MIssional Leader (Part 2 chs 6-8)

Ch. 6
It is a true gift to receive feedback about yourself as a leader (112).

I was told by my supervising pastor that I will receive high praise from people that think I can't do anything wrong and harsh criticism from people who will never like me. He said the real positive and constructive feedback will come somewhere in the middle. He also taught me that in harsh criticism, try to objectively reflect if any of it could be true. Acknowledge the truth and dismiss what is not true.

Figure 6.2 (114) Interaction of Personal Attributes and Congregational Readiness Factors:

Self: Personal Leadership Attributes
Congregation needs a high level of confidence in leader's character = trust pastor.
People: Attributes for Cultivating People (mentors)
Able to hold listening conversation with one another at levels of awareness and understanding.
Congregation: Attributes for Innovating a Missional Environment
Develops through life of people. Emphasis on dwelling in Scriptures, habit of listening, daily prayer, silence, regular hospitality to the stranger (115)
Context: Attributes for Missional Engagement
awareness and understanding cultivated in neighborhood, community, social reality, and changing issues. Leader must be a good "navigator" or "orienteer" of community.

Missional leaders still need skills of other community leaders: forming effective staff, developing teams, communicating processes, etc. However, the missional leader's purpose (telos - end) is different (117). Our telos is to know God.

Discussion today is about cultivating safe spaces for seekers without any expectations or demands. This is different from the telos of Tertullian. "Tertullian's primary concern as a leader was formation of a people around a specific set of habits and practices that came out of his engagement of Scripture" (119).

Incarnation - Participation in God meant forming a community of God's people whose lives often challenged the political and social institutions of their day (120). God chose to meet us in our place and time, thus the material/physical matters.

Missional leader is called for the formation of a people in the nature of the Triune God. Relational, engaged in disciplines of Jesus.

"The gift of the Spirit means the church is the place where we are invited to risk, in relationship to the open-ended adventure of the Spirit's presence" (123). I love this! We are really not comfortable with risk in the HS. I want more adventure in the church!
"God eludes our systemizing; God's ecclesia cannot be mastered or managed or made. God gives us our future by the Spirit..." (124). Maybe the PCUSA is needing to seek a little more ardor and a little less order.

Ch. 7
Characteristics of a mature leader: self-aware, authentic, present to realities and concerns of those being led (127). Need for an inner compass. "In North America, success entails ability to control and manipulate the external environment to produce certain outcomes" (128). This is the standard for success for which I have been judged. In my MCA, I discovered that too much of my energy was being spent on outward success and not enough on my own inner self.

Trusting the pastor is key, but also building a community of leaders that trust one another is vital for space to discern the spirit (130-31). "Trust is built as you (or they) demonstrate consistency in values, skills, and actions" (139).

"The authentic leader is one whose actions and words are coherent and internally consistent" (131). Leader = self aware. Attributes described: calm, watchful, confident, always listening, with direction, will not judge or criticize others (133).

Conflict Management (134): Conflict is normal in change. Personal courage is necessary.

Biblical story of trust - In the book of Hosea, God uses personal and intimate language. You are my people. Another example - Moses.

Ch. 8
Begin call by listening to the members' stories instead of beginning by implementing change. Rodger Nishioka tells us in Christian Education to wait a full year before implementing any change. "God's future is not a plan or strategy that you introduce; it is among the people of God" (145).

"Imagination is... about the capacity to use forms of thinking other than linear, cause-and-effect, and ordered" (146). It is creative, outside the box, intuitive, unexpected. We encounter imagination in the biblical texts (ex: Jesus' parables). "Imagination also deals with the capacity to entertain what is not yet present but can be encouraged to emerge from the core of one's deepest convictions" (148).

"Cultivation involves working with the plant in its growth" (152). From gardening/horticulture. Release the peoples' imaginations. Worship, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, is a way of cultivating growth.

-Daily offices (time for daily scripture and prayer): important bc (1) one is shaped in the imagination that life is a gift from God and bc (2) we realize how easily stories other than the gospel shape our lives.
-Practicing Hospitality: genuine and complete welcoming of the stranger. Outward focus.
-The Practice of Learning: congregations are increasingly composed of people without knowledge of the biblical story. We must emphasis learning - giving back biblical language.

Enabling Change. Must distinguish between change and transition. "Internal emotional responses are crucial for a congregation caught up in the change. The transition determines how we react to" the change (161).

Build coalitions (groups sharing mutual support) and not committees. Echoes formal ->Informal. Coalitions can birth mission (163-4).