Leadership from the Center or from the Edges?

I had an interesting conversation with another minister today. Our church is experiencing some growth and I wanted to pick his brain on some leadership issues. He said something very interesting. He said that the purpose of leadership and organization is to help facilitate the movement that is happening. Administration fuels the movement, not the other way around. For many churches, I think, the movement serves the organization. Everything is centralized and has to be funneled through one vision. But, what if things worked differently?

What if the leadership of a church really happened on the edges? What I mean by that is, what if things were just happening spontaneously as people followed God and the purpose of the actual, formal leadership was to serve, equip, and resource the movement that was taking place already? Are the people of God capable of initiating ministry themselves? I'm not saying that an agreed upon framework is not provided or that there is no central church. I am thinking of this within the context of a local church. But, what if people ran with things, initiated ministry, and took ownership over the direction of the church?

At Gateway, we say that our vision and mission statement is, "Loving God, Loving People, to the Ends of the Earth." That is who we seek to be and what we seek to do. But, how does that happen? We have different ministries and different connection points through small groups, classes, ministries, and our mid-week gathering, but it only has life when people run with it themselves. We can lead from the center of the church, but little happens unless movement and initiation is occurring at the edges.

Ideally, it seems that real movement and leadership should happen at the edges of the church where people interact with the lost and where daily life occurs. The middle of the church should provide shepherding, discipling, and support. And the core servant-leadership should exist to point the church to Jesus, teach the Word, equip the saints, and hold high the ethic of following Christ. This is how it seems to me at this point.

This means that leadership does not consist of coming up with a ministry vision and selling it to the congregation. It means that you seek God together about what each person should be doing. It doesn't mean that you try and plug people into your ministry positions, but rather, it means that you seek the Lord about how people should serve. Obviously, certain things need to be done, but we trust God to provide.

The most dynamic leadership should happen at the edges where the church interacts with the world and where we all meet daily life. We should be leading out into our communities and the nations instead of keeping all of the leadership within the church. If we staff, it should be to mobilize and lead the body out to interact with and minister to a lost world.

These are just some thoughts, but I am really beginning to see church leadership upside-down from what I have been taught.

Still thinking . . .

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Comments

[Michael Wilcox]

This post articulates something I have been wrestling with in my own heart. I am being more and more convinced that "leading from the edges" is the only way forward, but my frustration is that I don't know how to make the necessary shifts in my church. I've had my eyes open, but I haven't found an example. In your opinion, what are two or three things that a pastor can/should do to make this a reality.

[downshoredrift]

Great question, Michael. I'm going to say start with prayer, and I'm not just stating the obvious or trying to be overly spiritual. Jesus is the Head of the church and He really does guide us by His Spirit when we ask Him to show us where He is working.

The second thing is to know that God is always working (John 5:17). He is stirring up hearts in different ways. The question is, where? I have taken the perspective that we have a simple vision/mission statement: Love God, Love People, to the Ends of the Earth. We have some structure, but however you carry those things out, go for it. We had a guy recently plan an outreach where he had a fitness day for the neighborhood. He went to the neighborhood association and partnered with them. We had about 20 people show up for the fitness day and from that, a family has started coming to our church. It was his idea and he just did it. We have lots of examples of that. That is what I call "Leading from the Edges."

Your ministry leaders and your people know best what needs to be done to make the church ministry or their personal ministry most effective. Ideally, a combination of entrepeneural innovation and institutional advancement can go hand in hand and feed one another, with movement leading the way and structure coming alongside to give the movement stability and long-term effectiveness. But, if movement is not happening, I think it all starts with prayer and asking questions of your people: What is God doing? What is God leading you to do? How can you carry out God's will for you and our church? How can your ministry/our church be more effective? If you can get people praying and thinking, you might be surprised what they come up with and are willing to do. Then, give them permission (create a permission-giving culture), remove obstacles that could hinder them, and resource and equip them as the need arises.

One other thing: We do WAY too much equipping BEFORE people step out. We get them to rely on our equipping instead of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes people don't know what they need to know until they start getting beyond where they are comfortable. I intentionally don't do complete training up front. I just want people to begin to engage and then we train along the way. Isn't that what Jesus did?

Anyway, those are some thoughts. I don't know if I answered your questions, but those are some initial thoughts.

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