Follow the Leader, Be a Leader

Two of our Presbyterian Moderator’s (Bruce Reyes-Chow) latest blog entries have captured my attention more so than usual. They have captured my attention because they seem to have sprung right from the pages of our own report on the emerging culture discussions we had last summer (http://www.presby.org/share/EC_Report.pdf). But I know his blogs and our report have both sprung from the much larger moving of the Holy Spirit. Amazing!

Mr. Moderator’s one blog, “Why social media gives visitors all the power,” talks about how much we have overlooked and underestimated the power of the new internet media. This media is a strong avenue for putting Jesus’ message and our individual church responses to that message out for public review. As our report states: “The emerging culture is information savvy and hungry. Weekly bulletin, email, monthly newsletter are good. The website should be more than just an advertisement to newcomers. In today’s world it should be the communication hub of Faith [Church]; an outward sign of a healthy active congregation. Faith [Church] would do well to support the connection between our responsibility of witness and the emerging culture’s need for experience through the use of blogs. Combining cold information and personal witness by blogging mission and other activities will spur personal involvement.”

Mr. Moderator’s other blog, “Why a naked Easter just might be a better Easter,” talks about how we underestimate the worship experience. He says, “Gone are the days when people are willing to bear with the service and rightly so. We should all set and strive to meet high exceptions for our worship experiences.” Our own report states:

1) When discussing worship we tend to consider it as a tool to attract newcomers.
2) We need to approach worship as a personal and corporate response to God of those present.
3) We need to celebrate our experience of God by telling our stories.
4) We need to be open to a wide range of worship experiences to relate to other’s responses and keep worship fresh, alive, and renewed.

These thoughts on worship imply to me (or scream?) that we should be considering even more opportunities and styles of worship to support our folks in worship that is meaningful to them. Instead we and many shrinking congregations seem to want to retreat to a single worship and worship style in a “fortress” mentality?

I also get a general sense that Mr. Moderator would concur with our report’s thoughts on mission? I just can’t quote or reference anything in particular right now.

Another area of our report that I would love to see how Mr. Moderator feels about is that of leadership. It seems that if we are to make much progress in these previous areas then a shift in our leadership style is needed. Our report reaffirms the Presbyterian structure of government and leadership! But it does suggest more latitude in its implementation. Rather than a Session that seems to have to approve every little thing, the report suggests that defining the boundaries for the church’s activities to operate within offers a more “emergent friendly” environment. From our report, “Further guidelines and boundaries for team formation need to be developed to empower the emergence of teams and free Session and Diaconate to discern, architect, and guide the overall spiritual direction, mission, and nurture of Faith Church and its members.” Of course the Session retains the responsibility of oversight and the right of “course correction” as needed. Of course mistakes will be made, but too much rigor also risks the loss of opportunity. Leadership is an important and difficult balancing act.

In these times of denominational (and congregational) turbulence I’m reassured that following the lead of the Holy Spirit and the leaders the Spirit creates will reaffirm Jesus’ example of leading by serving.