Invasion of the Leader-snatchers
 | For the first few years of this blog, whenever I would dare to mention the word leadership, many bloggers responded by emulating Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as they pointed bony fingers of accusation and emitted that signature high-pitched howling whine. Then they fired off nasty emails and/or comments (which Haloscan mercifully failed to archive). |
But a new day is apparently and finally dawning! This past week or so has seen a sudden proliferation of blog posts all referencing missional leadership. Emerging Grace leads the way with a (for now) four part series (here, here, here, and here) before Getting Personal Finally, while Jamie Arpin-Ricci chimes in with Missional Leadership: My Inspiration, as Brother Maynard puts some of his cards on the table with Missional Leadership, Perhaps?, and Leslie blogs her notes and reactions on a seminar she had just attended about -- wait for it -- Missional Leadership.
There's a lot of good thoughts on each of these blogs, but mostly I'm just relieved and excited that finally we can talk about leadership again. A different model, metaphor, and understanding of leadership than many have
And it's nice to not hear that howling whine anymore.
posted by Robbymac at
3:52 PM
8 Comments:
I'm really glad its okay to talk about this as well. I've had a similar experience, but I think its because people haven't liked what I've had to say on this! But I'm not sure I'm with everyone else on this one either.
A big part of it is that I still just have so much to process and think about with the L-word.
I think missional leadership can only start to occur, if those of us who have been given some insight step forward and begin to lead by example.
I would love to see a growing number of missional leaders - that's what it will take to transform lives. However, here's the problem - Pastors are not trained for mission, neither are they trained to equip others for mission. Therefore, no one should be surprised that the mission isn’t being accomplished in America.
Rob,
LOL! Thanks for the shout out, but play nice! (wink)
Peace,
Jamie
In the effort to decentralize church and re-examine the heirarchal structure, we tend to throw out the baby with the bathwater don't we.
I'm glad this is a topic to be discussed.
Robby,
I think 4 or 5 parts is all for now, especially since I also took 3-4 posts prefacing the series. Thanks for the links.
I mentioned over on Br. Maynard's blog that my husband is glad that it is now safe to say the "l" word again in our home.
To be honest, even during the moratorium, we spent countless hours discussing what leadership "should" look like.
John, I'd love to hear your current thoughts on this. I think many of us are still in the process of reimagining.
Jamie's posts about Robert Greenleaf have been excellent.
It's great seeing all of this discussion on the topic. It's the next best thing to talking face to face over pizza and whatever.
I'm very glad people are talking about leadership as something that 1. exists and 2. is important and 3. is (somehow) biblical. Sure, it isn't how it's been portrayed (yeah!) but it's there and needs to be reclaimed for the good (said with no animosity towards anyone here or in real life).
Angst is a good enemy, but a terrible friend.
Angst is a good enemy, but a terrible friend.
I like this quote.
As I said over at Grace's place, I am not a leader but I know many leaders and I have observed that most leaders spend far too much time in meetings. Like managers. What would happen if leaders had less meetings? (gasp!) It seems to me that the very structure of most churches necessitate leaders to be managers. So what do you do? Tackle church structure, or leadership models?
It is heartening to talk about these things, to hear leaders like yourselves willing to rethink the whole leadership model-thingy-majig...that's a technical word for Apostle, by the way...so anyhow, yeah, leaders. I would love, love, love to see leaders bleed in public on regular basis and come out from hiding behind the pulpit. I don't mean bleed as in the sense of scandal and humiliation. I mean be transparent, show weakness voluntarily, be real. From my perspective I have seen leaders, especially those with platform ministries, share freely their triumphs and revelations, but hold back from showcasing their failures and humanity. This to me would be a revolution. For those in spiritual leadership to trust others with their crap. In an appropriate way, of course. I'm reading Brennan Manning's, The Ragamuffin Gospel right now. For a spiritual leader, a vet of the faith, he sure is comfortable telling readers his issues. I would love to give this book to every leader I know. Brennan is determined to live under the banner of God's good grace love. This is his confidence, so he does not hide his weaknesses. This inspires me. And when I know leaders like this, and I have known a few, it is contagious...to live freely and openly as a broken woman with nothing to prove.
Argh......forgive my psuedo-blogging here, robby...and btw, off topic, but sometimes i accidentally put a .com instead of
a .org when i'm coming to your site and then i end up at some race car driver's webpage. Do you know about that? Kinda cool to have the same name as a racer..unless you are the same guy!
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