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Leadership in the Relational Church

What did Jesus have in mind when he spoke of leadership among the incredible community of the Body of Christ?

Here is the best definition I’ve ever heard of spiritual leadership: If you were going to be caught in your worst failure, who would you want to catch you?

If you really want to experience the fullness of life in Jesus, wouldn’t you want someone who would treat you as gently as Jesus treated the woman at the well while offering you the truth in a way that you could understand and follow into God’s freedom?

I have not heard a simpler statement that summarizes the way Jesus lived and what he taught his disciples about leadership in his church. Even Paul’s lists of qualifications in Timothy and Titus point out those who had walked with Jesus long enough to be transformed by him in a way that could be clearly seen in their families, in the community and their freedom to live the truth and thus be able to help others in the way Jesus would.

Having just bought my first home, pipes have taken a more significant place in my life. A broken pipe is bad news. It has occurred to me, however, that the reason pipes are so important to me is that water is important to me. In fact, we don?t really think much about pipes until they break, but we think about water every day.

I am coming to see that much of what we give attention to in church leadership these days are pipes. Most of the programs, principles and practices of church growth and mission are really just pipes - conduits of living water. Whether they be small groups or Sunday school; seeker services or traditional services - they are really just different pipes.

There are many definitions for simple church, our preferred term for what is sometimes called house church. One of the best comes from the Dawn North America Web site (it is also found on the House2House Web site). Rather then reinvent the wheel, I list their definition below.

• By "simple church," we mean a way of doing and being church that is so simple that any believer would respond by saying, "I could do that!"
• By "simple church," we mean the kind of church that is described in the New Testament. Not constrained by structure but by the needs of the extended family (oikos) and a desire to extend the kingdom of God.
• By "simple church," we mean a church that listens to God, follows His leading and obeys His commands.
• By "simple church," we mean spiritual parents raising spiritual sons and daughters to establish their own families (oikos).

He was a religious leader who sought Jesus out in the dark of night. He knew Jesus’ miracles were proof that God was with him and he wanted to be part of his kingdom. But he had no idea what it would demand from him.

Perhaps Nicodemus wanted some instructions to follow, new rules that would let him in on the life Jesus lived. But Jesus didn’t offer any. He simply told him that he needed to be born all over again. The idea sent Nicodemus’ head spinning as he tried to conceive how he, an old man, could be born a second time. Jesus must have smiled at the thought.

 

As I travel among the body of Christ one of the questions I am asked the most is, what do I see Jesus doing in his church today? Am I excited or discouraged by what I see?

Before I answer that here, let me admit at the outset that my vantage point is in some ways incredibly blessed and in other ways severely limited. While better traveled than most, perhaps, there is much I don’t see and certainly my teachings, writings and web postings put me in touch believers who have a specific kind of passion. But I do get to sit down fairly often with some of the most incredible followers of Christ on the planet—those who are experiencing a depth of relationship with him that is transforming how they live in the world. Many of those had been in ‘positions of ministry’ at some point, but found themselves unable to fit into the religious landscape that proved insufficient for their hungers even though few others could validate their passion or obedience.

 

Shane Claiborne writes: “Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life.”

In my former life as a pastor, I was a dispenser of comfortable Christianity. I took on the job of creating a “conducive environment” for worship. What this really meant was making a worship event cushy enough that people would want to come and then come back: comfortable seats, coffee, pleasing worship music, and a sermon that holds attention. Unfortunately, regularly attending a comfortable worship event has become the primary marker of what it means to be a Christian today.

(also known as The Christian Bubble or The Holy Huddle)

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Christian Ghetto is a slang term used by many Christians to describe much of popular, mainstream Christianity. As the word ghetto would imply, Christians have isolated themselves from the world, and have created a distinct Christian culture, with its own language (Christianese), its own music, its own clothing, etc. The Christian Ghetto results from a mentality that sees any exposure to the non-Christian world as defiling. But perhaps most of the Christians stuck in the Christian Ghetto are there unintentionally - they simply spend too much time with Christians, and take in only Christian music, television and media.

The created world has natural boundaries held in place by gravity. The oceans are held in place by the shores. The atmosphere is contained by the weight of earth's gravity. Gravity keeps the solar system contained in orbit around the sun. In a similar way people have natural boundaries in the way that we function best. We are pulled into social groupings of certain sizes by a spiritual gravity inherent with the function of the group.

Sooner or later some, most, or all of the  members of a simple church will become dissatisfied with the gathering.

“It’s not worshipful enough.”  “We seem to be in a rut.”  “The needs of my children aren’t being met.”  “We are not reaching out.”  “We need to be more open with each other and closer.”  “We don’t seem to be going anywhere.”

Sometimes, just verbalizing the longings or dissatisfactions are enough to catalyze the church to move in some new directions or make new commitments.  The beauty of simple church is that we can change course nearly instantaneously.  We want to reach out more?  Let’s plan something for next week!  We want to focus more on the children?  Let’s do it today!

We are excited to invite you to a special time of fellowship and learning together with other servant-leaders from simple churches in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We are calling this gathering a Kingdom Building Conference. Our discussion will be focused on disciple-making and church planting and we will talk about such topics as deepening our faith and walk with God,prayer, building strong fellowship and love in our churches, incarnational evangelism, finding people of peace, participatory meetings, leadership, networking and relationships between simple churches,  and how to reproduce disciples and churches.