Kingdom Leadership and the Future of the Church
We’ve been talking a lot in our house church about what the future looks like. What does it mean to be a church made up of more than one house church? What does leadership look like in an environment like this?
So this morning I ran across a post by Len at Next Reformation that captures some of the spirit of what I believe Kingdom leadership looks like in the days ahead. Here’s the quote:
“Brian McGaffigan writes,
The job of facilitator/change agent was described by Ifor Ffowcs-Williams when he asked the question: ‘Would you like a job that offers no formal authority; a high degree of uncertainty; no regular hours; and you will need to earn respect from skeptics; be proactive when the limelight fades; work with energy drainers; lead from behind – no ego tripping. The upside of the job is that you can break patterns; cross boundaries; build bridges across your community; be a hero finder uncovering talent; make things happen through others; influence people in and beyond the cluster; satisfy your hunger for Action; and make a dent in the universe?'”
Obviously there are a lot of character qualifications and Kingdom mandates left out of this description. But if you marry the kind of person Scripture says should lead with these characteristics, I think you get a much clearer picture of what Kingdom leaders look like.
What about you? What would you add to this list? How is this different than leaders you see in the world?
Photo Credit: Desert Leader by Hamed Saber
When You Just Don’t Understand (Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness, Day 27)
This blog was temporarily overtaken In September by my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge. This post is one of the final days I did not get to post until now. You can find out more by checking out the Introduction.
One of the joys of this journey is that I’m beginning to hear on a much clearer level than I have in a long time. This is great. The only problem is, what happens when you totally do not understand what you hear? What do you do with those things you don’t quite get?
Case in point: I woke up this morning with a very clear word on my heart. It was like God whispered it to me when I woke up. He said, “I’m giving to you the books of service.” What does that mean? I immediately began to recall the heavenly scrolls that God would give to his prophets. These weren’t for reading, the scrolls (or books) contained heavenly realities that were being imparted to the prophets (Ezekiel 3:1-3, Revelation 10:8-10). So, I guess I have a little bit of a grid for what God is talking about.
The other interesting thing is when I went to lunch today I was thinking about what I heard and was tempted to write it off as just something I dreamt. But as I was eating, I read some of Nudge by Leonard Sweet. I just “so happened” to be reading the the part of the book where Len focuses in on spiritual hearing being the main source where we become awake to what God is doing. To paraphrase what I read, everything begins with what you hear and whether you are willing to listen.
So while I feel like the Lord is confirming what I heard, it doesn’t answer any of my more specific questions. What is a book of service? And what should I do with it? What is it supposed to impart to me? And how do I respond to this? I’m asking Him these questions when I’m not listening. I’ll let you know when I get a response.
As you were listening, did you hear anything you didn’t understand? What did you do about it? Tell us in the comment section.
Join us on the “Thirty Days to Greater Fruitfulness” experiment. For all of September we spent 30 minutes in silent prayer listening to Jesus and then acting on what He asked us to do. Then we blogged about the changes that were occurring in our lives through the marriage of listening and obedience. It’s not too late. If you’re just checking out that experiment feel free to jump in. And if you want more information, you can check it out here.
Photo Credit: September WallPaper Calendar by DewDreams
Loving A Brother (Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness, Day 26)
This blog was temporarily overtaken In September by my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge. This post is one of the final days I did not get to post until now. You can find out more by checking out the Introduction.
So today continued a string of hard days. My “situation” still is not resolved. But to make matters worse, instead of just not being able to workout the situation with my brother, I had to be in a social environment with him where it would have been inappropriate to bring the whole thing up. If you’ve ever been in that situation, you know it’s hard not to stew on the whole thing and get really agitated.
The beauty of the day (which I’m attributing to my time of listening) is that the Lord gave me the ability to love my brother in reality. In a similar situation in another month, I probably just would have avoided being in the same part of the building as my brother. But today God gave me grace to not only be with him in the situation, but also to bring up the “elephant in the room.”—us getting together to deal with it.
Now, I’ve been able to make decisions to do hard things before. But today I did this because I genuinely cared about my brother. That kind of love you can’t make up or manufacture. It comes from Jesus, and I believe I got some of it by hanging out in the presence of God and listening.
How about you? Have you noticed through the experiment God giving you virtue that isn’t normal to your character? Tell us about it in the comment section.
Join us on the “Thirty Days to Greater Fruitfulness” experiment. For the rest of September we are spending 30 minutes in silent prayer listening to Jesus and then acting on what He asks us to do. Then we blog about the changes that are occurring in our lives through the marriage of listening and obedience. It’s not too late. If you’re just checking out that experiment feel free to jump in. And if you want more information, you can check it out here.
Photo Credit: September WallPaper Calendar by DewDreams
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 