What can I do to create a leadership team if I'm not in a big church with a large staff? I still don't really know enough about the Trinity to understand what it has to do with leadership? How can I bring my elders and deacons on board with this idea? What if I'm not too crazy about the whole idea of team to describe ministry groups since teams imply competition?
These are some of the questions that I have heard as I have been exploring, researching and starting to write about Trinitarian leadership during my sabbatical. I have discovered a wonderful collection of academic and theological books on the Trinity and I could read Jurgen Moltmann and Miroslav Volf, Dan Migliore and Shirley Guthrie forever. (And besides that I just love to say their names.) I have also uncovered a number of books that I didn't know about like George Cladis' book "Leading a Team-Based Ministry: How Pastors and Church Staffs Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders" and Wayne Cordeiro's "Doing Church as Team". Cladis actually does a very good job of lifting up the Trinity as a model for team building in large church staffs and he describes the whole idea of "perichoretic community" so that readers can understand this technical term that describes how the Father and Son and Holy Spirit interact with each other "in constant movement in a circle that implies intimacy, equality, unity yet distinction and love." (Cladis, p. 4) Cordeiro's book is also a very accessible book to help create a team culture in a church. However both these books and most of the literature seems geared to large churches and their church staffs.
My project will focus instead on creating and nurturing leadership communities in the small to medium sized churches after the model of the Triune God. Notice that I am trying to steer away from the term "team" because in our culture it does imply a competitive group and the whole thrust of this project it to move away from a competitive, authoritarian and individualistic image of leadership to a cooperative, eqalitarian and communal way of leading the church. And I will be focussing on how we can build leadership communities within the church- pastors, elders, deacons and trustees and beyond the church as churches and presbyteries and colleges get together to lead. Our shared worship service with Brotherhood and Wichita State University is an example of Trinitarian leadership model that extends beyond the church walls to encompass several unique communities who share leadership in Christ.
So far I have discovered six Trinitarian characteristics that would allow us to build a leadership community in Christ. They are: Unity built on open and inviting communication that integrates the many distinct parts; Diversity which allows uniqueness and self-differentiation while still works toward a common purpose; Integrity among the leaders in the leadership comminity and integrity in what the community says and how it operates; Mutual concern and care which implies an intimate relationship through the Holy Spirit which allows us to know each other and hold each other even and especially in pain; Equality of shared power in place of a hierarchy of held power; and Mutual Encourage in which each part of the leadership community builds up and encourages the others. These all aspects of the Trinity that Jurgen Moltmann describes in more theological language in his book "The Trinity and the Kingdom".
Let me know what you think. I am hopeful that this book, "Trinitarian Leadership: A Community of Leaders in Christ", might reflect that same kind of collegiality in its writing that it will hopefully reflect in its content. In the next several days I will explore each of these ideas on the blog and will look forward to your feedback. Thanks for your help and your participation in the faith community that lives and worships in the name of the Triune God revealed in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
3 comments:
Looking forward to reading more on this subject. I'll be very interested in anything pointing toward a team environment, especially for the small church. I truly miss a former "team" work environment, now that I am "solo".
The idea and wording of a "team" seems appropriate to me. Not all teams are in regard to sports. The idea is to do the best you can for the larger team.
Roger (whom you know) led a very good team, giving space for people to learn and grow, but stepping in to be more direct when needed. This, of course, was not exactly what you are considering, as Roger had more power in this structure (though he used it for good).
On the other hand, it is similar to what you are considering, as God is certainly not on the same level as those in a ministry team.
Our team worked with many other teams trying to fix any structural and process problems. We had precision measurement equipment to see if things were as they were designed to be.
When there was a problem in a particular area, we pointed it out so it could be fixed. And when there was a recurring problem we looked further back in the process to see what might have contributed so that this could be brought into compliance with the design.
We were holistic - dealing with suppliers and the customer, even flying out to visit with the customer to see what they expected and where they saw problems. Then we came back to seek to fix the problem.
At first, people resented that we were coming out to measure--as it implied they were not doing things right. But then they found we weren't looking to point fingers, but to help them. They felt so much better when there were fewer problems. When they participated in the improvement process, that is when things truly improved.
That's a fine parable, but where is the Trinitarian leadership team? That's the interesting thing. At its best, the community was constantly working toward improvement such that it was hard to tell where the boundaries were.
Our reason for being (as a team) was proved over and over. We didn't have to be involved with everything. We had limitations on what we could do, as we weren't actually allowed to use the tools of the mechanics who actually built the product. We couldn't force our suggestions on the management team--which had final say.
Yet we were the ones which said if things were right or wrong. We pointed to what needed scraped, and what needed replaced. But we also said what was indeed right. We would help folks figure out what the problem was, if they would call upon us.
The team was harmonious, any of us able to fill in for each other, attend meetings, all of us keeping the others informed, each of us taking a share of the load, filling in when others were on vacation, etc.
But we cannot say we were completely equal. As a manager, Roger had a little different function, and more power in setting direction.
Thanks for your feedback. I am hopeful that the idea of being part of a leadership community (or team) even and especially if you are in a solo position is something that the articles will address.
The more I study the Trinity the more I realize that a lot of the questions we are struggling to understand in the Trinity are actually insights that would help us in our leadership. For example the question you pose about your leadership team with Roger and who is the boss (obviously Roger) is also a question that is asked about with the Trinity. Who's really in charge? Isn't it really God the Father in charge- the Son is second in charge because he is begotten of the Father- with the Holy Spirit as the lowest member of the Trinity because he proceeds from the Father and the Son? The Western and Eastern Church split over that issue. And yet if there is a hierarchy of persons of the Trinity, how can Jesus say "The Father and I are one" "If you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father"?
Moltman addresses this in his great book "The Trinity and the Kingdom" when he says "We have said that it is not the monarchy of a ruler that corresponds to the triune God; it is the community of men and women, without privileges and without subjugation. The three divine Persons have everything in common, except for their personal characteristics. So the Trinity corresponds to a community in which people are defined in their relations with one another and in their significance for one another, not in opposition to one another, in terms of power and possession." (p. 198) So each member of the Trinity is distinct from each other person of the Trinity with each have his own role and pesonality and yet these equal yet very different persons work and communicate together in what theologians call "perichoresis", a circle of community in relationship and conversation. This way of understanding God, helps us know how important it is that we might build up a "perichoretic" relationship with those in our leadership communities.
Your effort to use electronic communication to keep in communication with your elders is just such a "perichoretic" movement of communication. Of course for this to work, there has to be an underpinning of trust. How one builds that level of trust, intimacy and respect in our all-too-human organizations, can only (I believe) be accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit. But that is why shared prayer, worship and group building are vitally important in Christian leadership teams in order to build up a trust that our culture generally lacks. It's like what happened in our Pastor's Conference when we started to pray specifically for each other. We grew to know each other more intimately and appreciate each other more, regardless of our church size, theology or regional grounding.
Again, thanks for your conversation. I look forward to more.
Rob, I especially like your mention of prayer (last paragraph). This seems extremely significant for a team/community of leaders in Christ. Praying (orally and communally) for each other and for the community, lifting all to God - this is a major shift from seeking power and praise for oneself.
You can tell a lot about what a person believes by how they pray. I don't mean this in a judging way, such as what Jesus was saying regarding the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector--as he taught who was justified.
But communal prayer opens up our understanding of one another, as it brings us closer together in our understanding and faith.
Those who pray together are likely to get to the point where they all use similar phrases - partially in a nod to each other, and partially in coming to the same understanding.
It's also challenging to think about what is going on when there is significant conflict - especially in light of saying the lack of major problems in the areas of "trust, intimacy and respect in our all-too-human organizations, can only (I believe) be accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit."
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