Brett Vander Berg
Leading Christian Communities Final
4/28/11
Part 1: Skill, characteristics, and habits of leadership that you discovered in this course?
-Love those whom you lead “He who loves community destroys community, he who loves the brethren builds community.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “Life Together”)
-Prayer (funny how we forget this)
- Look to God’s word. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” Psalm 119:105
-Spirit-led: God’s Spirit is at work in the church, identify, recruit, and equip leaders.
-Self reflection: seek to know your gifts and growing points.
-Adaptive leadership: Invitation and willingness to change, as well as to suffer.
-Repent when you mess up.
-Invest in a Leadership team: They must have the influence and skills to lead successfully.
-Direct: clarify roles and offer a vision for the leadership group.
-Protect: Make sure the leadership group is not vulnerable and can survive an external threat.
-Order: Maintain stability in the leadership group.
-Disequilibrium: or, establish a sense of urgency
turn up the heat.
-“Productive zone of disequilibrium”
-Work avoidance
-Scape-goating, and meaningless committees
-Observe, Interpret, Intervene = Change Process
-Experiment and take risks
-Engage above and below the neck.
-Diagnose the system
-Become a better student of the history of the congregation than they are themselves!
-Espoused values vs. Behavior.
-Competing Commitments
-Speak the Unspeakable
-Web of Stakeholders. What’s at stake? Level of engagement? Degree of power and influence? Values? Loyalties? Losses at Risk? Hidden Alliances?
-Name Elephants in the room.
-Share responsibility, as well as positive or negative consequences of change.
-Independent Judgment of leaders is expected.
-Leadership capacity is developed.
-Technical to Adaptive
-Benign to Conflictual
-Individual to Systemic
-Reframe default interpretations
-Get on the Balcony!
-Determine the Ripeness of the Issue in the system.
-Act Politically
-Grow informal authority
-Find Allies
-Stay Connected to Opposition
-Eat meals with those you disagree with. Food may be our best leadership resource, and maybe ping-pong.
-Manage authority figures
-take responsibility for casualties
-protect and engage the voices of dissenters.
-Orchestrate conflict
-Holding environments.
-Retreats
-Regulate the heat.
-Adaptive culture
-The Church as open system vs. closed system.
-The Church in a context
-Feedback loops.
-vision and purpose come from the Bible.
-Practice Worship, discipleship, life together, services, and witness.
-Parallel Cultures – invest in them.
-Missio dei
-X-Teams: “Externally oriented people working outside the boundaries as well as inside them.”
-Strategic: names the goals and seeks to achieve the change.
-Tactical: Responds to the changes at hand.
-Redefine “success” in the church.
-Be accountable and transparent.
-Establish short-term wins.
-Communicate vision and goals as often as possible and in as many mediums as possible.
-Empower broad based leadership.
-Remove obstacles in front of all affected persons.
-Consolidate your gains.
-Anchor new approaches and vision in to the wider culture.
-Listen.
-Practice dwelling in the word.
-Ask other leaders for help often, often, often.
-I’m sure I missed something, but this is what I have right now.
Part 1: Q 2
I was settled by a number of issues brought up in this class. First, I was greatly settled by the fact that the Spirit already is leading. The Spirit has gifted all the family of God with gifts for service and mission – whew, what a relief I don’t have to do it all! I was also settled to find out that disequilibrium is a good thing! I enjoy turning up the temp a little bit, and I am very relieved to learn that there is a place for my desire to question, prod, and contest. I consider myself to be quite observant, and so the process of change that is “Observe, Interpret, and Intervene” was helpful to me because I feel like I do the first two rather naturally.
Experimentation has a lot of negative connotations, but I love to try new things. That’s why I put on a ping-pong tournament at Western; I wanted to see people engage communally in a way they never had before. The Balcony is also a place I find myself on rather easily. So, seeking out the views and opinions of the larger community is something I believe I will succeed in. I also believe that I am incredibly adaptive; so I was excited to find that adaptation is a key trait of an effective leader. I am also slow to make changes, because I am observant, and I was excited to find that change is not the first thing to seek when learning a new community.
Previously, one of my greatest weaknesses as a leader has been my ignorance of how to orchestrate conflict in a helpful way that leads to a desired change. Understanding holding environments was particularly helpful in this case, because there is a time for everything and season for every purpose under heaven. Having difficult leadership conversations has a place, but they need to be safe places where people have the freedom to express themselves honestly.
Finally, being reminded to practice basic Christian practices helped me. Too often in our leadership we forget to pray, we forget to worship, we forget to break bread with those in our community. We forget that we are not leading a corporation to greater capital success, we are leading God’s people, and ultimately – God is leading God’s people. Practice Dwelling in the Word. Practice repentance. Practice mentoring, as well as being mentored. Seek out other leaders and their opinions. Eat meals with God’s people. Welcome them into my home. Participate in their activities and events. Remain public. And most of all – Love God’s people genuinely.
Part 1: Q 3
In the past few months I have interviewed at a number of churches. During conversations with local leaders they have asked questions about “how I would get young people into the church.” This unsettles me because I recognize the temptation within me to be the guy who has all the answers. I want to be the guy who fixes the local church…. I want to be Jesus. My own pride is what unsettles me. I was unsettled by my desire to accept people’s praise. When things go well I am tempted to have a false-piety. One that says “Praise God,” instead of “Thank You.”
I am also unsettled by my hatred for strategic busywork. I hate sending emails, planning meetings, and organizing my calendar. My challenge here will be to delegate what I can, and attempt to make meeting planning and organizing as pointedly applicable as possible. I despise doing things that don’t have purpose, like meetings where people just talk. So, I am unsettled within myself of the possibility that I may become a man who only writes emails, plans meetings, and schedules my calendar. I must learn to do these things well, but I have not yet learned them. I also assume that other people will take responsibility for facilitating conversations, taking notes, and reporting to a larger group. I assume that other people will do those tasks because I don’t want to do them, but I can’t just ‘assume’ that someone else will delegate and lead. I assume too often that others will lead – poor leadership on my part. This is work to be continued as I lead communities.
I am also continually unsettled by my own sense of entitlement. This bothers me so much because I have always viewed myself as becoming a pastor specifically to serve the hard-working people of our communities. I have worked as a carpenter for 11 summers, but I still find myself seeking entitlement in the position of ‘pastor.’
Nobody likes dissenters. I like to be the dissenter, but I hate when other people are the dissenter. So, there’s a problem. I am unsettled by other people’s dissent, which is another pride issue. I believe I am the only person wise enough to see the one valid dissent, but there are many gifts, but one Spirit. I will need to grow in this way, because as I am now, I am tempted to shut up the other dissenters.
Part II: Leadership Scenario
Scenario 1:
This scenario begins with the recent acceptance of the lead or senior pastor position at a local RCA church. First and foremost then, I would seek to slow down the process of calling another pastoral staff member. If I accepted the position of lead pastor only recently, then I have not had the time to study the history and complexity of the congregation. I also have not had the time and experience to build credibility with the congregation. Without diagnosing the system, how could I expect to effectively lead a congregation through this call decision?
Biblically speaking, I also do not have enough current knowledge of Biblical exegesis to provide arguments for women as pastoral leaders. I believe women to be effective pastoral leaders, but I simply do not have a well articulated argument for such leadership. One of my first tasks then, would be to study, to seek counsel from those who understand Biblical history better than I. I would seek such knowledge particularly from members of the classis and other area ministers.
Leadership does not occur in a vacuum, and so I would also seek out the counsel of various leaders within the classis. Many long-standing classis ministers would understand the dynamics of my church more than I would. Many classis ministers may also have insight and suggestions for ways to initiate a conversation concerning women in leadership. There may also be some female pastors in the classis; they could be vital friends to incorporate in future conversations with my congregation.
While taking the call process slowly, I would seek out the various opinions of lay leaders. Most lay leaders are women. Let’s be honest, we all know that women are the most active leaders in almost every church. I would like to hear their stories, I would like to ask some key female leaders a difficult question: “If many of our lay leaders are women, then why do we not have an official female pastoral leader?” What would that look like? How would the community respond? I would seek to ask these questions of many people, male and female, encouraging them to think, study, and pray about such questions.
In the scenario, there are 8 men, 2 of whom would support having a female pastor. Before instigating a conversation on Women as Pastors I would establish the ability for leaders to listen and love one another. I would do this by using dwelling in the word, week after week after week. I would use texts that point to God’s vision of the Church in the world. I would also dine with each person on the consistory. Before inserting any disequilibrium I would seek to establish my own love and knowledge of each leader. I would also continue to study the history and stories of the congregation as a whole. In this way, once leaders discover a capacity to hear one another and respect the opinions of the other leaders, then I would begin to think about leading them in a conversation about women in ministry.
After enough time has passed, so that I could learn the congregation and establish credibility, preferably 12-36 months, I would instigate some disequilibrium into the leaders of the Church. I would confess to those men that I do not have the ability to effectively minister to all of the people of our church by myself. I would point out that I can talk to men about any number of issues, even the most difficult: anger, over-working, pornography, etc. Yet, women in the congregation would not feel comfortable coming to me with their most difficult challenges and struggles. This is a problem for me. We are not ministering equally to all of God’s people.
I would name elephants in the room. Where do our espoused values contradict our behaviors? Where do we claim one thing, but do another? If we claim to be a community of people who lives into the NT image of the church, but we are unable to minister effectively to women, then how can we remedy such a problem?
I would ask the question first, and I would listen to people’s responses. We would take all responses seriously. I would delegate one member of consistory to record suggestions, and one member of consistory to make sure that everyone has shared. After everyone has shared and we had come up with some options, I would suggest that we as a leadership team seek out the opinions of those in the congregation.
Seeking the opinions of the larger congregation would take delegation and orchestration. I would organize the leaders in teams of two, the two would be assigned to interview various members of the congregation, particularly women. At this point I would begin to publicize the fact that the leadership of the church has recognized deficiencies in their capacity to minister to the women of our community.
After leaders had heard some stories from various women in the congregation, we would reconvene as a leadership team and we would dwell in the word and we would share stories. I would seek to listen, first and foremost. I would again facilitate the conversation in such a way that each person shared what they heard. I would record the conversations on a large piece of poster-paper or something. Throughout this process I would adamantly defend the voices of those who did not believe in women in pastoral leadership. This is essential because if their voice doesn’t count, then we do not trust the Spirit to lead the whole community. We would name every single story shared or concern raised. At the end of this session, It would become rather obvious, in theory, that there was pain in the congregation. I would point out that male leadership alone was not ministering to women effectively. I would suggest that we have a congregational meeting to discuss this issue further. The congregational conversation would look like this:
How to Lead a Retreat for Decision-Making: 10-40 put them around tables of 4-6. 40-80 put them around tables of 8-10. 200+ people Three Rooms of 8-10 people each room led by a great leader. Collective reporting. Let the people think and speak. At each table have a recorder/scribe writes collective notes and takes biggest themes and puts them on the flip chart. The time-keeper keeps sharing fair. Presenter agrees to speak for whole group (this is why dwelling in the Word is such an important practice.) Then, a sergeant of arms that calls on those who won’t speak. They make sure that sharing is equal. TELL RULES UP FRONT. Listening leaders never say a word, they watch and participate silently. At the end of the day, you ask them about the dynamics. Is there anything that happened today that we passed over without ample attention? Any one group taking over? Ask about group dynamics. Is there anything you would have wanted to say but you couldn’t. What they say can be really powerful. (see p. 78 Crosby)
All along I would also continue to study the history of the congregation. I would point out that various changes of the years had succeeded, changes at the time that seemed outlandish but are now commonplace. I would also continue to speak with those key lay leaders who did not agree with women in leadership. I would ask them about their reservations, and I would seek to challenge them in the truth as well as respect their opinions and the work of God in their life. I would also seek to strengthen those small coalitions of people who desire a woman pastor.
I would recommend to the Consistory that we try having a guest pastor, a woman guest pastor. I would find a woman pastor whose gifts would clearly show God’s work in her life. I would recommend this as a way of testing the waters. After the woman minister came we could test the congregation’s response to her presence and leadership. If the response was largely positive, then we would know that such a change has plausibility. If the response to a female pastor’s presence was largely negative, then we would go back to the drawing board.
I would also publicize often, and in many forms, an appreciation to the guest pastor. I would also suggest a class, where the female guest pastor was a co-teacher. In this way, I would attempt to establish evidence for the congregation; Evidence that women can pastor, in many cases, more effectively than men. Establishing a relationship with this key female pastor would be instrumental in shifting ‘women in ministry’ from an issue to a person.
Assuming the congregation’s response was positive, I would again ask the consistory “where do we go from here?” At this point, I would hopefully have lived in their community long enough to learn their stories and gain some credibility with them and their families. I would emphasize that, whatever decisions we made in the future, that we respected the Spirit’s guiding in our midst. I would also name the fact that this is a difficult decision, where we are venturing into new territory for this congregation. I would propose that we vote to call a woman pastor as our next staff person so that we can effectively minister to all the people of our community.
There would be fallout along the way. I would take responsibility for the fallout, and I would seek to reconcile with those who disagree with the decision.
Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY: Along the way, no matter what happens in this communal decision process – I would make mistakes. I would confess my mistakes, and I would seek out the wisdom of other leaders. I’m sure that I would fail in numerous ways throughout this process, but no matter my failure, I would confess and repent. I would seek to deepen my own self-understanding, because this scenario would require MUCH deepening on my part. I do not understand all the factors and people involved in this conversation, but I do believe that if I remain flexible, humble, and willing to listen, then I will not fail as a leader of Christ’s Church.
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