Session Study of “Intuitive Leadership” by Tim Keel
Section 3: Embracing the Possibility
Study notes prepared by Rob Erickson
“I do not believe great organizations have ever been built by trying to emulate another, any more that individual greatness is achieved by trying to copy another “great person.” In this quote from Peter Senge (The Fifth Discpline), Tim Keel is encouraging us to be ourselves in ministry and not try to be someone else. Keel critiques the “cutting-edge ministry tour that began in the 1980s with the contemporary worship movement, went on to the small group movement, continued into the 1990s with the seeker targeted church movement, and later evolved into packaged ministry expressions such as Alpha evangelism ministry and Purpose Driven Life curriculums like the ’40 Days of Purpose’” (page 216) Whereas the original ministries grew out of individual churches and church leaders assessing there gifts and calling and applying those gifts to ministry, the copy cat ministries grow out of an expressed need to reach some target group that is not being reached.
Keel goes on to say “My experience tells me that when you try to reach someone or some group or something, you end up chasing not just a nonexistent caricature but he wrong thing altogether.” (page 215) Whereas we at Covenant are often suspicious of the latest ministry fad, we are also guilty of “targeting certain groups” and borrowing programs that “reach out” to those groups in the hope of establishing a ministry for and with that group. Our efforts at Contemporary Sunday night worship, Alpha outreach to Young Adults, “47 Days of Preparation (Lenten Study in 2005) are examples of our efforts to reach out to certain populations with programs similar to ones that other churches had pioneered.
Tim Keel sets a new challenge before churches: figure out what it means for our community to abide in Christ. He suggests that “the ability to reach people, is a natural by-product and sign of a healthy church ecosystem functioning as it should.” (page 220) “We have to “intuit what is going on and learn to respond in ways that have integrity to who we are, where we are, and who we have been.” 9page 222) What is unique about us? How is God using us? Where is God here?
Tim Keel offers a proposal to us and anyone who reads his book. “God is alive and at work in you, your community, and your context. Our world is filled with possibility because of who God is and what he is doing in creation. God longs for our participation with him, and at the same time God is on the move. Jesus said ‘Follow me’ and he meant it. He is going somewhere and if we are to keep pace, we must follow. That means we must move. I can’t give you any answers. All I can do is propose some posture- ways of positioning our selves that allow us a greater chance of catching God at work among us.” (page 223) At the Willow Creek Leadership Summit last week at Westlink, I was challenged to think of what ministry are we uniquely positioned to do, by our temperament, our passion, our position in the community and our relationships with God and each other. I would extend that same challenge to you in this study. What ministries are we being called to do and who are we being called to be by God? What is it that we do as part of the Kingdom of God, that if our church we not here would be terribly missed?
Tim Keel asks a series of questions in his last chapter about leadership posturing:
1) What if leaders refused to take the posture of expert and took the posture of humble and engaged learner? (page 230)
2) What is leaders assumed a posture of vulnerability that allowed them to access their heart and make them available to God and their people? (pg 232)
3) What if leaders began to invite their people with them into these kinds of spaces in order to engage with God on agenda free grounds and discern the still small voice of God? (pg 237)
4) What if leaders sought to stay present in the midst of chaos in order to discern the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit hovering in love and creativity over a new act of creation? (pg 240)
5) What if leaders assumed a posture of cultivation, of kneeling and digging in the earth, of planting and watering, of weeding and culling and ultimately harvesting? 9pg 242)
In each of these postures these is a basic assumption of trust in God, our faith and our communities. Keel suggests that the by product of trust is deep joy, knowing we are loved.
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