A Leadership Challenge
The following article written by Pete Brookshaw* who has a vision to ‘Mobilize an Army to Transform the World’ featured on his blog (peterbrookshaw.com) and his Facebook page a few weeks ago.
I for one personally think that it is definitely something to ponder for all of us involved in church ministry of any kind in this day and age, and is one of the biggest leadership challenges of our day.
He writes; “I love what God is doing these days through his people. I read stories of new initiatives, new welcoming communities, new cafes, intercultural communities of faith growing from the ground up… There’s a lot to be thankful for!
Though, if I might be so bold, I want to offer a warning/challenge. And I write this not just for pragmatic Salvationists who will read this, but any follower of Jesus who will listen.
But before I get to my main point, I think about the beautiful opportunity we have to live out the gospel through “Word and Deed”. We speak about the transformative power of Jesus found through his death and resurrection. And we live lives of compassion and grace to a world that is torn between light and darkness. The mission of reconciling the world back to its creator, is a grand, incredible mission. We seek that lives be transformed by Jesus and whole communities are radically altered because of a new life found in Christ.
What the people of God are doing in these days, is creative and ambitious. I cheer you on. We celebrate the fruitfulness we are beginning to see.
Though, if I might be so bold… I want to share something.
Here we go, are you ready for this?
Do we love the mission more than the God of the mission?
Do we spend more time talking about what we do, rather than the Jesus we serve?
Do we point people to our new ministries, more than we point them to Christ?
I want to caution us. [And caution myself just as much as you]. We are not called to worship the mission. We are called to worship God, out of whom all mission flows. We do missional things, because the love of Christ compels us.
I wonder whether we are in danger of getting it all a little upside down.
I want to suggest something that is possibly a little provocative. And remember, I don’t speak authoritatively on behalf of my denomination or anyone else for that matter.
I think it’s easier to share stories of doing things, rather than actually sharing the gospel. I think at times we lack courage to share about Jesus Christ, and so we fill our communication channels with stories of busyness and mission.
And so I wonder whether we are in danger of getting it all a little upside down. To use theological language, our Missiology is informed by our Christology. In all that we do and all that we envisage and all that we pioneer, we must make Jesus central. He is the one who heals the blind. He is the one who raises the dead. He is the one who takes a poor lost soul upon the streets and gives them hope. He is the one who graciously offers salvation to the least of these. Without Christ, we don’t have mission.
It’s not about us. It’s about him.
God, forgive us when we’ve made it about us, when it all needs to be about Christ. You deserve the glory. You deserve all the praise. Anything we get to partner with you in, is an absolute privilege and we’re so thankful.
Jesus, you are Lord. And we put YOU as the focus of all we do and acknowledge you are the reason for our very existence.
— o —
Pretty inspiring if you ask me.
I’ve always seen myself as someone who has tended to try and hold the missiological tension in balance in my life and ministry. For the past few years I too have found that we have tended to wear busyness as a badge of honour and neglected the most important aspect of our faith.
We have tended to major on the minor things from an Almighty perspective per se and rewarded ourselves for wearing ourselves out. We have focussed more on doing rather than being – we have unfortunately been caught up in the ‘Mary – Martha‘ conundrum trying to choose between them, rather than incorporating aspects of both into our everyday busy lives and ministries.
Over the years I have written a number of articles on this dilemma that you may want to [re]visit:
- Reimagining the Methodology
- Reimagining the Methodology – Part 2
- What Will Your Church Look Like Post-COVID-19?
- Now is the Time for Mission-Focused Leaders
- Fine Tuning Won’t Fix your Church
- How Can We Stay Focussed On Our Mission
- Can we learn from another time?
I hope that you find them helpful and by all means drop me a line or leave a comment below with your thoughts on this subject, as I’m sure we can all agree it is one of the bigger leadership challenges of our day along with the importance of discipleship.
Blessings ’til next time 🙂
* Major Peter Brookshaw has recently had a book published ‘Who am I to Change the World? From a Comfortable Couch to a Courageous Calling‘.
It is a book about growth. It’s about looking at core principles that will help identify ways to grow and develop into the person you are meant to be. While fear can cause us to shrink back, we have a God who calls us to step forward. If you want to change the world, you have to get off the couch.
It is available through Salvation Army Supplies / Trade Melbourne.
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