Leadership in the relational church ...

Continuing on with the theme of life in the relational church, here are some more thoughts from Wayne Jacobsen ...

Clearly Jesus warned his disciples that in God’s reality leadership serves a different function than it does in the world because it is not based on management. Yet many books on Christian leadership today are so easily adapted to the business world. That alone should make us stop and question.

Jesus didn’t view leadership as the power to command, but the passion to serve people as they sort out what it means to live as God’s children. In the last decade my understanding of leadership has changed completely. I used to see it in terms of power—thinking leadership was defined by influence, institutional power or the value of their giftedness.

That’s not so in God. Those who have helped me most to grow in Father’s love, surprisingly enough, don’t hold positions of power but simply loved me enough to point out the way to God’s heart and then let me decide if I wanted to follow it...

I guess that it's true (when I think back) that the pastors/teachers who have influenced me the most over the past few years were all gracious, humble, and yet were not perfect!

It is also so true that we are all looking for the perfect church … which means something different to every person I know. The one thing “perfect church” seekers have in common is a desire to find a place of community where they can grow in Christ – a place where grace is the rule (we already have grace from God, but rarely receive it from man) – where we can exercise our gifts for the glory of God, and for the building up of His body.

I want to be in a church were the spiritually lost take priority over programs, buildings, and every other thing that gets in the way of being missional in the true sense of the word.

Why are churches spending tens of millions of dollars on flash buildings and other frivolous pursuits when children and women in Tanzania (I have been there and seen it with my own eyes) have to walk 10 kilometres or more to collect muddy disease infested drinking water from a well or creek?

My desire is to be Christ centred, Christ focussed, and as a result of that, to become more like Him. To act like He would act, to do what He would do, for His priorities to become my priorities, to rejoice when He rejoices, and to grieve when He grieves.

I feel like He is gently guiding me in the direction that He has planned for me – to make a difference in this world. To declare all of the awesome things that He has done for me, so that others can catch the vision.

And church can be a very good training ground …