggest that it might be right for that person to opt out after 5 years and live ‘a life more ordinary’ so that a.n.other might step into that place for a season … I think our new terrain for mission requires a serious look at the training grounds for leaders, the growing of new streamlined infrastructures for supporting less full-time leaders which in turn must be coupled with a pro-active move towards ‘bi-vocational leadership’ for more people. Link

Reading this, I suddenly realised that I have been bi-vocational for all of my (11) years of church ministry life.

Year 1-3: Planting Graceway 2.5 days/week while studying at Seminary.

Year 4-5: Pastoring Graceway 3 days/week and househusband to our first born daughter, Shannon.

Year 6-8: Pastoring Graceway 3 days/week and doing my PhD.

Year 9: Co-pastoring Graceway 1 day/week and completing my PhD.

Year 10-today: Pastoring Opawa 3 days/week and lecturing 2 days/week.

Some observations 11 years down the track:
I am richer for the experience. The reality though is that I have a unique skill set and I am not sure I want to make my skill set the norm for everyone.

My community is richer for the experience. Six months after I arrived at Opawa, one of the church leaders said, “Steve, you’re like us. You work outside the church too.” At that retreat we adopted a core value: a workplace reality and a worship that engages with life 24/7: And we decided we would seek part-time staff as the church grew. Now we have 7. The reality is that it is really hard for me to now effectively build relationship and I don’t feel I’m doing all that well being team with 7 people, let alone 10 ministry leaders.

I am richer because I feel less owned. Church is not my life. I have to walk away, to close the laptop and move to another employer. It has made it easier to build a team and has freed me from a number of traditional church minister expectations. But the reality is that serving two masters is hard, hard work. I rarely do less than a 50 hour week.

The worst time is when both demand a bit extra. Like last week. It requires a pretty flexible family. I know that most workplaces demand more than 50 hours. But I worry that all I am doing is modelling the “hey, I’m important because I’m busy” culture rather than a Kingdom culture.