Paul writes – Some time go I read an excellent essay by Rowan Williams; titled The Christian Priest Today (its title commemorates former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey’s book by the same name. The book Williams’ essay is published in is the excellent Glory Descending: Michael Ramsey and His Writings). Some time ago I started writing this blog post. It’s a post I’ve been meaning to come back to; to reflect again on the nature of Christian leadership. Williams is right – what we think of “church” has a significant impact on how we understand leadership within that church – a simple example, if we think of church as a business with assets and income to be managed; assets and income to be increased (bigger buildings, more bums on seats etc) then there’s a strong tendency for the minister (or leadership (pl) to take on the mantle of “leader as manager; leader as CEO.”
Williams wonders if it might be that “… ‘working out what the Church [of England] requires that we find out what God requires’; that is, we discover God’s will for ordained ministry in the process of discovering what the church needs in order to be itself, what the church needs for its integrity, it’s mission…Looking at what in fact is needed ought to open up the whole question of what God requires – but also of what God has given: and any reflection on the Christian priest today has to be a reflection not just on what we find helpful but on what has been provided for the church…”
Whilst in our pragmatic times some might find Williams’ wondering, quaint and removed from the practicalities and demands of congregational / denominational leadership, I think he usefully holds in tension the “needs” (churches have) and the realities of “what God has given.” Often, I think we focus so much on the need; we fail to discern what God has given; on what God is doing amongst and within his people.
Williams predicates his discussion on the role of priest’s [and leaders more generally; feel free to insert “pastor”, “minister”, “deacon” etc.] by locating that role within a particular understanding of “Church.”
“The church is larger and more mysterious than simply the result of what we as individual decide…”
“Being in the church is [to be] in the middle of Christ’s sacrificial action, the act of Christ’s giving…that action [which is] most deeply the unbroken movement of self-forgetful love toward the…Father…”
The Church is “the community where the new creation begins…”
So fundamental.. until we know what God's purposes are, there is no telos in view. Until we have that vision of the kingdom, leadership becomes either pragmatic or humanistic (in the narrow sense).
Posted by: len | Tuesday, 21 August 2007 at 09:57 AM