Grass Roots Healthy Reproducing Churches Podcast Episode 7

Issue for Discussion:How do we develop Leaders for the Christian Movement? New Reality Number Six: The Rise of Apostolic Leadership

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Quotes from Reggie McNeil's The Present Future:

A new breed of church leader has been emerging that will meet the leadership challenges of what it will take for the church to become more missionally effective. In the last decades of the twentieth century, a new leadership genus began appearing on the North American church scene. This leadership type is what I and others have dubbed "apostolic leadership." This connotation seems appropriate primarily because the challenges to church leaders in the emerging twenty-first century parallel those that faced leaders in the first century (commonly called the apostolic era.) These include religious pluralism, globalism, and the collapse of institutional religion, accompanied by an increased interest in personal spiritual development. The focus of apostolic leadership is not on office or gifts (these are how people in the church culture deal with the term apostle), but on the content of leadership that responds to the new spiritual landscape by shaping a church movement that more resembles the world of Acts than America in the last half of the twentieth century. – pp 125-126

"Why is there so little return on investment for all the dollars and time spent on conferences and seminars to help us do better? Because we are training mechanics to work on machinery of the church industry when we need a new engine. We are training leaders to address the leadership challenges of a world that is quickly passing away." – p 121-122

Past-Present Leadership Motifs – Priest or Holy Person, Shepherd or Pastor, Educator or Wordsmith, Managers or Program Directors, Chief Executive Officer or Manager

"Apostolic leaders in the first and twenty-first centuries evidence distinctive characteristics. They are missional, meaning they order their lives around a missionary purpose. Apostolic leaders believe they are responsible for fulfilling the Great Commission. They are visionary; their efforts are energized by a vision of a preferred future, not just informed by a denominational program or the latest methodological fad. They are entrepreneurial, taking calculated risks to create markets for the gospel. Apostolic leaders prefer to work in teams. They plant churches in teams. They are not Lone Rangers. They often create and operate in what Warren Bennis calls "great groups." They release ministry to people and people for ministry. Their organizational "charts" (if they have them) are as flat as possible; they practice ad hocracy instead of establishing bureaucracy. They are genuinely spiritual. Their lives cannot be explained apart from the power of God. Apostolic leaders have a core value of cultural relevance. They come in both clergy and lay varieties." – p 126

Other leadership motifs require leaders to be competent to work inside the church. The apostolic leader's competency revolves around the ability to work outside the church in the world that is not a part of the church culture. Even operating in a church position (as many do), apostolic leaders measure their effectiveness by their impact beyond the church walls. – pp 126-127

Is anyone being brought into the kingdom? For them, even if all these other measures are showing high marks (and they are not unimportant to them) but no kingdom growth is occurring, they feel disobedient to the Great Commission. I am not suggesting that other leaders do not care about evangelism. Many do. However, it is possible to exercise previous leadership roles completely in the church bubble, and be considered successful in the church industry, while showing no significant kingdom growth. Apostolic leaders are all about kingdom growth, even in their pastoral care. – p 127

Who trains apostolic leaders? First and foremost, other apostolic leaders of "new tribe" churches. This group wants to learn from practitioners. Second, apostolic leaders learn a lot from the business culture. – p 127

Seminary curriculum is designed primarily to address skill sets for leadership functions other than the apostolic type. Classical seminary training was birthed to service the wordsmith-educator function. It has focused on biblical education with a few practical courses thrown in to help students prepare for priestly functions (administering sacraments) and shepherding aspects of ministry (pastoral care, psychology, and so on). In recent decades some courses targeting church administration and leadership have been added. – p 128

The journey to apostolic ministry is a difficult path for many, for some much like a deconversion. – p 129

The goal of a congregation's leadership development process is to create a core of leaders who are capable of strategizing, launching, and conducting a mission for expanding the kingdom of God. Contrast this to holding a leadership role in an organization that primarily makes demands of the leaders' time, money, talents, energy, and prayer for its own survival. – p 136

I am talking about nothing less than a leadership revolution. What is our best shot for pulling off a leadership revolution? What is the delivery system for developing leaders for missional renewal of the North American church? The answer: learning communities. The power of learning in community is undeniable. – p 136

Links:

Guests:
Fran Leeman, pastor of the Lifespring Community Church in Plainfield, IL, a growing suburb of Chicago.

Lance Finley, Director of Youth and Family Ministries for the Churches of God General Conference, a denomination based in Findlay, OH

Bill Sloat, pastor of Faith Community Church, in Denver, PA, a small town in Lancaster country, PA, who also has a doctorate in church history, specifically revivalist history of the 1700’s and 1800's.

And I'm Brian Miller, pastor of The Crossover Church in Mattoon, IL, a town of about 20,000 in East Central Illinois.