THE MISSIONAL LEADER
Right now I (Dave) am reading The Missional Leader by Alan J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk. In this update I’d like to simply present some of their thoughts and statements for you to mull over. Regardless of what you think of their assertions, the discussion about leadership for the missional church is one we should be prepared to enter.

Roxburgh and Romanuk contend, “A congregation is not a business organization, nor is it meant to be run like a minicorporation through strategic planning and alignment of people and resources around some big plan. The congregation comprises the people of God, called to be formed into a unique social community whose life together is the sign, witness, and foretaste of what God is doing in and for all of creation.” Later on the same page the authors state that church leaders must help a congregation “understand the extent to which strategic planning and other such models misdirect the church from faithful witness in our culture.”

Addressing the recent interest in “all things missional,” the authors observe, “In response to demand, numerous books are being published with missional language in the title. What is disappointing about these books is that they use missional language to repackage the familiar language of church effectiveness, church growth, and church health. In other words, the writers have not engaged the nature of the change a missional paradigm requires and are simply offering a few more good tactics for doing the same thing more effectively.”

Roxburgh and Romanuk see the church borrowing leadership models from psychology (pastor as counselor or therapist) and the business world (pastor as strategist, coach, or manager) and lament the effect these models are having on the church. According to the authors’ diagnosis, “when the church borrows and applies such models to the community of God’s people it misses an opportunity to share leadership around the biblical sense, in which leadership is about cultivating an environment that innovates and releases the missional imagination present among a community of God’s people” (emphasis added). Further, the authors propose that the church’s employment of these models in the present generation curtails great commission thinking within the church, in that church leaders are not creating the “environment” necessary for their congregation to thrive missionally.

The authors’ definition of missional? “A missional church is a community of God’s people who live into the imagination that they are, by their very nature, God’s missionary people living as a demonstration of what God plans to do in and for all of creation in Jesus Christ.”

What God wants is to do is redeem all of creation to Himself. Roxburgh and Romanuk claim that a new kind of leadership is required in order to create the environment that will allow this to happen.

There is a lot of discussion on the American church scene these days about the kind of leader it will take to lead the next generation. What do you think? Are you ready to join the conversation?

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YEARNING FOR VIRTUE
The new movie based on Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code, has certainly received a great deal of attention lately, not just in the US but around the world. I always find it interesting to note what “sells” in our society and why. Personally, I see the incredibly high level of interest in The Da Vinci Code as an indication of our society’s interest in virtue.

It really is a good thing about us, our interest in virtue. One of the marks of our humanity is that we do respect and yearn for goodness. We may be bad and we may do bad things, but still we long for goodness in the world and in ourselves. And so we seek out that which seems virtuous and ask if it stands up, if it’s something upon which we can confidently pin all our hopes.

It was the same with the disciples. Remember their question to Jesus in Acts 1:6? “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” It is a question about me—what is going to happen to me, to Israel; a question about time—when; and finally a question about virtue—the Kingdom.

Jesus answers their question in verses 7 and 8 and we discover that the message of hope is going to stretch all the way to the ends of the earth. It is a message so wide that it will stretch beyond all national boundaries. The promise is not just for Israel; it is for Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

We discover here the extreme breadth of the promise—of the expansion of this virtue. The goodness is not just for Americans, it is not just for Jews, it is not just for a small group—it stretches to the ends of the earth.

In Matthew’s gospel (ch. 28), we read that this virtue will not only stretch to the ends of the earth, but also to the end of time. “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Time will never extend beyond the boundary of the goodness of God. So too, you and I can never be outside of the goodness of God. God promises to be with us everywhere and always. The Kingdom promise of God’s faithfulness and love stretches to the ends of the earth and for all time.

Really, I think that this is what all the Da Vinci Code hoopla is all about. People want to know, Is it true? Can I trust this Christ? Tell me about the Kingdom—is it really true? Can it stand? How far does it extend and for how long? In other words, can I pin all my hopes on this Kingdom?

The questions people are asking today are the same questions the disciples asked. All of this attention on Jesus looks like a great opportunity to me, and we have a great message of hope to tell.

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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweetest in the gale is heard.
- Emily Dickenson

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Living the Resurrection by Eugene Peterson, NavPress 2006
(Reviewed by Bruce MacPherson)

I enjoyed reading Eugene Peterson’s Living the Resurrection, especially in the days leading up to Easter Sunday. Peterson is always fresh and unique, and he deals squarely with some of our society’s current weaknesses.

In this, his latest book, Peterson deals with what he terms “practicing the resurrection.” Chapter One, perhaps the strongest chapter, emphasizes resurrection wonder: people’s unpreparedness, the uselessness of experts (religious leaders), the prominence of marginal people (poor fishermen, formerly demonized Mary Magdalene), how it occurred without publicity, and finally how their fear turned into fear-of-the-Lord. We too, when perplexed, frightened, trembling, puzzled, and disoriented need to turn to the Lord in amazement, love, and trust; we must listen to Him and keep company with Him and His people.

Peterson says that instead of worshipping God, too often we end up “enlisting Him as a trusted and valuable assistant.” We use Him instead of worship Him, which Peterson terms “the germs of idolatry.” Another pitfall is the danger of following Jesus-experts instead of going directly to Jesus. Religious professionalism leads to pride, privilege, rank, and feeling better than others. As we live the resurrection, God calls us to constant repentance (the “no”) and to following the Lord (the “yes”).

A much needed correction in our society is Peterson’s insistence that we once again learn to keep the Sabbath holy as a day of rest, change, reflection, and worship after six days of labor which God also called “good.”

Although I enjoyed this book, I feel Peterson could probably have said all of this in fewer words. I give this devotional a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-5.

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