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September 16, 2007

We Are Bound Together

September 16, 2007
We Are Bound Together
Exodus 18:13-27, Galatians 6:1-10

Week two of our four week Radical Christianity sermon series. Last week we looked at Radical Christianity as where two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name the Spirit will be present, we can look for and expect it. We can be joyful and enthusiastic about it. We can share our joy with everyone we encounter because Jesus was radically inclusive.

Today we will look at what it means to be a leader in this radical Christianity movement.

All of us are familiar with, and most of us are more comfortable with, hierarchical leadership—one person decides the direction the organization will go, makes decisions for the organization, and basically takes ultimate responsibility for the failure or success of the organization. The first tier of management meets with the second tier of management, all the way down until everyone is informed.

Organizations need someone to lead, but the question is to what degree and how. In his book, “Leadership on the Other Side,” Bill Easum agrees with what Moses’ father-in-law said to Moses, that one person cannot do it all alone. “This is no way to go about it! You’ll burn out and the people right along with you.” Easum suggests that instead of the top-down model of command and control that we move toward a permission-giving atmosphere in which teams and people function autonomously. The day of the lone Ranger leadership is too one-dimensional to be effective in the world we live in that moves at such a fast pace. Good examples of permission giving companies include Wikipedia, eBay, and Toyota.

Some of the aspects of permission giving leaders include: Trust people, value risk takers, future more important that the past, failure is a learning experience, people are more important than systems.

Think about how empowering it is to work with someone who trusts you. That empowers you to trust yourself and others. If risks takers are nurtured, then the worry about failure diminishes—especially if failure is seen as a learning experience and not something to be avoided at all costs. Permission giving leaders believe that people are more important than systems.

How often has the church struggled with this? We have a slot we need to fill in our organizational structure so we ask the first available person. If we care more for the system than the person, we will ask people to serve on committees that are life draining rather than provide places where people can grow in their faith. But if we are more concerned with people over systems, we will make committees more live giving and be aware of how we are using people’s time. We will provide places where people grow, not the organization.

Others agree with Bill Easum that leadership in the post-modern world is changing. There was an article in the Harvard Management Update about a new area of leadership, called “post-heroic.” One based on shared responsibility that replaces the Lone-Ranger-rides to the rescue model.

A post-heroic manager is someone who sees everyone as a leader, views her primary function to build a strong team with a common vision and mutual influence, and invites others to share the responsibility of managing. It is easier to push your own agenda than to see everyone as having something to contribute to the greater whole. Unfortunately, most of us are so familiar and comfortable with the Lone-Ranger Company or the Pastor-driven church that is seems hard to believe that a shared leadership style would work.

The Harvard Management article outlined 10 Myths about the flaws of post-heroic or shared leadership. One of the myths about post-heroic leadership is that all decisions must be made by group consensus. Actually, effective leaders look at a situation and see which decision-making approach is most appropriate. Having a team make small minute detailed decisions is not good use of team time. Better to work together on strategic decisions where everyone’s contribution and investment is needed.

Shared leadership is not about relinquishing all responsibility to the group. Leaders must take responsibility. The difference in shared leadership is that one person doesn’t make all the decisions out of context and without consultation of those invested in the organization or ministry area. Shared leadership is nurtured and cultivated. People are empowered and respected. Opinions are solicited and honest reflection is valued over blind agreement with the boss.

The early church like the Israelites out in the desert with Moses, were a more organic, free-flowing organization with shared leadership. Paul encouraged the Galatians, “Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.”

What happened? Well, the church got professional. It got away from lay leaders to paid leaders. Christianity became a label instead of a way of life. We spend an hour at our church family and expect to build strong relationships in that time.

There are two aspects of this modern phenomenon. The pastor became the “expert.” The pastor was seen as the one who has all the answers, and we pastors fall into the trap of thinking we must have them. For our part, many of us pastors like to have the control and run things our way. When we aren’t so healthy, we see the church as an extension of ourselves instead of an extension of God. The congregation on the other hand likes to have a paid person to do the work. It relieves you of the pressure or responsibility of doing it. Because you see the pastor as expert, you don’t trust your own experiences enough. You diminish your ability to lead.

We see how this has impacted our churches…they are getting smaller and smaller. People in the post-modern world don’t necessarily think pastors or any Christians have the answers to their questions. Why? Because the image the church projects is not one of care for others but only concern for ourselves. In addition, the model of sole/paid staff leadership has demonstrated that one or two people can only do so much.
Christianity has become too consumer oriented for its own good. Because the average Christian looks at Christianity as something to be given to them, they miss out on the gift of giving. And when we only take, like the consumer culture in which we live, the depth of our faith diminishes. If our focus is on getting for ourselves and not giving, we are only concerned with our family and friends. How does this make us different from the world in which we live if we don’t connect or care about those who are suffering in the world?

How can we move beyond our consumer-oriented, individualist culture and recapture some of our radical Christian roots? First, we acknowledge that we are a people of God who desire God’s vision for our common life. And we acknowledge we need shared leadership—it cannot be overstated. It’s not about one person’s vision of where the church should be. The more people who take ownership of God’s dream for a particular community of faith, the more God’s dream will become a reality. God reveals his dream for our world to us. He depends on us to manifest his dreams for the world—we are his hands and heart. Are we listening? We may be but how will we know its God’s dream?

At Christ Church is Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, they have four criteria that ministries must meet for them to be associated with their church.
1. It will deal with Kingdom issues as found in the Bible—justice, poverty, visitation, etc.
2. It will be larger than the person proposing it. In fact, it will be so big in scope that only if God blesses it will it happen.
3. It will be clear. Too much of what we do is fuzzy.
4. It will require inviting others to help carry it out—it will require asking for help.

That’s how Christ Church in Ft. Lauderdale keeps their ministries healthy and growing. The focus on ministries at Christ Church is on God because without God, their ministries won’t make it. When we at Irving Park UMC catch God’s vision for us, we’ll have a direction to go and guidelines for our shared ministry together.

The second way we can move beyond our consumer oriented, individualistic approach to life is to become a servant leader like Jesus. We offer ourselves not as volunteers but as servants.
As detailed in the Leadership from the Heart small group study, servant leaders focus on:

1. Knowing and doing the will of God by following the example of Jesus,
2. Appreciating other’s worth and valuing their needs
3. Leading others toward a deeper walk with the Lord.

A servant leader seems like a contradictory word but it actually reflects the way Jesus lived his life. A servant leader desires and demonstrates character that continually is becoming more and more like the character of Christ—authentic, vulnerable, grace-filled, responsive, personally involved and engaged, accepting, trustworthy, loving, caring, spiritual, passionate, and patient. The interesting thing about these traits is that they are associated with a state of being rather than the activities of doing.

Thus a servant leader is not all Martha—running around serving. A servant leader is also Mary—listening for God’s direction and contemplating the ways God is working through her.

Being a servant leader is to be a radical Christian. How many leaders do you know who strive to serve those they lead? How many leaders would hang out with people who don’t have the best connections, the most money, or highest credentials? How many leaders would sacrifice themselves and all they have for the good of the cause? In the church, we discover and embody this counter-cultural way of leading—of living—by getting to know Jesus, by holding each other accountable to this radical standard, and by supporting each other while we practice this servant model of living.

But we don’t stop there. Jesus pushes us farther—even when we are just beginning to practice this servant leadership. Jesus’ radical way of leadership leads us from Christian community into the world.
We are asked to be servant leaders in all aspects of our life—in all areas where we have influence. In our family, at our job, with our friends, with strangers.

A large part of my role as your pastor is to help you grow and develop as a Christian. And in order to do that, I need to get to know you better along with this community. And I need your help with both areas. We need to engage in talk beyond the surface small talk and share more intimately with each other. As we move forward you will be asked to share your gifts, talents, your ideas with your church.

Each of you spends so much more time in the world than you do here at church. Look for a place where God might be asking you to serve. Do you have a need in your life that your church could help you with? Have you completed training or overcome a problem that others might benefit from your experiences? Keep your eyes, your ears, and your heart open. Come to me with an idea or dream you have for a ministry in the church. Maybe you will get a call to join a team for some specific work for the church. What will you say?

To be a servant leader is to work toward solutions not add to the problem. If we buy into the notion that all of us influence others for good or for ill, it is not so much of a leap to realize that by design God has bound us together. It is not so much that God makes things happen as it is that actions have consequences, whether those consequences are felt immediately or not. God is at work in the world but not always in ways we expect or see. And many people don’t respond to God at all.

As Christians, how much we allow ourselves to be bound to others is in direct proportion to our relationship with God. How much do we care about those the Bible lifts up as needing our attention? This morning we will baptize Riley and Addy Green. Meg and Mason, Aimee and Scott you will be asked to show these two young girls what it means to be a servant leader—to model the love of God toward others. This church will reaffirm our commitment to support you as you raise your children in a Christian environment.

And we will also affirm our desire to live as Jesus lived, concerned for all the people in our lives not just those in our church or our family of origin. When we accept the mantle of servant leader, we will take to heart the call to serve all the people within our circle of influence, no matter their relationship to us because as servants of God we realize that we are bound together as God’s beloved children--each and every one.

Footnotes:

1. Leadership on the Other Side, Bill Easum. 2000 Abingdon Press.
2. 10 Myths about Post-heroic Leadership—and Why They’re Wrong by David Stauffer. Harvard Management Update, No. U9804A, 1998.
3. Waking to God’s Dream, Dick Wills 1999 Abingdon Press.
4. Leadership from the Heart, Church of the Resurrection Resource, 2004 Abingdon Press.

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM