PLAYING FOLLOW THE LEADER PART THREE: CULTIVATING RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST

Organizations and teams sometimes think the key to health and effectiveness is finding the “right” leader.  Anthony B. Robinson has written an article in which he stresses the importance  -especially in the church-  of developing healthy, engaged followers.

Robinson reminds us that Jesus says this, “Come, follow me.”  What does it look like to be healthy, faithful, thinking, engaged Christ- followers in the church?

Healthy followers, we said several weeks ago, understand that leading is necessary work, and it is dangerous work.  Often lonely.  Frequently demanding courage.

A second characteristic of a healthy follower is that they are committed to a larger congregational purpose or mission.  Instead of focusing on the needs and preferences of their particular group in the church, they ask, “What is best for the whole body?  What will best help us fulfill our overall mission for God?”
The third characteristic of good followers is the willingness to offer support that is “not conditional or fickle.”  Robinson, in the January 11, 2012 issue of “Christian Century,” writes, “They (followers) must support a leader and be able to disagree without severing the relationship.”

One of the most unsettling statements I ever received started out as a compliment.  Years ago a lay person in a congregation came up to me and said this: “I am so glad you are here as our pastor.  You haven’t made a wrong move, and I am on your side because you see things the way I do.”  My heart sank because it seemed my friend was saying, “I am glad you are my pastor as long as we agree.”

That is a thin thread, and it will not hold the fabric of a partnership together for long.  If we stay together, if we love one another and work together, only as long as we agree then we won’t stay together long.  That’s true in churches, in marriages, and in friendships!

One congregation worked hard to “manage expectations” people had that the pastor could somehow magically please hundreds of different personalities.  “Followership allows room for disagreement, but also requires the management of expectations.”

Many Christian communities talk about the “covenantal” quality of the relationship between followers and the leaders.  In this covenant all parties are called to commit themselves to the relationship.
I believe the story of Simon Peter and Jesus has a lot to tell us about what it means to respond when Jesus says, “Come, follow me.”  Jesus and Peter disagreed heatedly about strategy: Jesus wanted to head to Jerusalem and Peter believed avoiding a showdown would be the prudent thing to do.  They disagreed with one another, but at the end of the story they are together.  They use the word “love” to describe their relationship, their commitment to one another.

Faithful followers, the kind of people God uses to bring new life to a church or organization, are people who are “all in.”  Through the tough chapters and the good, the easy times and the difficult, followers and leaders keep journeying together.  The commitment to one another is not timid or conditional, but deep and profound.

What would it look like at First/The Open Door if we lived out that kind of profound, Christ-shaped commitment to do life together?

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

THOUGHTS OF FAREWELL

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”  ~Psalm 103:2

I had a southern lady for a grandma. She was from the Deep South. I heard her say many phrases that came from the depths of Mississippi, including the often used "Bless his or her heart."  I often wondered what that meant because she used it so many different ways. I wondered what it meant to "bless someone’s heart."

But there have been some very special times that the idea of blessing has become crystal clear. Those times in life let you taste the fullness of life Jesus talks about.  Times of blessing are holy, and you know that you’ve experienced something of the Divine. Blessing is something that God brought to us. When God formed creation, the very next act was blessing it. When God breathed life into humans, the very next act was blessing us. God’s been doing it ever since. God has been offering blessing and asking us to do the same.  Experiencing blessing is something of the sacred.

Our goodbye over the last weeks has been one of those times in my life.  I have known deep and transforming blessings. You have blessed my heart, my life, and my next chapter. You have blessed with words that seek God’s best gifts for my life, ministry, and family. You have blessed the ministry we have done together by sharing some “God-moments” that have happened in the midst of our time together. And your acts of blessing with shared meals, help moving and packing, and generous gifts have helped us to experience the abundance of God and His grace. Your acts of blessing have stirred, filled, and refreshed my heart so I can be ready to go, love, and serve with new power and energy.

You are a blessing. It’s part of answering your call as people of God. I’ve attended various worship services over the last four weeks. In every one of them, I’ve been invited to bless God’s heart. The idea is in the pages of our scriptures, particularly the Psalms. But to think that we could bless God’s heart struck me anew, and I was amazed.  And we are called to share God’s blessings with others; we are called to be a blessing.

May you continue to answer that call in bold and gracious ways. May it become the goal for your everyday…to bless God’s heart and other’s. For I can tell you, from experience, that you are a powerful people of the Spirit when it comes to blessing a heart.

“Let us consider how to stir up another to love and good works…” ~ Hebrews 10:24

Christ’s love and mine,

Jen

PLAYING FOLLOW THE LEADER PART TWO: COMMITTED TO A LARGER PURPOSE VISION/MISSION

"If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there," I heard someone say.

Last week we began a series of articles on the importance of “followership.”  (Note: a columnist in a national newspaper had an article this week on the importance of informed, wise followers!)

Anthony B. Robinson, a church consultant, talks about how developing positive, wise, engaged followers is every bit as important as a church finding the “right” leader.

Robinson, I said last week, observes that great followers understand leading  -asking tough questions, speaking hard truth-  is necessary and dangerous work.  We often  -whether as a church, a family, or a nation-  need to hear the truth we don’t want to hear.

There is a second element in being a good follower and that is sharing “a commitment to a larger congregational purpose or mission” than our own group’s agenda.  Troubled congregations, says Peter Steinke, experience “mission drift.”  Robinson says, “They lack a clear or shared sense of core purpose.”

In other words, troubled congregations may often be attempting to do everything…and nothing in particular.  There is no central organizing principle, or passion, or truth.

Great followers, healthy followers, are committed to the good of the organization “regardless of whether there is complete agreement.”  The overall mission of the church matters more than what I want or what is easiest for my group.  This is important when we gather to make decisions about a Sunday morning schedule, facilities, staffing, etc.  Is our first concern the agenda of our own group, or are we committed to what will be best for the overall congregation?

Leaders are most effective when there is a clear, shared purpose that is Biblically-based and culturally relevant.

Jesus invites people to follow him and he calls them to a central mission: “I will send you out to fish for people.”  This will be a community with a clear purpose.  This will be a community with a mission.

Great followers know the mission and are committed to that purpose – more so than the agenda of their own particular group.  Our leaders have said we are here to Connect, Grow and Serve so that we might make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  Do we care more about the health of this missional community than our own preferences?

If we know where we are going, and what we have been called to be, then not every road will get us there!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

PLAYING FOLLOW THE LEADER PART ONE: KNOWING THE WORK IS DANGEROUS.

Do you remember playing the children’s game, “Follow the leader”?  None of us liked following – we wanted to be the leader!

Leadership institutes, universities, and churches talk about “preparing tomorrow’s leaders,” but few of us give much thought to developing “tomorrow’s followers.”  “Following is crucial” writes Anthony B. Robinson in the January 11^th issue of Christian Century. 

Robinson, of Congregational Leadership Northwest, tells the story of First Church whose pastor left.  Leaders created a task force to identify what kind of leader the church needed.  Thinking leadership is the key to success is dangerous, though.  People can think that getting the right leader can “magically fix a church’s problems.”

The leaders of the church insisted the task force look at what it means to faithfully follow.  They wondered what members of the congregation can do to help make the relationship with the pastor work well.

Unitarian minister Paul Beedle defines followership as “the discipline of supporting leaders and helping them to lead well.  It is not submission, but the wise and good care of leaders, done out of a sense of gratitude for their willingness to take on the responsibilities of leadership, and a sense of hope and faith in their abilities and potential.”

Robinson says “good leaders and good followers…act as partners…Good followers remain free to think for themselves, but recognize a responsibility to help leaders lead well.”

During these next few weeks the weekly email will look at what Robinson  -and the Bible-  identify as keys to following well.  What do these comments have to say to you about your role in the church and other circles of your life?

Following well first, according to Robinson, means recognizing that leadership is necessary, important, and difficult work.  Robinson worked with a church in a university community that was unsure about the value of leadership.  Its members didn’t think they needed a pastor.  “We have lots of smart, capable people in our church,” they said. “We don’t need someone telling us what to do.”

Good leaders “seldom tell people what to do.”  Instead, as Ron Heifetz says, “they help a congregation to identify its own most pressing problems and important challenges, and then to mobilize faith and resources to take on those challenges.”

A key role of a good leader is to question the values, beliefs, and habits of the congregation.  That is dangerous work!  “When you tell them something they don’t want to hear but need to hear, they may see only what they have to lose and not what they stand to gain.”

The Hebrews didn’t want to hear the hard truth Moses shared so they turned to smooth, people-pleasing Aaron.  Jeremiah spoke up against the military-industrial complex and ended up being stuffed down in a hole in the ground.  The disciples responded to the tough truth of Jesus by saying, “This is hard.”

Leadership is necessary.  Someone needs to be speaking truth.  Someone needs to help the church envision a new reality…a new way of living.

A leader cannot do this “unless there are followers who respond to the leadership and are willing to take some risks.”

Good followers encourage the leader to help people come face to face with the truth even when it is a hard thing.  Because hard truth often has the capacity to set us free.

Good followers know the work of leading is dangerous and necessary.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark