emerging mosaic

I remember learning the song soon and very soon when I was a little kid coming up in the church. I remember discovering the sentiment in it was used by white Christians to placate blacks during slavery telling them that their reward, their release from oppression,  would come soon, in the next life, at the end of eternity.

Now I hear it again from the emergent conversation. Scott McKnight has an interesting post about conversations he is having with emergent leaders types (all white and male with the exception of a spouse) at the National Pastors Conference. He reports from his conversation that they are serious about theology and the intersection of

All this group of folks care about is theology …..They’re really into the intersection of theology, culture, and praxis.

When someone (Rick of new life emerging) commented as I have that the conversation was lacking

“conversation” from minority voices– like African Americans or the feminist perspective. (Yes, I know how white dudes roll their eyes when confronted with this reality) This seems mainly like an evangelical group who is “high” on the next best thing.

He was tagged as griping. Can you say "shut down the conversation." Another commenter said this

I can understand the frustration with the seeming fruitlessness, the overemphasis on talking, the lack of diversity, etc. But things take time.

I remember hearing this just wait two years ago when I first started raising these questions. Soon and very soon. Now I’m not trying to take on Scott or any of the other emergent leaders he mentioned. They are clearly more theologically sophisticated than me. But as person of color trying to emerge into Christian practice beyond the modern and postmodern hoopla I am stuck with these questions:

How long before it isn’t griping to call the emergent conversation to account for its stated values?
How long before we see real evidence of the intersection between theology and praxis? I mean beyond candles and worship stuff.
How long before it is time to expect something more than talk?

I hear a rising chorus of Soon and very soon and I say

How long emergent? How long?

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Are the leadership models of choice more than an reaction to unhealthy leadership patterns of the modern church. Some don’t think so. In response to my previous post and comment on his blog Lucas over a my four walls continues the conversation about the flat model of leadership in the emerging church, by comparing Jesus as pastor and leader to these unhealthy patterns. Our current patterns of living out these biblical leadership roles are distorted. That much is true but I don’t think that means we just swing to the opposite extreme of no leadership no pastor.

Can we acknowledge the distortions as John Frye does, then ask how then should we lead/pastor if we are following Jesus’ pattern? Jesus often pastored "his flock" by  leaving them to go and connecting with God the creator through prayer. That’s pastoring by example. Why don’t we do that instead of saying we don’t need pastors? Jesus lead by serving others can we do that instead of saying we don’t need leaders? Instead of advocating no structures how about cultivating organic structures instead of mechanical ones?

subversive influence also raises some interesting issues

Problems here are (a) the flat model is not non-analogous (by the way, what’s the opposite of analogous, anyway?) to servant leadership, as I would argue servant leadership will naturally exist in flat structures; and (2) effective servant leadership is not necessarily hierarchical (this facet is redundant to the prior point

He also points to a whole other aspect of this distributed leadership the complex Christ where I raised the issue of organic vs mechanical. I think this raises a much more important issue. Is the model of individual professional leadership sustainable for the church moving into the future? Distributed leadership may be the only sustainable way to go.

This raises all bunch of other question about money and the accumulation of wealth being discussed over and into the mystic (Alex McManus blog)

This is a very stimulating question

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This went largely unreported. The leader of the Taize movement was murdered during a worship service recently .

- See more @ CNN

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Was Jesus a pastor or a leader maybe both or neither?

The more I hear the rationale of some in the emerging conversation for the flat model of leadership the less convinced I am that the conviction in based on following Jesus patterns. It seems more like a sixties retro headless democracy that I think eventually caused the church to lose its way and fall into the hands of the modernists thinkers.

Having a leader is not just about wanting to know who is in charge that is just a simplification of a very complex and layered issue. God has always raised up leaders for his people and to deny that or reject it (The shaping of things to come, not withstanding) I think is misguided.

This is one of the things that frustrates me the most about some emergent thinkers. More credence is put in follow the latest intellectual thought than following Jesus’ which is what we claim to value so highly in the emerging church. It’s no wonder that D.A. Carson and others are beating us over the head as not standing for anything biblical and abandoning the core faith.

Carson et al are wrong but we are giving them tons of ammunition by just reacting at the other extreme to all the abuses of the modern church, leadership being chief among them. Jesus was open , he was inviting, but he lead. He showed his followers how to live and he gave instructions for us to follow those patterns.

As Kester Brewin says in the Complex Christ we are trying to mount a revolution when what we need is an evolution. I think we need to get over our fear of strong leaders and realize that strong servant leaders are an asset not a liability.  We need leaders, flawed imperfect, servant leaders. Not managers, not tyrants, not dictators, not CEOs and not whatever wimps! Leaders! We need leaders willing to follow Jesus at all costs into mission; To serve people and sacrifice for them as Jesus for us.

(sidebar: I think this i one reason why some people of color don’t get the whole emerging church thing. The Afro Christian church values healthy leaders and those leaders play a very different role than they do in most anglo settings)

The flat model thing just feels like such a cope out for not laying it all on the line if God has given a mission to lead. think of all the people responsible for keeping the faith going that God called to lead what if they said I’m really more comfortable with a flat model because that is what it say in the shaping things to come.

Well I got that off my chest!

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I’m a pastor, you’re pastor, he’s pastor, she a pastor, wouldn’t you like to be a pastor too. OK which one is it. Is everyone a pastor or is no one pastor, and was Jesus a pastor . John Frye has been stirring up a lot of conversation over at his blog  on this subject.

I have to admit that the longer I have been in ministry the more my discomfort with the term pastor has grown. When I first started out everyone called me reverend. Talks about a disconnect. Then pastor Andre now I’m happy to just be called Andre. Just don’t call me late for dinner.

The term pastor has so much baggage attached to it. Pastors are to be chaplains to the flock tending to their every need. What ever happened to the priesthood of all believers. The typical pastor is to be a jack of all trades, administrator communicator care giver and more (I like looking at the job descriptions for pastor in magazines). 

I much prefer to be thought of as the leader of a faith community with some pastoral gifts. I aspire to be able to a cultural architect as Erwin McManus describes himself. Is the alternative to move toward the kind of pastoral community that Frye describes? I don’t know. Just about anyone can care for another but not everyone can give pastoral care  think that requires a spiritual gift (mercy).

So everyone isn’t a pastor but those gifted as pastors by God need to be raised up to function alongside others with different gifts to provide holistic leadership to our faith communities.

One problem I have with some in the emerging church conversation is an insistence on a kind of generic "flat" model of "pastoral" leadership which seems to ignore the idea that while we are all equal in God’s eyes we are differently gifted. Exercising those gifts doesn’t have to lead to a hierarchical leadership situation.

So what do you think?

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