Thursday, June 25, 2009

Play ball!

With the summer comes a new metaphor we're adopting as a congregation to help our members and our leadership more effectively seek and share The Way. Our goal is to be a people who are seeking the way, sharing the way - The Way being Jesus himself (John 10:10). How we live out that goal as members of Central is by being committed to four environments in our lives:

  1. Worship (weekly as a group and daily as individuals and families)
  2. Life Stage Groups (weekly gatherings right before our group worship to grow together in the Bible and deeper in our fellowship and service)
  3. House Groups (smaller weekly gatherings to grow deeper in our discipleship and in relationships)
  4. Faith Sharing (the natural and intentional by-product of the other environments - we are changed and cannot help but share that change with others)
The new metaphor we'll be using to help people remember and plug into our ministry is a baseball diamond. The metaphor is posted all around our buildings, in our bulletin and Leon, our pulpit minister, is going to each Sunday AM adult class/Life Stage Group to present the idea.
If you've not already looked closely at it, do so soon so you can get a sense of what it is each person at Central is called to do in the path of seeking the way, sharing the way. In the weeks ahead, we'll be asking that everyone be able to think through where they are 'on' this metaphor.

In addition to asking each member to 'place' themselves, we are also asking each ministry leader to make sure they see clearly where their ministry fits into the ball field metaphor. This is the same ministry structure we've talked about for the past year, just using a different metaphor to make it easier for some to remember.

Remember that you can go back into the olders posts on this blog and see how we progressed from where we were a couple of years back through today. God has blessed us with with serious introspection time and with guidance and leadership to help us move from places we needed to leave behind and into places we need to go.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Worker Bee


An important exercise for any of us in leadership is to fairly regularly be honest with ourselves and do a skill-set inventory. Asking ourselves what we're capable of, good at and recognized for with ears to hear the truth is really good.


Am I a worker? Some people are good at doing a job. A guy might say, "I can change air filters and light bulbs" - does that make him a leader? Maybe by example, but it doesn't mean he can or should be put in charge of other people or an group whose job is maintenance. Just because I can do a job doesn't mean I can effectively lead other people or develop the way that job is done.


Am I a manager? Some people can come into a system that's already set up and help it maintain or keep going in the way it was given to them. They might not be able to comprehend any changes to the system that are suggested to them or see how it could be improved, but they can keep it going "as is" or as they think it ought to be.


Am I an entrepreneur? Some people can see something others can't see YET and develop it from start to finish. They may not have it in them to manage or work it after it's set up, but they can look at the big picture and see what's needed and make an existing thing better OR develop something brand new that no one has ever considered before.


Read through Acts 6 and notice the story of the first deacons. What kind of people do you think those first deacons are or were? As you read through the rest of Acts, notice 'the rest of the story' with several of them and the kinds of things they're doing later.


Sometimes it's not only refreshing, but it's necessary for us to go back to the scriptures and clarify what God intended when he started some of the things we take for granted these days. Just because I grew up in a church with a particular heritage or culture or way of doing things does not mean that it was doing what God calls for.


Imagine re-envisioning all our leadership positions in light of scripture. I think sometimes we think "Oh, I've done that. My position is right." and never think past whether our standard of right is really scripture or what's comfortable because it's what I like and know already.


So what kind of leader are you and where do you find your kind of leadership demonstrated in scripture?