Monthly Archives: February 2008

Is The Senior Pastor Really the CEO?

Posted on by
66

I was meeting with a friend today who is without question one of the most gifted and godly leaders I know. He leads a church community, but is currently questioning what that means, and how leadership ought to look if we genuinely believe that Jesus is the head of the church. (Is that a nice idea but too difficult in practice?…)

ceo.jpg

Both of us have been in places where we have been CEO style senior pastors, and both have done ok in those places, but we also find ourselves currently wondering where on earth did we ever get the idea that the ‘Chief Executive Officer’ was an appropriate biblical expression of leadership?…

While the ‘Chief Executive Officer’ may well belong in the cut throat, results oriented business world surely we have to ask ‘is the church a business?’… Have we really become a commercial enterprise where the strong survive and the weak get fired? Because that is the implication of being a CEO.

Was Jesus really the CEO of his followers?…

Was Paul the CEO of the early church?…

Were there any CEOs in scripture at all?…

Chief executive officer… Chief executive officer… Chief executive officer… say it out loud and hear how dumb it sounds when placed alongside ‘body of Christ’… ‘priesthood of all believers’… ‘the family of faith’ Is the person leading a church really supposed to be a CEO?…

What’s frightening is that in so many places we have stopped questioning this form and accepted it as normal in a 21st century western church. Its now considered one ‘valid’ expression of leadership, if not the dominant form.

I don’t believe it is. I don’t believe the CEO has any place in the ‘family’ of God. When was the last time your family appointed a CEO to keep it on track? Where does a ‘chief executive officer’ fit into a family? Find me one metaphor or description of the church as business/corporation anywhere in the Bible and I will walk naked up the aisle of your church this Sunday with an annual report in my bumcrack.

Ok, I’m a bit mad again.

I am convinced that the more we seek to model ourselves on business paradigms the less chance we have of being the people Jesus calls us to be.

I am for churches of many diverse expressions, but I cannot see how this anomaly in leadership continues to go unchallenged. Perhaps its because it has been so ingrained that now we cannot even think differently. Or perhaps as Al Gore stated in Inconvenient Truth “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

I also get the impression that our natural evangelical pragmatism has caused us to ask ‘how can we do this thing better?’ which is a good question, but the answer has been to adopt business principles and then bring accountability to bear on those in positions of leadership for whether they manage to implement the strategies and goals of the company. Even if the things we want to do better are often beyond our control we still appoint someone with the responsibility to do them… and fire them if they don’t pull them off.

I will accept CEO leadership in churches on one condition. That they stop calling themselves a church and start using the term ‘corporation’. To use my local Baptist friends as an example they would be ‘Quinns Baptist Corporation’. I guess it should be no surprise that in a world ruled by economics, business has influenced the church by causing us to adopt its forms of leadership and associated practices.

I will certainly agree that good CEO leadership is nicer to be part of than bad leadership in other expressions, but this does not make a case for it being appropriate. I think this is the core question – can we earth it biblically and theologically?

This post was fueled by Mike’s thoughts over at Raah on the place of the CEO leader in church life. Mike’s a friend, a good bloke, and someone I respect, but I disagree strongly here and I’m concerned that at denominational levels we still advocate this as a legitimate way to lead the body of Christ.

I didn’t wake up this morning expecting to write this, but Mike’s post so disturbed me I wanted to offer some thoughts in a different direction.

For some other thoughts on a similar tack see David Fitch’s

excellent article here.

Sorry… at least 10% of us are…

Posted on by
14

sorry.jpg

While I didn’t get to any of the events held around the country, this was a significant day in our history, when we apologised to the stolen generation of aboriginal people for the wrongs we did to them. Great to see it finally happen and very moving to watch.

However, the report on Channel 7 news tonight was disturbing. The so called ‘pulse of Perth’ newspoll asked West Ozzies whether they supported the Rudd decision to apologise. 13 000 West Ozzies phoned in to respond and the result was 90% who said NO witchcraft 13 blood of the chosen free download and a mere 10% who said YES.

What the hell is that all about?!

An overwhelming percentage of West ozzies said ‘don’t apologise – bad idea’.

I reckon thats gotta qualify for a ‘worst of Perth‘ award. Unbelievable…

And then Brendan Nelson gets the dickhead of the week award for completely subverting his own apology by telling aboriginal people there is no money in it. That might well be the case Brendan but you don’t say it!

Grendel has his own apology here alsowar of the roses the dvdrip

A Way to Be Good Again?

Posted on by
Reply

I was hoping to see Atonement before writing my thoughts on ‘Kite Runner’, as it seems both films are centred on the same theme – that of making amends for wrongs done.

I really enjoyed the Kite Runner novel and the movie didn’t disappoint either. Its a great story of friendship, struggle and redemption. Little Hassan is a great character – gutsy, loyal and dogged – you really find it easy to like him. Amir is probably more like most of us – at times driven more by fear than any other motivation. In spite of his failings he is not a bad character at all, but he lives with the ongoing knowledge of what he did in his past and the consequences of his actions.

thekiterunner_big.jpg

The phrase ‘there is a way to be good again’ recurred a few times through the film and without ruining it, the way to ‘be good again’ depicted by the author was that of making up for wrong done by doing right. It was good to see Amir develop courage and backbone as he sought to redeem himself.

I won’t write much more as it will spoil the film for those who haven’t been. Obviously from the perspective of Christian theology atonement is not about ‘redeeming ourselves’. However there is still the need for us to make up for wrongs done wherever we can without suggesting that this earns us favour with God.

I’d recommend the film!

“Baptist Preaching Sinks to New Low”

Posted on by
24

Come on admit it… you didn’t think it was possible!

No, its not a video of me from last Sunday, but it is both funny and disturbing. It’s a YouTube of an independent Baptist, KJV-Only preacher who is speaking about the text that uses the phrase ”him that pisseth against the wall.”

So here it is, from him that pisseth himself laughing…

HT TSK

The Failure of Youth Ministry

Posted on by
16

Today I spoke at the induction of Ryan Harding, the youth pastor at Quinns Baptist Church. Over the week I spent a fair bit of time reflecting on what I would say to a youth pastor, as one who has been there done that and who has spent a lot of time around youth pastors.

I am convinced the challenge of youth ministry to keep ‘making disciples’ as the main game. Its easy to get into event mode & ‘pumped’ mode, but the stuff that lasts is the stuff that matters. Its not to say there is no place for fun stuff – not at all – we need to have fun – but sometimes the priorities in youth ministry get misplaced.

In the last few years of life Mike Yaconelli wrote his ‘Dangerous Wonder’ column in youthworker journal. In it Yac would often cut loose and speak vehemently about the failure of so much of what has been passed off as youth ministry. If it was anyone else writing they probably would have been axed – but when you own the company you can pretty much say what you like!

Here is an excerpt from one of his pieces. Remember, this man devoted his life to providing training and resources for youth pastors and developed the biggest youth training/resource organisation on the planet. Youth Speciaties are still huge.

When viewed thru this lens these are chilling words.

Youth ministry doesn’t have any staying power.

Young people flock to Christian concerts, cheer Jesus at large events, and work on service projects. Unfortunately, it’s not because of Jesus; it’s because they’re young!

The success of youth ministry in this country is an illusion.

Very little youth ministry has a lasting impact on students.

I believe we’re no more effective today reaching young people with the gospel than we’ve ever been. In spite of all the dazzling super stars of youth ministry, the amazing array of YS products, the thousands of youth ministry training events, nothing much has changed.

Following Jesus is hard.

Faith is difficult.

Discipleship requires a huge investment of time. Most of us don’t have the time. Or we chose not to take the time. Or our current models of ministry don’t allow us the time.

So let’s be honest.

Youth ministry as an experiment has failed. If we want to see the church survive, we need to rethink youth ministry.

What does that mean? I don’t have a clue. But my hunch is that if we want to see young people have a faith that lasts, then we have to completely change the way we do youth ministry in America.

I wonder if any of us has the courage to try.

Pagan Christianity

Posted on by
11

pagan1.jpg

I never read this book in its first incarnation, so I thought it’d be well worth a look this time around.

I am about half way thru and finding it a decent read, even if it does caricature the established church somewhat. I find this practice somewhat tiring and attimes have considered just putting it back on the shelf.

However the points Viola and Barna make are substantial enough to warrant some serious consideration. The tone is a tad polemic for my liking, but if you are in an established church and willing to be confronted with some pretty challenging stuff about the origins of our much loved rituals and practices then I’d encourage you to read it.

An email from the PC crew today reported that the book has generated a lot of heat to the point of some maybe even holding book burnings. The email then goes on to ask people to buy up big and create support for the book and its message. This email left me cold.

If the book has currency then it will stand on its own two feet. If it doesn’t then it ought to fall. In my observation any time someone sets out to malign and persecute a minority group they only succeed in drawing attention to them and advancing their cause. Chill out PC crew. Let your work be its own advocate.