Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Reimagining (Church) Leadership in late 2011

Friend, Len Hjalmarson, offers a lengthy and thought provoking post around the themes of Centers and Margins, Abbots, Prophets and Poets. 

He begins his post: 

“…Last fall I was working on a writing project and reflecting on James K.A. Smith and his take on love and desire. That took me back to William Cavanaugh and his thoughts on Augustine and desire – Augustine argued that our desires must be trained. Smith argues that because culture is a cultivating force, we are constantly being trained –formed — by the practices of market culture. Our desires are being molded at a pre-cognitive (shades of Charles Taylor and his “social imaginary”) level. 

All this in the context of my previous reflections on belonging and believing. Which is primary? If the goal of all this is that we might know God, do we know him primarily thru the intellect or the affections? If love is the true path to knowledge, it might help us sort out whether believing or belonging is the primary path to the goal. 

But somewhere in all this reflection I found myself looking for something in The Forgotten Ways Handbook. I was thinking in particular of the role of the Abbot, or the Synergist. According to Miller (Barbarians to Bureaucrats, Fawcett Books, 1990) the key to holding together diverse communities of leadership types is the Synergist. Miller describes a Synergist as “… a leader who has escaped his or her own conditioned tendencies toward one style and incorporated, appreciated and unified each of the styles of leadership on the life-cycle curve. The best managed companies are synergistic.” 

The Synergist guards this ethos and her role is to foster and maintain a creative and open space within the team so that no one role dominates. She helps maintain clarity of vision and her investment is in internal capital. As Mort Ryerson put it, the primary task of being a leader is to make sure that the organization knows itself. This connects us back to the function of memory as rooting identity within the living Body, and the role of storytellers in passing on the narrative that connects us to the larger purposes of God in history. Miller argues that the Synergist is a dynamic combination of the other roles. Others, like Alan Roxburgh (The Sky is Falling), have identified this function in the traditional role of the Abbot…” 

You can read the full post here. Indeed, I encourage you to read it. What resonates with you? Challenges you? Offers hope? Stretches your thinking? 

 

On the Path to Attentive and Undefended Openness

A book I have sitting beside me, but have yet to read is one written by Simon P Walker. It’s titled Leading Out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership (pub 2007). Like most things I read, there are much broader applications beyond the practice of leadership, leadership after all being practiced within a web of relationships. Walker is setting out to unearth and work with the “deeper structures of the human condition”. 

“…He sees society at large, and individuals generally, as being preoccupied with defending themselves against threats, real and perceived, from the world around them – a state of affairs he articulates in biological and theological (post-fall) terms. 

Conversely, the paradox he offers is that our strongest life skills come from our acceptance of vulnerability and weakness. This, he believes, is what sets us free to develop as characters, find honesty and meaning in our lives and to grow in moral authority – in ways that can have implications at every level from individual to societal. 

Exploring issues of psychology, leadership theory and emotional intelligence, as well as spirituality, Walker’s ideas are not only applicable to religious settings or outlooks. They appear to have struck as much of a chord among company executives and struggling parents, friends or partners as among church leaders…” – Reform Magazine, Oct. 2011 

Contents (of Leading Out of Who You Are) 

What makes and undefended leader? 

Part 1 

The hostile world of the leader.

Strategies of Defence I: Front and Back Stage.

Strategies of Defence II: Power.

Strategies of Defence III: Control. 

Part 2 

Our Experience of Trust.

Our Response to Trust: The Shaping of Leadership Ego.

Our Response to Trust: The Defining Leadership Ego.

Our Response to Trust: The Adapting Leadership Ego.

Our Response to Trust: The Defending Leadership Ego. 

Part 3 

The Freedom to Fail: Locating the Source of Approval.

The Freedom to Give: Cultivating Undefended Leadership.

Leading as a Child.

The Formation of Moral Authority.

Setting Undefended Goals. 

Against this backdrop I was therefore fascinated to listen to a series of three recent podcasts where Ian Mobsby interviews Simon. The first in particular is really thought provoking. It focus’ on ego formation and the psychology of leadership. 

Here’s the MOOT promo: 

In this first of three podcasts recorded in August 2011 Ian Mobsby conversed with Simon P. Walker – author, teacher, mentor and Anglican Priest to explore the issue of the ‘undefended life’. Simon has written a number of highly acclaimed books on the subject, getting to the heart of the calling of Christian spirituality to promote an approach to life, which is undefended. In this podcast Simon maps out the effects of early childhood on our personality types, and an interpretation of the New Testament that promotes liberation through experiencing the love of God to overcome fear and so be undefended. 

You’ll find the first, second, and third podcast here – scroll down until you find them. Sadly, while you can hear him, the sound quality of Simon’s responses isn’t always the best.

 

Alan Roxburgh, Planting Seeds, Adaptive Change and Diffusion of Innovation

One of the rich benefits of listening too and being in conversation with Alan Roxburgh is the interesting ‘places’ you’re taken to. Alan, after spending time with Anglican’s in Wellington, headed north to the Waikato for two-days with Anglican clergy at Findlay Park. It’s been a couple of years since I last saw Alan, so lots of benefits on a personal level. Alan early on had a strong leaning toward and intellect for philosophy. My sense is that while his focus has increasingly been on Missiology, particularly in Western culture and particularly within what Alan terms “Western-Euro-Tribal Churches”, he still retains and nourishes a love of learning and intellectual exploration. It’s that willingness to explore and think broadly that enables many of us to pick up the threads and for these threads to be woven into our own narratives, experiences, and exploration. 

And so, you encounter texts like: Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition; and The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World. You encounter systems and change theory. You encounter French Philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. You think of Nick Cave and his song God is in the House. You are reminded again how important Simon Carey Holt’s wonderful little book God Next Door is. The list goes on, and when you step back from what you’re hearing you see cohesion; you see significance and opportunity, and you discover invitations. 

Remember of course that Alan’s time in the Waikato follows in the footsteps of Alan Jamieson (giving voice to the experiences of those for whom their faith and explorations are churchless in a traditional sense); Steve Taylor (“postcards from the innovative edge”); Richard Rohr (the importance of spirituality within the Christian religious tradition); Ian Mobsby (nu-monasticism and innovative approaches to being church engaged within the wider culture(s) and local contexts); and Dave Tomlinson (speaking from a traditional parish context about creativity and creative ways of being church).  

One piece of what proved to be a really rich vein of thinking was the input around diffusing innovation and systems / organisational change. In particular it was the conversation around living inside an unravelling context, i.e. a church without solutions, without being able to “fix it”. Nothing more boring, unhelpful, or further from God’s imagination than the question: “How can we make the church work?” Couple these themes with how to cultivate a different imagination, systems theory, the change process, diffusing innovation, and you go to some interesting places, not least for me, at a relational level when the multiple narratives and realities of our lives come into conflict with those of others. When, like a church community, the central narratives coalesce around its experience of dying, of not having a future, of having little hope. Is the Spirit at work? Where are the invitations, the opportunities for new learning, experimentation, and small (new) beginnings – new growth? 

Can God and God’s invitations – the work of the Spirit – be found in all things, in all contexts – even when little hope seems apparent? The future of relationships, to adapt a phrase Alan regularly uses, is within the relationship or relationship(s), whether we’re thinking about a church, a workplace, or a marriage. The challenges and opportunities are the same. If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get the same outcomes. Crises creating disequilibrium are important invitations to creativity, systemic (DNA) and culture change (“culture is not simply “out there”; its deep inside us”), to the discovery or recovery of new (old) stories and resources, to adaptation, innovation and its diffusion etc. Change happens when we’re able to prepare the soil, open it up and soften it, nourish it, and plant new seeds and thus tend, protect, and nurture new possibilities and opportunities for life. 

In this respect Alan reminds us that culture / relational change is cultivated (its doesn’t just happen; and it doesn’t happen without intervention) when we create a safe environment that engages people at the level of habits, practices, attitudes, and values. Systems, relational and culture change must happen at this level before its adaptations can be meaningfully and deeply diffused, in order that a new future or futures might be created. Habits, values, attitudes are “pre-reflective”, i.e. “unconscious” and are deeply connected to experiences, feelings, and identity, i.e. how we are, and how we’ve become that way. So, if change doesn’t get to the root and begin to diffuse and create, then meaningful change is less likely to happen. Culture change is the result of working at multiple levels simultaneously. For example, in a relationship, we need to be working at the individual level (my habits, values, attitudes, identity, formative experiences, my imagination and ability to see with new perspective, and to see new possibilities. But is also requires work at the relational level – how we relate, how we do things, our shared beliefs, narratives, and value etc. How we are oftentimes unconsciously formed and shaped by external forces and influences; by culture itself – cultural assumptions and values that are deeply at work in us, and thus between us. “How do we change the world?” a person was asked. “One person at a time,” was the response. If people individually are willing to remain committed and engaged, but willing also to change and grow, then bigger, wider change never happens.   

The impetus for adaptive change might come from the edges, but broad change only happens when the broad middle is changed. Change within an existing paradigm (or way of being) will not change culture.

David Runcorn: Fear and Trust and some Insights from the Samuel Stories

An author who’s work I have a very high regard for, and whose book - Choice, Desire and the Will of God: What More Do You Want?  - was vital for me, several years ago, at an important stage in my life-journey is Anglican Priest David Runcorn. David sent me an e-mail the other day to let me know that he has a new book out around August-September of this year. 

He writes: 

“I am still slightly surprised to have found myself writing on twin themes of leadership and Old Testament ... but my conclusion is that the world of 1 & 2 Samuel and ours have a great deal in common (see attached). The book is a kind of conversation between the two.  This narrative is usually read and expounded from within Fowler's stage 3 mindset in churches. But the storyteller himself is clearly stage 4. This is stage 4 story telling...”   

I get the sense, not having yet read the book, that the intended audience may well be similar to those that David had in mind when he wrote Spirituality Workbook. It was subtitled: “…A Guide for Explorers, Seekers, and Pilgrims”, those, as he said in his e-mail, who’re kind of on the “edge of church”, exploring faith. Maybe with more questions than answers, more doubts than certainty.  Time will tell I guess, and I’ll likely reflect more on it from that perspective when I’ve read it. 

The new book, which can be pre-ordered, is titled: Fear and Trust: God-Centred Leadership. It’s published by SPCK. 

About Fear and Trust 

From the back cover… 

“…Anyone remember what we were doing before we discovered ‘leadership’? ‘Leaders’ are everywhere these days. But who decided ‘leadership was the answer for our anxious and challenging times? Is it what we actually need? Do we even really know what we are looking for?  

This book explores these questions by seeking a meeting of two worlds – our own and the ancient nation of Israel. Each chapter brings together contemporary stories of leading and being led with personalities and events related in 1&2 Samuel - one of the greatest pieces of story telling from the ancient world. 

These peoples have so much in common with their stories of politics and religion, loyalty and betrayal, triumph and tragedy, war and peace. Both are driven by the fears and anxieties of uncertain times. Both are preoccupied with ‘leaders’ as the answer to their problems. Both struggle to understand and trust God in it all. And in both worlds women and men co-exist in significant but unequal partnership. 

The gift of the Samuel story is a depth that only comes through long and careful listening. It can teaches us to listen more carefully to our own story. There are profound reflections on the task of renewing a people, their faith and their world. This is story telling by the wise offering wisdom for any age or people who find themselves journeying through prolonged, profound and uncertain transition. So it models for us ways of leading, being led and being God-centred through it all. It traces the vulnerable but essential journey between fear and trust…”

Contents of the Book 

Surviving leaders: On journeying beyond certainty 

‘In the beginning you weep’: Hannah and the unexpected starting place 

‘Here I am’: Samuel, listening and the tinnitus of God 

On the perils of conscripting God: Religion, theology and technology 

On the desire to be led: Leaders as the people’s dream 

‘Selfhood begins in walking away’: Saul the undifferentiated leader 

How are the mighty fallen!: When leadership fails 

‘What if?’: Jonathan and what might have been

Nobody does it better: David, man and king 

‘I AM’: God, hidden and revealed 

Waiting among the dead: Vigil, protest and subversion 

Calling from the walls: From victim to witness

David had a paper published on the Fulcrum site last year. In it he explores some of the themes that are woven through his latest book. You can find the paper here.

For more on Runcorn, you’ll find Part 1 of a 4-part post, here. Using the Google Function on the blog will help you track down the other three-parts, although at the top of each post, you’ll find a link to the next one and so on.  

Download David Runcorn - Book Launch Invite (PDF). Derby Cathedral, 14th August 2011, @ 6pm.

Alan Roxburgh in the Waikato – August 2011

The Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki Ministry School is on 7 - 9 August 2011. As you may be aware we have changed the date of Ministry School this year. This is because we are working in with the Dioceses' of Wellington and Waiapu to host Alan Roxburgh who co-wrote The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World. Alan will challenge and inspire us all. Ministry School will begin at 5 pm on the 7 August and conclude at 3.30 on 9 August. Again the venue will be Finlay Park. Alan will be the keynote speaker on Monday the 8^th and Tuesday 9^th August.  

 

Eyes Wide Open Because The Future is Now but Not Yet

Paul writes – Australian friend Simon Holt took Arthur of Ponsonby’s advice seriously (see this post), although he didn’t know it at the time. Remember what Arthur said? ““Sometimes you just got to let yourself go and see where you end up.” So twelve-months later Simon offers a couple of reflections about the transition: 

“…I came to Collins Street Baptist Church one year ago this month.  In a community of such history, I am still new.  I came from seventeen years of teaching practical theology in seminaries and universities.  When I accepted the call to Collins Street, eyebrows were raised, my own included.  Why would I leave the security and stimulation, not to mention the opportunity to influence, that teaching provides?  And why, in the breathless age of ‘new missional communities’ and ‘emergent churches’, would one join an ecclesial relic in apparent decline?... 

I have read the statistics, the predictions of demise for churches like this one: stories of sinking ships and chronic relevance deficit.  I’ve listened to whispered warnings of a conservative community, liberal in theology, jealous of its history, hording its resources and resistant to change.   Despite all of this, I packed my bags and moved in.

…What I have found could not be further from its reputation.  Collins Street is anything but an ecclesial relic!  Indeed, it’s a relatively small congregation—I often say it’s a small church with a big building, a big history, a big budget and a big impact—but far from being on its deathbed, this church is very much alive.   What I have found is an extraordinary community of people, diverse in every possible way, alive to the Spirit and deeply committed to the future.  A year in and I am very glad to be here…” 

You’ll find the original post here, and the follow up one here. Its good to see Simon reflecting again on personal narrative, change, the ordinary and the everyday… and a book recommendation (see both posts) – to which I can but add my own endorsement. It’s a fascinating and useful book.  

The story Simon tells is a story of courage, possibility and hope. Confirmation that the future is present and is nurtured in what de Caussade called the “sacrament of the present moment”. It’s true in seemingly “dying” churches, just as much as it’s true with regards to businesses and institutions – indeed of any kind of organization. 

For more on these themes and the role of leadership (though not exclusively a book only for “leaders”) in change I highly highly recommend Margaret Wheatley’s Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. It isn’t a practical step-by-step book, but what it does really well is frame and informs the kind of deep conversations and practices that need to be engaged.  See also Baldwin and Linnea’s The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair.  

 

Times are a changing - challenges

Paul writes – Steve Taylor has been pondering “the place of context in leadership” recently, and his brief comments – see below – directed me to a great post that I’d missed by Dave Fitch. 

Steve writes (full post here): 

“…the place of context in leadership. A gracious, gracious post by David Fitch, in which he argues that churches that rely on preaching, in particular a “fingerhead” type preach, are in fact a last gasp of Christendom. Such a form of ministry/leadership have a place, but have little chance of connecting with a post-Christian culture and thus of offering clues as to future leadership imaginations. (Fitch’s full post can be found here). 

David concludes: 

“…In this post, I am merely trying to point out that this strategy’s effectiveness is inherently built on attractional premises, which will become increasingly more difficult and competitive amidst the secularized cultures of the West. The remnant of Christianized populations will run out unless they are mobilized for mission among the lost cultures. For these challenges we need a new vision for church-planting…”  

 

Art and Life Emerging From the Centre

Paul writes – I started to read Margaret Wheatley’s excellent book Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time over the few days I was on holiday. 

I want to record a poem, which Wheatley redid from a prose text by Roger Rosenblatt (p.58):

“The best in art and life

comes from a center

something urgent and powerful

an ideal or emotion

that insists

               on its being.

 

From that insistence

a shape emerges

            and creates its structure out of passion

 

 If you begin with a structure

you have to make up the passion,

 

            and that’s very hard to do.”

 

Scott Boren Interviewed

Paul writes – I first came across M. Scott Boren via conversations with Al. Roxburgh. Next it was by way of Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One (Allelon Missional Series) co-written by Alan Roxburgh & M. Scott. Boren. Then by way of his Missional Small Groups book (link below). Now I’ve had the chance to hear him via the most recent UK-based Nomad podcasts.

Here’s the show’s blurb: 

“On this month's show we chat with Scott Boren who, among other things, has spent the last 20 years working as a small group consultant. Scott works with churches to help them develop effective community through small groups that are on mission…” It includes a review of Scott's book Missional Small Groups: Becoming a Community that Makes a Difference in the World.

You’ll find the podcast interview here. 

 

Bi-Vocational Ministry

Paul writes – In the latest issue (Fall 2010) of Vineyard USA’s Cutting Edge magazine, the focus is bivocational ministry. The feature interview is with Pete Scazzero who is the founding pastor of New Life Fellowship in New York. He is also the author of several books on emotional health. Cutting Edge talks to him about how emotional health applies to church planters and bivocational pastors. 

The magazine also features an interview with Marva Dawn on Pastors and Sabbath taking. Here’s an excerpt: 

“…MD: Pastors often say to me, “I can’t keep the Sabbath; I’m much too busy.” And I respond, “Then you’ll really want to keep the Sabbath, because you’re much too busy.” Sabbath is a great cure for busyness. To take that day enables us to reorient all of our time. Furthermore, in practicing Sabbath, we rethink how we spend our time so that we use it the best and most wisely. 

JH: If you’re talking to new church planters, who are typically pulled in so many directions, they would probably push back and say, “But you don’t understand. I’m obeying God, and I really don’t have time. I can’t do that—God wouldn’t expect it of me.” Could you give some thoughts to a person like that? 

MD: Yes; I’ve thought deeply about the question of time. When I first started keeping the Sabbath myself, I was in my PhD program. I had to read 350 books in seven months. It was rather busy. I had to read at least a book a day.

But during the course of that time, I discovered that I worked far better if I would take a day of Sabbath and then work the other six days. I had far more energy for the other six days if I took a decent rest as God commanded. God knew that if we overtax our bodies—if we keep on and keep on working too hard, eventually we just wear out. But if we take a rest and start fresh the next day, we work with greater diligence…”

You’ll find these two interviews in full online in the PDF copy of the magazine, here.