Lay Leadership

This week I released my philosophy on lay leadership. Perhaps the most underutilized aspect of church governance seems to be the lay leadership committee found in the Book of Discipline. My experience shows that we tend to do the minimum (renominate last year's leaders) or we plug names on the roster only for those names which have people attached to them find out after the fact. Or we promise those approached that they are not going to have to do anything for the position they've agreed to fill. Oddly enough, they are good at fulfilling that promise.

Without further ado, here's what I gave to the Lay Leadership:

Philosophy on Lay Leadership

First, Paul, in 1^st Corinthians 12, deals with healthy structure and leadership of the local church. Chapter 12 speaks of the body with its interlocking necessity of all parts functioning together and that diversity exists and is necessary for the functioning of the body. In addition, Paul speaks of leadership within the body.

To use the analogy of the human body, the body is divided into two systems—thinking & doing and maintenance. While this analogy is imperfect, allow me to offer the following:

The thinking and doing functions of the body consists of the brain/nervous system and the skeletal/muscular system. These two systems provide the thoughts and activities of the body. The maintenance system consists of the respiratory, circulatory and digestive activities of the body. These three systems provide the resources for the thinking/doing system to perform.

So it is in the church that we have two systems that exists side by side—The Active Ministries and the Administrative Ministries. The Active Ministries consist of Nurture, Outreach and Witness. Out of these three ministries, we do such activities as worship, Sunday school, local mission, youth and evangelism. Beside the Active Ministries, the Administrative Ministries exists. These ministry teams consist of Church Council, Pastor Parish team, Finance team, Trustee team and Lay Leadership team. The Administrative Ministries exist for the purpose of resourcing the Active Ministries. The Church Council acts as the decision making body of the church. It sets direction, determines needs and coordinates the Active and Administrative Ministries.

When a church is focused too much on the Administrative Teams and not on the Active Teams, then a church tends to become inwardly focused. The slogan becomes “we’ve got to take care of our own before we can reach out to the community.”

Becoming a Christian involves a change in the direction of one’s life. Just as the Lord’s Prayer says, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we begin to seek to fulfill God’s will in our lives not necessarily our self-determined wills. As such, a Christian in the local congregation, church, has responsibilities to the Church. In our professing our faith and becoming a member of the local congregation, we agree to support this congregation by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our services and our witness. Our support should be understood as fulfilling five expectations:

1. 1. Worshipping God every week with a community of believers.

2. 2. Learning more about God and the Church through the activity of discipleship

3. 3. Participating in the ministry and mission of the local church.

4. 4. Supporting the local church financially with the goal of giving tithes and offerings

5. 5. An intentional and persistent prayer life dedicated to seeking and doing God’s will individually and collectively. This expectation is overarching the four above.

Men, women and youth have to achieve a sufficient level of buy-in in order for the church to be the healthy body of believers transforming the world. This buy-in consists of seeking to fulfill the five expectations listed above.

Ultimately, Lay Leadership is about putting the best and brightest Christians in the Active Ministries of a local church. In addition, the Lay Leadership seeks to place those with servants’ hearts in the role of Administrative Ministries. Out of this paradigm, the local congregation becomes focused on being in ministry resourced by the time, talent and treasury of the men, women and youth of the church.

That's the game plan for us to live into over the next two years.

Innovation

One of my favorite sayings is: "The message of Jesus Christ is eternal, the medium changes with time."

So what is the message? Two of Jesus' teaching: The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12:29-31) and The Great Commission (Matthew 28:10). In the church, all innovation revolves around these two teachings.

Any thoughts?

Season of a Thousand Tiny Mistakes

Recently, I heard the story of two groups asked to make clay pots. Group 1 was told to make the best clay pot possible with the resources they had. Group 2 was told to make as many pots as possible over the next 30 days. Each group was given all the resources they needed. At the end of 30 days, each group was judged to see which had the best pot. Surprisingly, the second group had the better pot. Over the 30 period, they made pot after pot learning from their mistakes. Group 1 never had the opportunity to learn from their mistakes as most of their mistakes were hidden from lack of comparsion.

Churches are like these groups. Many churches are only interested in the one pot and never see the imperfections that needed to be improved. Others learn from their mistakes and constantly improve.

As much as I have the power to inaugurate at Pine Valley, I am announcing "the season of a thousand tiny mistakes." We are about growing and learning by making tiny mistakes that help us toward greater perfection. Giant mistakes tend to be debilitating. Tiny mistakes are "teachable moments."

So we'll see how the next thirty days goes.