1. Environmentalist
Up to this point in time, there have been a relatively small number of books on leadership in post-modern ecclesiology. However, one such work has redefined the way I view the idea of church leadership in a post-Christian society. Tim Keel’s book Intuitive Leadership is an attempt to reconcile the ideas of post-modernity with a living gospel as it meets the church. Keel describes the trend of the modern church to exist primarily in structures, hoping that those structures will be infinitely transferable to any context. So, we trade strategies and tactics, assuming that “growth” is mass producible. And what we have traded for all of this is creativity and imagination. We have swapped living, breathing relationships for pragmatic programming. This, however, creates huge problems for creative souls. Creativity despises vain repetition.[1] It will not tolerate the preservation of a system, particularly one that loses its primary identity. In the case of the people of God, we crave established “success” and have neglected concern for the oppressed, love for one another and genuine commitments to Christ.[2]
Creativity is easily identified, Keel says, by its fondness for tension.[3] Creatives thrive on the difficult questions that arise from differing perspectives. Creative souls love to take previously established dichotomies and discover new ways between the two. These people do not require all the answers, instead, they only long for the next set of questions. Tension allows for possibility. It opens the door to an unknown number of realities, if the environment is ripe.[4]
Such creative communities require leadership that recognizes the potential grass-rootsy type of community that a freedom of expression might create. It is a place where dialogue is preferred to authoritative lecturing. It is a community, Keel says, that values a life defined from the “bottom up.”[5] If this is truly the case, than the pastor’s primary role as the most powerful decision-maker and communicator might tend to hinder the life of such a community rather than enhance it. Keel says it best when he says:
As a result, the linear dynamics of an organization oriented around a plan are not as important as creating an environment in which values shape a creative identity and expression comes as a result of adaptive engagement within a specific context… {L}eaders become environmentalists… Such environmentalists help to create and shape cultures of trust that respond and adapt creatively to their location and what God is doing there. But that doesn’t mean that all of the organizational needs are lost in favor of a purely organic expression. Leaders who understand themselves as environmentalists must maintain a healthy regard for the operational aspects that give expression to the corporate identity and common expressions of life that flow from this identity.[6]
A pastor’s primary responsibility is to nurture an environment ripe for spiritual growth. Rather than a Sunday-morning-performer, a pastor works the soil, preparing carefully and thoughtfully to allow growth in the community.
Often times, we think of the pastor in business terms. The pastor is the CEO of the church. Therefore, the pastor's responsibilities can only be judged in dollars and attendance records. Unfortunately, such a view of the pastor neglects the primary role of the church: to serve the world and create disciples that are actively following Christ. While it's true that the big churches with their big numbers are probably reaching more people in terms of making disciples, such a system utterly neglects those churches in communities where only the few are drawn to Christ. More than that, it necessarily elevates the potential of an urban church to a rural church. The little church in the country has no chance of being deemed "effective" on this model, because the population per capita of their reach is significantly smaller. And truth be told, I'm not sure that if we focused our energies on advancing the gospel with any shred of pure honesty in suburban areas (where most megachurches seem to flourish) that people would come. It seems to me that we have simplified the gospel to make it more marketable. We've gotten exactly what we wanted, but what did it cost us?
So instead of being a CEO, the pastor's job is first and foremost to create an environment of authentic growth and development. The pastor works the soil to nurture those in her care towards a more authentic and holistic life of faith. This means that the pastor's first task is to know the shape of the congregation, to know what needs to be communicated and to find any and every way possible to challenge the people. This means that a pastor's primary responsibility ought to be to any corporate times where the pastor can lead all people at once. Having spent time working in churches, it seems that this often becomes the pastor's last responsibility, squeezed in wherever there are a few spare minutes.
Instead, the pastor ought to thoughtfully prepare a service that is coherent, that includes challenging questions and that utilizes a variety of elements to continually till the ground and sow the precious seed of the gospel. The produce of a pastor's work as an environmentalist will be evident, but immeasurable.
[1] Keel, Tim, Intuitive Leadership. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books), 2007, 199-200.
[2] This assessment may seem harsh, and it may be. For further thought on these ideas, see Rob Bell’s Jesus Wants to Save Christians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan), 2008 (particularly chapters 1 and 2).
[3] Keel, 200-201.
[4] Keel, 201.
[5] Keel, 201.
[6] Keel, 202.
