Introduction, continued . . .

okay, i realize that this is a bit odd--each new post depends on one prior, and one prior to that. and the posts go down, so you have to read from below up. not yer standard approach, but then this is a draft of a book posted piecemeal on a blog so what do you expect? ; -)

grace, my lovely 6 year old daughter, was sick today. and sonja, my lovely bride, had a full slate of patients at the clinic (she's a nurse-midwife). so i didn't get as much done as i hoped to, but still . . . i'm on target to finish the introduction by the end of the week. here is the next installment of the intro. and for those of you who are "a" types and extremely linear, let me give you the outline of the introduction here before today's installment:

One | Introduction

Gathered and Scattered
Rubber Band Leadership: Vision, Reality, and Working the Tension
A Vision To Guide Us
The Reality of Forces Against Us
Living By Faith-Substitutes
Dominant Cultural Traditions Live Through Us
Working the Tension: Practicing Pastoral Excellence
Outline of the rest of the book

[the section below begins with a transition from "gathered and scattered" to "rubber band leadership"]

"With this scriptural launching, we now raise the question of leadership for faith as a way of life, a life marked deeply by this pattern of gathering and scattering. To begin, we turn to a compelling model of contemporary leadership with remarkable resonance to the biblical witness discussed thus far.

Rubber Band Leadership: Vision, Reality, and Working the Tension

In his work on learning personal mastery, Peter Senge tells the story of Antonio Stradivari and his quest for the best sound that could be produced by a violin. Stradivari spent his entire life in the pursuit of that sound. He made constant refinements to the violins he crafted. Still today, 300 years later, the violins built by Stradivari are considered among the very best available. Senge uses Stradivari as a means to unfold his understanding of practical mastery, and the core process required to achieve it: the process of continual improvement he calls “generative learning.” Generative learning emerges when one enters intentionally into the “creative tension” between the current realities, whatever they may be, and the vision of where one wants to be.

Senge illustrates the point about “creative tension” with the image of a rubber band pulled between two hands. The hand on the top represents the vision whereas the hand on the bottom represents current reality. The tension on the rubber band as it is pulled between the two hands is what gives the creative drive. Creativity results when one is so unsatisfied with the current situation that one is driven to change it. This drive to change, however, implies that one has a clear understanding of the current reality as well as a specific vision of what ought to be. With an accurate view of reality, one will see constraints that are present; with a compelling vision, restless creativity presses forward to find ways of working within constraints in order to achieve the vision.

With some caveats, of course, this model of creative tension can be held along side the church’s life in the “long Saturday” between the realities of the world as it is and the promise of a “new thing” already accomplished in Jesus Christ, awaiting its fulfillment. It is too simple to say, however, that some how the church embodies the vision and the world embodies the reality in need of change. In a very real sense both church and world have within them element of God’s vision of life as it should be and realities of life as it is under conditions of sin, suffering, and human failings. The fact, however, in discipleship as well as pastoral leadership, is that God’s promises are uniquely available in the church through a holy presence many churches believe is found in the proclamation of the word and the administration of the sacraments. It is into this presence that the Spirit gathers us, and it is filled with this presence that we are again scattered into the world to work the “creative tension” between the God-filled vision we know to be true and the falsehoods we find in daily life.

Pastoral leadership, at its best, works this creative tension between God’s vision and human realities. But if it loses hold of that vision, it also loses the tension, and pastoral leadership bends any which way in response to the variety of human realities. In the next sections we consider in terse form both an inspiring vision and a worrisome current reality resulting from losing the creative tension. The rest of the book, then, might rightly be considered exercises in practical mastery, or how to seek to regain the creative tension demanded by excellent pastoral leadership.

A Vision

The Scripture that launched us on our way in this book sets a basic pattern for the Christian life and the leadership called to guide it. That pattern is one of gathering and scattering; gathered into the life of God in Christ through the power of the Spirit and scattered for the sake of witness and service in daily life. In an era when many churches seem to think gathering is enough, the reassertion of this pattern has very real power. Yet pointing to this pattern doesn’t do nearly enough. It needs to be further said that the way of life this pattern implies finds its intellectual and moral content in God’s action for us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The story of Jesus Christ as gospel is the faith we confess and that, rather than some vague beliefs I might hold, is the shaping force orienting our lives as Christians.

Yet our way of life is not simply an interconnected set of beliefs, either. We must go one step more to finally get the necessary picture. The Christian faith as belief gives shape to a whole way of life for those of us that call ourselves Christian. Following from this, then, it makes sense to hear theologian Miroslav Volf argue that “the core task of pastoral leadership today—and a signal mark of its excellence—is the task of shaping persons and communities for living faith as a way of life in the world.” Writing half a century before Volf, another Yale theologian who was concerned about the state of ministry, H. Richard Niebuhr, wrote, “To train men [and women] for the ministry of the Church is to train them for ministry to the world and to introduce them to the conversation of Church and world.” Christian discipleship, and the life of the Christian ministry that serves such discipleship, is, as Volf and Niebuhr so plainly state, a way of life for the sake of the world.

Christian ministry is deeply concerned with connecting faith and life, and helping to make faith a way of life. Pastors will be able to mediate faith as a way of life only if they themselves find this a compelling life model and if their parishioners find that the model helps them make sense of life as a whole. One of the most pressing needs of pastoral ministry is therefore to develop, sustain, and legitimize reflection on Christian faith not simply as a set of propositions to believe, commandments to obey, or rituals to perform but as an integral way of life.

What does such an integral way of life look like? How does it feel to live thusly, in the nitty-gritty of daily life with friends and family, at work and during leisure time? Miroslav Volf’s book, Free of Charge, intends to offer just such an invitation to Christian faith as a way of life. The book avoids the trap of so many tired volumes aimed at “introducing” Christian faith because it begins not with dogma but with diapers. Beginning with the story of the adoption of his son as an entry point into the practice of giving, we know right from the start that this invitation to faith will keep close to the ground and show us a path to follow Christ in our lives. After powerfully portraying God as Trinity modeling giving and forgiving, Volf goes on to describe how we should in turn give and forgive, and how exactly because of God’s lead, how we can give and forgive. Taking up the great salvation story of God’s relation to humanity and the world through everyday practices of giving and forgiving makes for a book both more visionary for shaping lives of faith and more practical for pastoral leaders seeking to shape communities who live in the world as givers and forgivers. Throughout the chapters of this book, we will turn to reflections from Volf’s work so as to be in constant dialog with the vision of the faith whole and lived through these and other core practices."

more to come!
+peace

Comments

[Laura Dolley]

I really enjoyed reading your message. I have a question - I am working on a paper in my doctoral program that is focused on motivation in the church. I am using my own church as the subject of that paper. We are a small church that is suffering from increased attrition rates. Do you have any ideas on ways to motivate and build membership? There are 6 churches in a town of 1300 and we want to set ourselves apart. Thank you.