Resonate

We have walked through the first four chapters of Gary Nelson’s book.  It is one of the three or four books published out of the Canadian context in the last five years that pulls all the pieces together within a missional framework.  We need this kind of analysis, leadership and passion in Canada in order to move forward.

Chapter 5 follows on the chapter on leadership, and now focuses more narrowly to strategic considerations. This one is titled, “Herding Cats: Leading a Church into the Borderlands.”

Gary opens with a strong metaphor, recalling the western style commercial that was designed for Vanderbilt University’s IT department.  Herding cats may be messy and chaotic.. but the point is getting to a certain end together.  Or, as Roxburgh and Romanuk put it, “The key to innovating new life and mission in a congregation is not so much a strategy for growth as it is cultivation of people themselves.” (87)  “Cultivation” gets at the issue of soil as well as the ethos. Leadership is about atmosphere, and what we are now talking about is culture. read more »

The fourth chapter in Gary Nelson’s book is entitled, “Landscapes and Tool Kits: The Challenge of Borderland Living.” Every chapter opens with a “Compass Point” paragraph, and this one gives a very solid sense of the chapter. Gary writes, “Leaders of today’s borderland churches are living on a new pastoral landscape and require a new toolkit of strategies comprised of a new understanding of their role, an honest evaluation of themselves, and the ability to create a variety of secure places of relationship. They image their leadership in the frames of apprentice-pastor-theologian-missionary.”

Gary’s first turn is to examine the pastoral landscape. The context of ministry has changed drastically, and thus the pastor’s role in the community has shifted. A sense of irrelevance is common. But this anxiety around identity colors pastoral experience and assessment.

Moreover, ambiguity is now the norm. Expectations have changed and may be amorphous. Congregations are often living in the past, yet pastors are attempting to live in the new world in order to connect. But how to make the shift? The problem is not that information is lacking, the problem is that we are buried in it. We are overwhelmed.. what to prioritize?

Meanwhile, our beliefs about and images of the church are themselves in transition. The interplay of community and institution can be daunting. Are designed structures or emergent structures the starting point? How do we do discipleship in a consumer culture? Is the church a business or a community — we live in a world of mortgages and multiple staff where it seems to be both. read more »

The third chapter in Gary Nelson’s book is entitled “Recovering Our Roots: God’s Intent for His Church.” This chapter opens with a case study from the book of Ephesians and the question, “How do we lose our first love?” He proceeds from here to work at recovering a biblical ecclesiology.

Gary asks us to consider replacing the word “theology” with the word, “image.” Just as every church has an implicit theology, it also has a dominant self-image. (And as I am reading this, I am thinking of a similar approach articulated by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost around “story” — we story our experience and what we notice and articulate says much about who we are. To bring change requires us to change the story).

One of the inevitable challenges, and this is true also within the framework of narrative therapy, is that our dominant image of who we are as a community may have little to do with God’s intention. Gary contrasts our need to theologize with the need for grounded reflection. God’s redemptive work in the world is not about creating theology, after all, but creating a living people, a new community, living in the shalom of the coming kingdom. “We get sidetracked into focusing on the activity of the church rather than its purpose,” and as a result we focus on models that will bring us success without asking deeper questions. Gary pushes us back to the questions, “who, what, how and why” of God’s purpose. read more »