Relational Leadership

I just listened to the latest podcast from The God Journey with lots of interest. Anyone interested in understanding how leadership works "out of the box" should listen to this. They explain how those that are understood to be elders should spend less of their energies on management and more on helping others reach their God-given potential. I have to agree with that.

On the other side of the leadership continuum, there are those like blogger Tod Bolsinger, pastor at San Clemente Presbyterian, who wrote a multi-part series on his blog in January regarding George Barna and his book "Revolution". From what I can gather from reading his series, he truly believes that you have to be part of an institutional church to be within God's will. The following is and excerpt from his blog of January 28, Trinity, Community and Church ,

"Further, Christian Community is not just a shared experience. It’s not people who sit together in pews or a movie theater or a football stadium (even if they are the audience for a Christian event!). It’s not polite conversation at a potluck or a great weekend together at a Christian camp. Christian Community is an ontologically irreducible organism. It is a living reality that is imbued with the Spirit of God. And most dramatically, it is the very life of the Triune God drawing people into a covenantal relationship with God and each other. It is God’s own being on earth lived in and through believers for the single end-result of seeing each person become like Jesus Christ.

So that the Community together is a witness for Christ."

"Christian Community is an ontologically irreducible organism." I love the way theologians throw around big words. He is saying that Christian community is a metaphysical living organism that cannot be added to or taken away from. This could be said for any community of Christian believers. But he sincerely believes that Christian community only happens within the insitutional church walls.

Take some time and read his blog and listen to the latest God Journey podcast. From these two different points you can see how far the gap is between many institutional church leaders and those of us counted "outside the box". If we don't find ways to narrow this gap, how will the unchurched world see the "Kingdom of God"?

'Church Outside the Walls'

Since returning from a week-long trip to Houston, I've been catching up on the The God Journey podcasts that had been populating my iTunes. All of them are great but the last one really excited me. Its titled Lights! Camera! Action! and is an interview with a couple of guys from northern California named Bobby Downes of ChristianCinema.com and Loren Rosser of Family Room Media. ChristianCinema.com is a distributor of movies and media directed at a Christian audience. Family Room Media describes their mission as "Using multimedia to touch multicultures with the message of freedom ... ". This website was officially launched 3/5/06 so it is still a work in progress.

The podcast includes much discussion about the movies that have recently been released that seem to have an underlying Christian theme. During the discussion, Loren talked about his partner, David Fredrickson who has written a book titled "When the Church Leaves the Building" that will be published shortly. David was the pastor of a church in Sacramento that shut down all programs, dropped all the ministry positions, cancelled all salaries, and then sold their building. This group of believers turned away from religion and turned to the simplicity of Christ.

From this background, David is producing a documentary, "Church Outside the Walls." This four part video series will focus on Christians who have left Sunday morning "church" and the whole system of doing "church" in order to return to the simplicity of Christ. The first video will be titled "The Drop-Outs" where they interview some of those people who have dropped out of "church". This first video will likely be completed in the spring of 2006. There is a preview video you can view from their website. The website will be posted with the progress.

The last few months have really shined a light on the millions of us who have left the organized church for a closer relationship with Jesus and His people. Barna's "Revolution", Time's article this month, and now a series of documentary videos on the subject are being made.

Does it look like God is at work here? We don't know where the videos will be distributed or what impact they will make. But I'm sure that He has a plan. Stay tuned for more ....

The Real Question

This is the title of the feature article in the March newsletter from Lifestream Ministries, written by Wayne Jacobsen. In this article he hits some very good points with his discussion of why some people have left the institutional church and why some have not.

But he gets to "The Real Question", which is not about church, how or where you do church, but about whether you are coming to know the Saviour and walking with him.

"In this kingdom the critical question is not where you go to church or how you ‘do church’ it is whether or not you’re coming to know him and walking alongside those he is giving you at any moment to help them on their journey. And if you are, you’ll be far more concerned with recognizing Jesus’ work in others, rather than judging their place in him by their view of church."

He says our God is a God of reconciliation.

"How do we do that, by encouraging our institutions and denominations to work together for greater unity? As if that has ever worked! Those who lead such things may talk about it from time to time, but denominations are about dividing and few at the top of those institutions will ever give up the power, money or prestige necessary for them to appreciate the true unity of this incredible family.

No, reconciliation happens simply by you loving each and every believer God allows to cross your path and look for ways to encourage them to know him better. We have to live as if the divisions don’t exist, recognizing Father’s fingerprints in each other’s lives, even if we don’t see eye to eye on every issue. This is where the unity of the body of Christ is celebrated. It is the stuff of grass roots actions, not organizational decrees.

Wherever you find believers near you get to know them. Celebrate Jesus together and see where the relationship might lead. Don’t feel you have to convince them about your idea of church, rather fan the flames of their passion for Jesus. You’ll find some amazing things happen in relationships that institutions can never touch."

I think this is great advice for any Christian.

To read the entire article and the newsletter features, click on the title of this post.

"There's No Pulpit Like Home"

This is the title of an article in the latest edition of Time Magazine. The national media has finally recognized that there is something going on outside of the megachurches that you read so much about.

Thanks to Jon Dale for his post on Simplychurch.com.