Reflections on Leading With a Limp

I recently attended a mission planters conference. At the conference, the speaker, Darrin Patrick, mission planter at The Journey, St. Louis spoke a great deal about how missional leaders need to understand a paradox of leadership. This paradox is spelled out in Dan Allender's book Leading with a Limp. Allender says "to the degree you attempt to hide or dissemble your weakness, the more you will need to control those you lead, the more insecure you will become and the more rigidity you will impose - prompting the ultimate departure of your best people."

Patrick went on to say the following: The Apostle Paul's leadership was as much about repentant, reluctant, sin-confessing leadership as it was about strong visionary leadership. Paul identifies himself that way in 1 Timothy 1:15-16 "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. {16} But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life."

Leaders need a little God honoring reluctance. See Acts 14 – one minute Paul and Barnabas are worshiped as gods and the next they are nearly the victims of murder.

• Pastors, church planters and other leaders need reluctance because they will literally disappoint everyone at some time or another! Because you work with people, systems and plans, and all of these will break, reluctance is needed.

What did that humble reluctance with a dose of dependence look like for Paul?

2 Timothy 4:9-18 "Do your best to come to me quickly, {10} for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. {11} Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. {12} I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. {13} When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. {14} Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. {15} You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message. {16} At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. {17} But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. {18} The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

• Leadership is hard, always with a sense of loneliness! Reluctant leaders draw "big L" leaders around them. They are not trying to be rock stars. They rely on the Lord.

• Reluctance is a leader magnet! How do you get reluctance? 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. {8} Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. {9} But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. {10} That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

• Whatever the "thorn was" it caused Paul to be in a dependence crisis to trust God apart from his own skills and abilities and thus a leader with a sense of "reluctance." In the soil of dependence, God created character for Paul and still does so for leaders today.

• It is the same with us. Paul's character was shaped through his conversion which he describes in 1 Timothy 1:12-15 "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. {13} Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. {14} The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. {15} Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst."

• Leaders need to be reluctant and repentant.

• To have a culture of repentance in a church, one must confess their ministry sins (power, success, ambition, control, winning, etc.) Each is a dark side of something (e.g. While control can mean insuring quality, the downside is micromanaging others and discouraging others to use their gifts.)
  

James 3:16 "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."
James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

• When we confess in this way…it lets the air out of our ambition (see 3:16 above)

• Questions to ask yourself when selfish ambition, power, success, control or the need to win start to raise their ugly heads in your ministry: Who are you trying to be? Whose model are you tempted to copy? (This is true for Pastors, other church professionals and lay leaders)
• How is God shaping you to be repentant and "reluctant" missional leader?
  

Evangelism to Red Apples -- Pre-Evangelism to Green Apples

James McDonald pioneered the concept of "red apple evangelism" in 1988 basing it on John 4:35.

McDonald draws a distinction between red apple evangelism and green apple pre-evangelism. God has prepared some people through sometimes painful circumstances of life to be ready to hear the Gospel (Red Apples). These are folks who God has prepared to hear and believe the truth of the Gospel right now! They are ripe fruit. New and existing churches need to teach people how to recognize "red apples" and be prepared to share the truth of Scripture in both words and in actions. McDonald says "It's not hard to see who is 'ripe' in our world. People who are hurting; people with problems; people whose lives are falling apart. They're all around us. We need to look for them under a rock or up in a tree, and we don't have to 'market' the Gospel to them. It's a pearl of great price to them."

Green apples are people who are not (yet anyway) ripe to the Gospel. Those are people whom we become friends with (pre-evangelism) even though they are not yet ready for the harvest. Our very friendship might be the instrument that God uses to prepare them to hear and believe the Good News of salvation through the blood and merit of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

McDonald contends that we spend too much effort on Green Apples and not enough on Red Apples. He puts it this way in an interview for PreachingTodaySermons.com

"Too often, instead of looking for the people God is breaking down and bringing to a place of humility... we want to reach whom we want to reach. Jesus went to the down-and-outers; we're a lot of times—and certainly in suburbia—looking for the up-and-outers. That's just not where the gospel is penetrating.

So what we've too often done in the church is build a philosophy of ministry that will allow us to get green apples in and out of church without offending them, and we call that evangelism. Eventually some of those green apples get ripened to the Gospel and they come to know Christ. We praise God for every one of those.

But we could be seeing far more people coming to faith if we skipped the dog and pony show and just went straight to the heart of the matter, which is reaching people whom God's trying to reach with a bold proclamation of truth - Red apples. They're ready to hear the Good News."

How prepared are we to reach out with Word and action to the Red Apples God has placed into our sphere of influence? How can we learn to recognize them? What if they are very different (socially, economically, ethnically) from us? Who is a Red Apple God has called you to share Jesus with?

A Missional Credo for Tough Times

Right now, banks are pulling back; mortgage firms are pulling back; individuals are pulling back from their 401-k plans and unloading their stock portfolios. Folks are trying to preserve what they've got and minimize their risks.

Churches might be tempted to pull back and minimize their risks as well, thinking that acting missionally is best left to better economic times. Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet reminds us that we ought not put our trust only in what we can see with our eyes.

In Habakkuk 3:17-19 he says: "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, {18} yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. {19} The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights."

There couldn't be times much worse than that: no buds on the fig trees; no grapes on the vine; a failed olive crop; no grain in the fields; no sheep or cattle in pens or stalls. In Habakkuk's day that looked like economic disaster leading to starvation and eventual death.

Even though their were no outward signs of God's blessing, Habakkuk had confidence that God's blessings would come. In Habakkuk’s Creed everything turns on the first phrase of verse 18 “yet I will rejoice” – the word in Hebrew for this phrase is alaz which means “to rejoice in triumph” Habakkuk expresses that despite what he sees with his eyes, he is confident in God’s power to save and to strengthen him. His exuberance is so lofty that he says “He makes my feet like that of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”

His credo can be one for churches and individual Christians to think and act missionally. Worldly logic would say "this is no time to be planting churches" or "this is no time to invest my own time and money in outreach." Habakkuk's credo reminds us that this may exactly be the time that God is ready to produce the most fruit.

9-11 brought a flood of people into churches for a short time with questions and interest in things spiritual. Many churches may not have been prepared to leverage that interest to introduce people to Jesus. Some predict the current financial downturn to last for years creating a new and perhaps extended opportunity to introduce people to Jesus so that they learn not to "store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. {20} But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:19-20)

So, the next time I start evaluating God's actions only by what I am seeing, I am going to remember Habakkuk's words "yet I will rejoice...the Sovereign LORD is my strength...he enables me to go on the heights."

Three Missional Lessons in Hospitality From a Cruise Ship Crew

1st Peter 4:9 says "Offer hospitality to one another..." The Greek for "hospitality" is philoxenia (philos=love; Xenos= strangers) It means "to love the stranger.

Every one of our churches expresses the desire to share that kind of hospitality with guests but often struggle to do so. Our family (Becky, Jennifer, Mike and I) experienced philoxenia first hand on a cruise of Alaska just a few weeks ago. While the cruise was totally enjoyable, I observed 3 lessons in missional behaviors and attitudes that churches and leaders could learn from.

1) The highest level of care needs to be expressed at the lowest level of the organization: I know there was a captain on our ship because the ship went the right direction, arrived at each port on time and didn't sink. But, I only saw the captain once while he was going up a flight of stairs. However, I saw Bennie our room steward and Lelik and Bramadi our table stewards several times each day. They were warm and friendly, and by the end of the first day they knew all of our names and engaged us in welcome conversation. They expressed care which was genuine. It would have done little good for Holland America Cruise Lines to advertise "we have the most caring captains on the high seas" if those members of the crew who actually worked with passengers were not caring. Even if such and advertisement were true, it wouldn't matter if those who interacted with passengers didn't do the job. We knew that a good captain was commanding the bridge because at every level of the ship's crew, from top to bottom, that level of care was expressed and experienced. By the end of the week, Bennie, Lelik and Bramadi were our good friends. Sometimes in our churches we expect our pastors to be the sole provider of care and everyone's friend. While that might work in a church of 100, it won't work in a church much larger. The world's friendliest pastor can't compensate for unfriendly ushers, greeters and regular church goers. He needs to model that caring and continually teach it to the people in his church.

2) No "insider" language on board: The crew on our ship was mostly Indonesian which means that their native language is Bahasa Indonesia (what we call Indonesian) and yet all spoke English to the mostly American and Australian passengers. Even when they were talking to each other, they did not speak Indonesian but English. I asked one of the crew members about this and he said that this is always done because they do not want a passenger to mistakenly think that crew members are talking them. He also said that "we are here for the passengers and not for ourselves." We could learn much in the church as we have a great deal of "insider" language and expressions.
Our announcements, acronyms and even worship forms often assume others know exactly what we are talking about, even bordering on giving the impression that we never expect a guest to come who doesn't already know "our language." Those of us in the church need to continually ask ourselves how the language, expressions, and lingo affect those who are our guests. We need to speak their language.


3) Substance and style are both vital to a guest's experience: Having a well prepared and delicious meal every night in the dining room on board was promised in all the promos we read before taking the cruise. Card tricks and math riddles (when our steward discovered Becky is a math whiz) every night made our meals memorable. We were made to feel like we were our Stewards "favorites". Having a clean room with made up beds each day was important, but the attention to detail, the towel animals made by our steward each night and the engaging conversation with our room steward made us feel special. One might say "what's so special about that?...that's how every passenger feels."

Exactly -- no one is missed. Every passenger experiences the same level of care. Both the substance of what one experiences on a cruise (safety, good food, exciting destinations, learning about new places and people) and the style (the friendly respect from crew members, the special touches to keep everything spotless, making you feel important) are both vital to the experience. However, if it were all style and the food was bad, we were late arriving at every port or the ship sank, none of the style would have mattered. If the substance was gotten right but the crew was unfriendly and the ship dirty, most people would not sail with that cruise line a second time.

In our churches, it is important to get substance (Biblically faithful theology, God honoring worship, correct division of Law and Gospel, Theology of the Cross) right while we pay close attention to style (appropriate worship forms, welcoming environment, effective discipling methods). It is all part of what guests and members experience.