Have you ever felt overwhelmed? Plate overflowing, mind over-saturated with to-do's, and more problems to solve than you had time to even consider?I had the chance to get away for a vacation back home (Alaska) recently and then did a little road trip on the west coast. It was gorgeous. It took a few days to truly unplug - to get over the guilt of not being productive, the haunting thoughts of "what's not getting done while I'm away" and all of those other distractions. Once I got over the hill, then it was truly a time of refreshment, relaxation and recharging.
One day while I was driving I began to sift through my thoughts and began to feel overwhelmed as I tried to sort through all of the needs, opportunities, projects, situations, and "things" waiting for me back home. Family, Grace Point, the Church of San Antonio, the cause of Christ across America, my role in fixing it all or figuring it all out...Stop! Right as all of those weights were getting stacked up, God hit the pause button for me.
We stopped in the Big Sur area of the Los Padres National Forest in California and hiked to see the Pfeifer Falls shown below:
Isn't that a gorgeous picture? Literally a waterfall colliding with a perfect sandy beach in a quiet cove with a redwood forest on one side, the Pacific on the other and beautiful cliffs enclosing it. It is one of those places you don't want to leave. You want to just put a tent and lawn chair out and call it good!
God made that. The same God who created the universe, who unleashed creative power with a few words yielded scenes like this. That same God sent His Son to kick His long-running mission of redemption into high gear and is presently installing His Kingdom incarnationally through the transformed lives of those who follow His Son, via a thing we call "the Church."
That same God doesn't really need advisers, consultants, architects or assistance in figuring it out. Much of the weight I was carrying was from trying to "help God" with His mission. In that "pause" moment, God reminded me that I was overwhelmed trying to carry His burden instead of focusing on my actual calling to follow, rest, obey, serve and participate in the supernatural work He wants to do in and through me. I don't own the outcome, I own the journey of dependent surrender and unrestrained engagement.
In Acts 20 the Apostle Paul is saying farewell to a church plant he helped start in Ephesus. It was still young, had a lot of kinks and challenges but his time had come. In leaving he doesn't wring his hands over all that remains to be done, nor does he boast in having accomplished everything - he says he is simply confident in leaving because he knows he "has not shrunk back" from doing and saying the things the Lord sent him to. Because he was obedient, he had peace in trusting God with the mission of saving the world.
I know that moment with God triggered a sense of release and freshness for me. (Being around a lot of really pretty places along the coast didn't hurt!)
What are you overwhelmed with that is not truly your cross to bear? What are you claiming responsibility FOR instead of TO to your own demise?
I've discussed the distinction between "leadership" and "discipleship" before. They are two disciplines/functions that have so much interplay that they are often blended together, which can be hazardous at times.
In a recent discussion about cross-cultural leadership/discipleship issues within the context of global missions, Keith Anderson reiterated how much a healthy understanding of the relationship and distinctions between L&D is to the deployment of healthy practices - particularly with church planting.
Before referencing some outstanding scholarship that has been produced recently around cross-cultural leadership dynamics (GLOBE project), he highlighted how the sequencing and confusion of these 2 practices can play out in church planting contexts...
(1) You can focus on leadership principles alone. You must wrestle with effectively transmitting the principles in ways that are transferrable to that culture, of course. (something Enrique Fernandez succinctly captures in his teaching on Leadership Extrapolation) The hazard is that you can create dynamic organizational structures and learning systems that fail to draw people to Christ, transform the world or truly touch the Kingdom agenda of God. Certainly, followers will be created ("disciples"?), but not necessarily growing towards Christ and by Him.
(2) You can focus on discipleship. This is most commonly the practice in church-planting, and logically so. You send a team, proclaim the Gospel, teach people to read, pray and go share the story of Christ, rinse-lather-repeat. A by-product of this is certainly that "leaders" are generated as the recipient of the Gospel who turns and shares with others inherits leadership responsibilities and influence over them. This is the primary commissioning of Christ-followers and is the ground floor for reaching new people groups. However, the practices of initially seeding disciples are not effective at cultivating healthy leadership that is sustainable, replicable, and developmental in nature.
(3) You can disciple with a plan for intentional follow-up and leadership development. This is (as you've guessed) the recommended approach. In this you lead off fundamentally, but have the discipline and commitment to follow it up with continued learning, investment and equipping so that indigent leaders can be supported in their generational work of living out our shared Commission in their locale.
I've certainly seen these principles validated - in Haiti, Honduras, Argentina, Mexico, Ireland and the US. Myopic emphasis on just L or D creates an organizational anemia that hinders the Body and creates cyclical resource expenditure by congregations that fail to accumulate for net progression. There is incredible opportunity, however, when a healthy outlook is achieved that allows for seasons, stages and a metamorphosis-based approach.
The principles are not just a function of scale - it works down to the ministry team, small group and similar level. As a leader, are you differentiating between the functional purpose of development efforts - to disciple, to infuse with leadership to further the cause of Kingdom advancement, additional discipleship to provide the depth from which to lead spiritually even further, etc? Have you seen hazards from L&D being confused, or a lack of any intentional plan to develop along either tracks?
Enrique Fernandez was asked for some key axioms pertaining to the local church effectively engaging cross-cultural missions, leadership and discipleship based upon his work and experience. His response:
The local church must take the "s" off of Missions, and instead focus on the Mission of God (singular). The world-wide mission of God is one of restoring all people to relationship with Himself and ushering in His Kingdom. The work of the local church is to participate in this universal Mission. The implication is to approach each culture, destination or people group with a mindset of discerning what His work is in that place and determining our role in participating.
This kind of mindset demands a vulnerability to reflect upon our own agendas and presuppositions of culture and consider that of our surroundings. it requires us to commit not to a single location as much as God's work there, listening and learning. It involves thinking about sustainable efforts and long-term investments that are about seeing God's design fully lived out in that place over attainable projects for us to come back from having touched.
Certainly this axiom, while spoken in relation to outbound missions, has application for leaders in any context. How often do you step back and wrestle with the Mission of God for the people you're interacting with, versus making "a mission" out of your efforts? How effective, when working with people from another culture, are you at discerning between the form of your own American culture from the essence of Christ in evaluating their situation?
*Quote from goLead Cross-Cultural Leadership & Discipleship Symposium (2009, Wayside Chapel)
At a recent conference a speaker gave the exhortation to remember that "We have an eternity to perfect the journey of Christ-likeness and growth, but only a lifetime to testify about God to a world of lost people." It was, obviously, a charge to remember the imperative to never forsake the "as you go, therefore, everywhere be telling" of evangelism for a false dichotomy of "discipleship VS evangelism."
It reminds me of the parable Jesus spoke about the 3 people each given a free lump sum to "steward" for later collection, and how they were measured based upon the risk and diligence they applied towards maximizing what they had been given. The prudish individual ultimately reprimanded in the story buried the little money he was given to ensure it didn't depreciate in value...while his peers all risked for the gain of multiplying yields on the principle for the ultimate joy of the rich ruler. The story uses money as an object, but the lesson implied is much broader than finances - it encompasses all the things we are entrusted with to steward...money, skills, opportunities, relationships, knowledge, truth, and time.
However, I have spent considerable time over the past few weeks meeting with people who have been coasting in varying degrees of purpose-lessness for YEARS. Whether it's the guy who spent 30+ years working a job he loathed and robbed his joy, the couple whose marriage had been "not terrible" for 90% of their 10 years together (utterly miserable the other 10%), or the person stuck in a rat race of routine that has them tied up in knots but has no idea why they started or where they're going. There's a witty video clip put together by a pastor in TN that is attempting to address this very issue under the caption of "Dream Jobs: what you do matters."
Why do YOU do the things you do? Towards what end, for Whose pleasure, for what reason are you investing your time in...your job? your marriage? your parenting? your friendships? your hobbies? your ministry service? your...?
What values are reflected by your portfolio of time and energy investments? What silent sermon is your life preaching to your kids, spouse, siblings, neighbors, co-workers? Are you going somewhere...on purpose?
The stock market hits a speed bump and all of the inflationary wealth is shattered leaving only real assets with remaining value. The benefactor of the parable returns and eventually calls in the accounts for a reckoning. Crisis hits and suddenly the mustard of our life is tested for what it is. Wise is the person who assesses their investments for value prior to a crash, their situation before a crisis, their trajectory before the wall of destination.
A recommended read on missions, evangelism, church life, community: "Christianity Rediscovered" by Vincent Donovan. A Catholic priest sent on missions to the Masai tribe of Tanzania.
After successfully communicating the Gospel with 7 local tribes, he prepares to leave them to their own journey of faith and asks them what role or label they would have for a "priest" or "pastor" equivalent. He describes their process:
'What will you call the one who takes my place, the one from your community who will do my job among you when I am gone?' They discussed it at length. Certainly not laibon or witch doctor - they were rid of this pagan domination. Also not legwanan or chief - for what role of chief would their be in a people of Christ? No olkarsis (rich one/powerful one), olkitok (head one) ...They chose to equate this role to a man present in every community - a man always interested in all of the flocks of a tribe, not just his one and supporting the phases of life of a community: ilaretok (helper or servant of community).
He goes on to discuss how critical it was that he present the Gospel free of systems, developments or constructs not required by Christ - and let their culture experience the eucharist-like transformation of having the love of Jesus at its center. Here's an excerpt on his imperative for this:
We must be reminded that it is dangerous to preach the gospel as part of any system. The gospel is lost through any such identification. This identification of gospel with system has been made more than once, and in the end we are confronted with astounding conclusions: the gospel is monarchy, the divine right of kinds; the gospel is democracy; the gospel is capitalism - so said the Calvinists; the gospel is apartheid - so say the South Africans of old; the gospel is Marxism, the gospel is African socialism...The Gospel is none of these things. The Gospel is not progress or development. It is not nation building. It is not adult education. It is not a school system. It is not a health campaign. It is not a five-year plan. It is not an economic program. It is not a ranching scheme or water development. It is not an independence movement. it is not the freedom fighters. It is not the liberation movement. It is not the black power movement. It is not...No one would deny the connection between the gospel and development...what has to be denied is the mutual identification of the two things. Our business, as Christians, is the establishment of the Kingdom.
A great testament to consider.
My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place...You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.
- Jesus to Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem (c. AD 30)
Concept Cloud
