An article by Dr. John Jefferson Davis (“The Role of Theology in the Life of the Church“) makes a strong case for why theological training is critical for church leaders, and I believe his arguments apply just as well to agency leaders. I believe theology helps us understand what we are doing, why we are doing it, how we should do it, and how we should evaluate both our options and our results.

Dr. Davis writes that theology:

• provides the grounding for a vision that will not let you get off-track. It will ensure you approach your mission holistically. Always remember that we are not just trying to solve problems (hunger, people not in relationship with God, guilt, etc.) but we are helping bring this world into God’s kingdom where everyone can experience the fullness of God’s love and peace, and truly be the people God made them to be. So our vision must be bigger than overcoming the problem; it must incorporate God’s intended result. Theology should broaden and elevate our vision for the work God has called us to so that we always have God’s end in mind.
• keeps ministries healthy. Based on some research, Dr. Davis states that denominations that have “tolerated doctrinal erosion” have suffered great membership losses between 1965 and 1999 while denominations committed to a strong biblical theology have grown and shown great vitality. Staying true to your theological foundation gives workers and supporters something solid to commit to that fully engages them. Taking action based on a strong theology puts your ministry in a place where it is most likely to enjoy God’s many blessings.
• provides a standard against which to measure your success. How are you doing, really? How would God assess your results? Thinking about your performance from God’s perspective will likely lead you to include some additional performance criteria such as the manner in which you achieved results, and it will almost always lead to little niggling questions such as “Who did we overlook?” and “Did we do anything that really required faith?” I think it will also keep the leadership team humble as they analyze their own performance in light of God’s standards.

If you’d like to find a Bible college or seminary to take a course or two, or even to get a degree, a pretty comprehensive listing of them can be found at Christian Higher Education Canada’s website.

The post Theological Leadership appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Surprise!

Just as I described regarding another unfortunate trip in a previous post, the roads got smaller and rougher, and I again ended up in the middle of almost nowhere, at the end of a road with a house on one side and a chain-locked gate across a driveway in front of me. I asked the lady at the house where the park was and she said the gated driveway was it, but it was permanently closed.

I was disappointed for a moment, but then I thought, “Even if the destination turns out not to exist, the drive to and from is every bit as interesting. I’m in a foreign land and any excuse to go somewhere, even if nothing is at the end, is an enjoyable way to spend the day and see new vistas I’ve never seen before.”

The rest of the day was stress-free as I travelled unhurriedly to the other places I wanted to go see. I went to the Brisbane Water National Park, thinking there would be some interesting exhibits there. No. Again, the GPS took me to the top of a small mountain, along a two kilometre rough dirt road to a small parking lot on the heights between Pearl Beach and Patonga. Nothing there, much. (The tour guide books really must get more specific!) Unperturbed, I got out of the car to look around.

There was a five hundred metre walk down many stairs to a lookout with an incredible view of the sea, the hills and the rocks.

I quite enjoyed that. Then I found a path that went several kilometres down the mountain to Pearl Beach. I went down, enjoyed watching the surf and walking on the beach, and then walked all the way back up.

In a couple of hours of walking, I met a few fellow hikers and had some interesting, short chats. I saw an incredible rock formation I would never have seen if I had not wondered what was down the path.  The picture doesn’t do it justice—the overhang was very large and there was room to stand underneath it.

And on the way back, I heard a rustling, clicking sort of sound that lasted one or two seconds, looked down and saw a porcupine just a few feet from me with all the quills bristling. It was huddling at the side of the road trying to look like a rock.

So I had a great day, and while the journey was planned, what I did along it was not at all what I had planned to do. The journey turned out to be the destination. The journey was the point of the day.

Enjoy the Journey!

This idea applies to how we lead our ministries. We are usually goal-driven leaders, but I think the journey is more important to God than the results. Results are important, but in the end, God will get done what he wants done, and Revelation 21 and 22 are pretty confident about the ultimate destination being reached.

What matters most to God, in my humble opinion, is the journey we take to get results. How we conduct our mission is more important than achieving our vision. Think of Jeremiah, one of my two favourite prophets (the other is Elijah). He was told right off the bat that he would not be successful. God said no one would listen to him. But he was to preach regardless! Jeremiah was a complete failure in the world’s eyes and a complete success in God’s. He was faithful in all that he did. He was a righteous servant of God.

Anyone in vocational Christian ministry needs to ask, “Have I been a faithful servant of God, manifesting his character and the qualities of his kingdom in every aspect of doing my job?”

• Are the operational practices of your ministry a witness to God?
• Does your approach to planning leave room for God to lead you?
• Do your employment practices reflect proper care for all staff?
• Are your relations with other ministries appropriate considering that they also are members of the same body of Christ that you are part of?

Focus on doing the journey well, and the results should flow as a natural consequence.

The post The Journey Is the Destination appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

World Vision Canada

World Vision Canada sponsors the “30 Hour Famine,” an annual event in which people get together as a group and go without food for 30 hours while doing a variety of fun activities and educational sessions on poverty and hunger. What theological statements could this program be making? The design of the program speaks volumes: a simple donation is not enough! Donors can’t simply use money to avoid confronting an unpleasant issue. Rather, they are asked to share in the experience of hunger, to suffer alongside those who live with hunger every day. Doing so, they might get a glimpse of God, not hovering dispassionately somewhere “out there,” but suffering along with humanity, being moved by our plight (e.g., Exo 3:7).  Participants are acting like Job’s three friends, who did one thing very well; they came and they sat silently with Job for seven days and nights.  They identified with Job’s grief and sympathized and comforted him by sharing in the grief ritual: they tore their own clothes, threw dust over their heads, and they wept with him.  A strong theology of suffering can be discerned in this program. Observers of the “30 Hour Famine” might also get the idea that Christianity sees all humanity as one family, with responsibilities for each other. All are made in the image of God and all deserve their fair share of God’s creation, regardless of their faith. We can infer from the “30 Hour Famine” that indeed we are “our brother’s keeper,” something that Cain, holding a worldly perspective, rejected (Gen 4:9).

International Teams Canada

International Teams Canada has a “Ride for Refugees.” This family-friendly event raises awareness of refugees and internally displaced people. Participants have a choice of routes for a bicycle ride, ranging from 10 km to 100 km. An observer might realize that all of life can be put to use for God, because the program is based on recreational biking rather than an overtly spiritual activity.  Participants can have fun while serving God. By  offering routes that accommodate everyone from young to old, beginner to expert, single or with children, the ministry is modelling an inclusive theology that holds that everyone can be used by God. Churches and charities that arrange rides in their local community are allowed to direct 50% of the money raised to a qualifying refugee, ethnic or immigrant ministry of their choice (including a program of their own). An astute observer would see an open-handed theology of generosity that supports a spirit of cooperation between ministries, based on a theology of common mission and a belief that God will generously provide the necessary resources.

World Vision Canada and International Teams Canada may or may not have designed their programs with these  theological points in mind, but however they designed them, theological reflection reveals that they are well designed and make valid theological points.

Question to Ask

When you look at your programs, policies and practices, here are some questions to help you reflect on how well your espoused theology is reflected in them:

• What assumptions do they make regarding
  • values,
  • motivation, and
  • the root issue or problem?
• What are the relevant theological truths or doctrines for each one?
• What do they say about our view of God and humanity?
• How do they line up with our Christian responsibilities and ethics?

A Challenge

Scott Rodin, in Stewards In The Kingdom: A Theology Of Life In All Its Fullness, has a challenge that every Christian management team should take up. His question relates specifically to stewardship practices, but it applies across the board to all organizational practices. He asks:

If we were to start from scratch, with no preconceived ideas with regards to what works in fundraising but only with a firm commitment to the ethics of the kingdom of God in which we live, what kind of development program would we build? What would it look like, what techniques would we use and, most importantly, what would be the assumptions upon which this program would be based?

The post Theology in Action appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

If you believe that action speaks louder than words, and that we should preach the gospel at all times (using words if necessary), then what are you preaching through your ministry’s actions? This is a really important issue because Jesus said in Mat 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” If that’s what happens when they see our good deeds, what will happen when they see our bad deeds?

In my next post I’ll discuss how this idea applies to how you engage people outside of your ministry, but in this post I am focused on how you work with your own staff.

Casting off Secular Restraints

In Ontario, holders of religious office are entirely exempt from the Employment Standards Act (which provides minimum standards for notice of termination). Some churches think that because the legislation doesn’t apply to pastors, they can treat them any way they want! But they forget that Common Law still applies and the result in court will be what is fair and reasonable, not the minimum set by the Act.

In another province I was told the church counted on the pastor not going to the courts to sue fellow believers. But the bigger issue is, churches that terminate pastors without notice are showing that when secular restraints are cast off, this is how Christians choose to treat fellow Christians!!! What a terrible witness.

HR Practices Are Our Christian Witness

If you say you are a Christian ministry, then the way you work together as a team better be an excellent witness to what life is like in the kingdom of God. This is not only your responsibility before God, but it is also your responsibility to every other ministry that works in the name of Christ. Everything we do should reflect the righteous ways that God wants us to have with him and with each other.

How can we transform society if we can’t get our own Christian societies right? People should look at our churches and agencies and say, “I want a society that looks like that!”  All of our communities, whether a family, a church, a social network, or a work team, should bear witness to the kingdom that is coming and that has already broken in to our world. After all, this is the Good News and I don’t want anybody to look at us and say, “Thanks, but no thanks!” Job 31:13-14 says it all:

If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants when they had a grievance against me, what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?

Tough Decisions Do Have to Be Made

There are times when employees need correction and development, and these should be done in the spirit of helping them better use their gifts and pursue their call, rather than punishing them. After all, what employer doesn’t want all of their employees to be highly successful?

There are times when ending the employment relationship is the right thing to do, but this should be done in the spirit of helping them find a place that better fits what they have to offer. I don’t know, but I expect that the cases that justify immediate dismissal for cause are far fewer than what many employers think.

My approach to difficult situations (of any kind) is to try to understand how God could redeem the situation for all parties. As hard as it may be, especially when people are emotional, I have found that in difficult situations there has always been a way that leaves all parties feeling better about the situation. I wish I could give examples, but for obvious reasons, I can’t. All I can say is, it is worth the time praying about and reflecting on what would be a good outcome for the other party.

In A Passion for Your Mission, I said you need passion for the work of your ministry. Well folks, this is my passion for CCCC’s mission: that all ministries should operate in a manner that is worthy of Jesus Christ, in whose name we serve. May what I do in leadership never, ever bring reproach to the name of Christ! Amen.

The post How Christian Is My Ministry? appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Several pastors who reviewed the manuscript reported that they felt a profound change in their sense of identity as they became more connected to the historic plan of God for his people, felt awed that they were called to serve the Great Shepherd, and developed a new regard for their vocation. I finished the book with a much deeper appreciation for the leadership role I have been given and the tremendous responsibility to fulfill it in a godly way. I felt some sympathy for Paul’s exhortation to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12), which basically means to be in awe of God. It is the same sense of awe that Martin Luther said caused his knees to knock every time he entered a pulpit to preach. Leadership of any portion of God’s people is serious business!

Great Christian Leadership Book

Here’s why I like the book so much:

• For readers not used to academic writing, this book is an excellent introduction to the depth of thought that comes from theologians who have spent years reflecting on their topics. Some people dismiss academics and prefer practitioners, but I’ve found both books and lectures by academics to be refreshing, insightful and deeply satisfying. You just know when you are finished that you have grown in your spiritual development.
• The book traces the shepherd-leader metaphor from Moses and David through the Old Testament prophets and writings to the shepherd imagery of the Gospels, Peter and Revelation. While there are other metaphors of leadership in Scripture, the shepherd metaphor is powerful and Laniak uses it to focus on what God expects of his leaders. This book, above all else that it does, helps us understand that our role as a leader is to identify as a member of the people we lead and to be God’s human agent to help them live faithfully as the people of God. You can’t read this book without coming to realize that your leadership is not about you, or about being in a position over the people you lead. It is about you faithfully serving God in order to lead his people as God desires.
• How does a leader provide godly leadership? Well, Laniak says that God protected and delivered Israel while providing for them and guiding them forward. That’s a good leadership model: protect, provide and guide.
• The key exemplars for shepherd leadership in the Old Testament are Moses and David, and the book helps us to learn leadership as they learned it.
  • We see the journey to true leadership as Moses acts independently and impulsively to lead his ‘own’ people (Exo 2:11) and then grows to fully identify with them as God’s people. He comes to realize that he is not only their leader, but also their representative before God.
  • David learns a painful lesson that he is supposed to protect his people, not sacrifice them for his personal pleasure. In his escapade with Uriah and Bathsheba, he twisted the role of a godly leader from providing for the people to providing for himself, something he had to repent of and bear the consequences of for the rest of his life.
• The kings of Israel provide many negative examples of leadership. They were to be dependent upon God for personal nurture and guidance and their primary identity was supposed to be as a member of God’s flock, rather than being shepherd of that flock. However,
  • The mistake that many of the kings of Israel and Judah made was to think of power as a privilege rather than as a responsibility, leading to abuse of the flock, and
  • They forgot whose people they were leading and treated their people as if they were their own and not God’s.
• Worthless leadership results when leaders do not fulfill God’s expectations of them. When leaders provide self-interested leadership, the people are actually leader-less.
• Laniak outlines several dynamic tensions of leadership, acknowledging that there is no one model, metaphor or method for godly leadership. As an example, one of his conclusions is that “Good shepherding is expressed by decisions and behaviors that benefit the ‘flock,’ often at great personal cost. It calls for the benevolent use of authority. Some situations require militant protection and discipline, others beckon for gentle nurture. The shepherd ruler of Psalm 2 rules with an iron rod. The shepherd ruler of Isaiah 40 tenderly carries the nursing ewes. The shepherd image is especially useful for holding in tension these essential features of leadership. Authority without compassion leads to harsh authoritarianism. Compassion without authority leads to social chaos. Shepherds must be able to express their leadership in a variety of ways. The apostle Paul lets the Corinthians choose what posture he will take when he comes: ‘What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?’ (1 Cor 4:21)… To be a shepherd is both to be responsible for the flock and responsible to the Owner.”

Part 1 of the book is background material, explaining metaphors, the work of shepherds in the ancient world, and how the shepherd metaphor was used by ancient rulers. Although I love this level of detail, many readers might want to skip over this section and get to the biblical material that starts in Part 2.

There is an excellent coffee-table quality book that accompanies this book. It is so beautiful that my wife insists on having it on prominent display in our living room. If I take it away to use it, I hear her asking “Where is Tim’s book?” While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks: Rediscovering Biblical Leadership has forty daily devotionals and some exquisite photos taken from Tim’s life among Middle Eastern shepherds today.

As an aside, Tim Laniak is Dean of the Charlotte campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and was my ever-helpful faculty advisor for my dissertation. He wrote another book, Shame and Honor in the Book of Esther that will bring Esther alive like never before. I highly recommend it.

All of Tim’s books may be purchased at his website, which also has discussion forums, downloads and other resources.

So now, what is your favourite Christian leadership book? I know there are lots of good ones you could share!

The post Shepherds After My Own Heart appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

There’s nothing like a good real-world example to test how theoretical leadership principles really work. This story made me think about how we apply our faith to our leadership practices. This is something we all want to do and here we have an excellent case study.

According to a news report, Father Tim:

…gave the example of prisoners being released from prison without benefits or other financial assistance, saying it was far better for people in such circumstances to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather than prostitution, mugging or burglary.

“My advice does not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment because God’s love for the poor and despised outweighs the property rights of the rich,” he said in a sermon Sunday.

A spokesman for supermarket chain Asda, in response, argued that shoplifting affected hardworking store staff more than the rich.

“Maybe Father Tim Jones could repeat his sermon at our York store and see what reaction he gets?” he was quoted as saying by the York Press.  “He’s one psalm short of a sermon!”

Now there’s a spokesman who knows how to turn a phrase!!! To be fair to Father Tim, I’d like to include some more of what he had to say, which was reported in the Daily Mail. (This paper also reported that his congregation includes “a wide mix of social conditions.”)

“I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither. I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need. I offer the advice with a heavy heart. Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift.”

“The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are. This is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt. We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime. The strong temptation is to burgle or rob people – family, friends, neighbours, strangers.  Others are tempted towards prostitution, a nightmare world of degradation and abuse for all concerned. Others are tempted towards suicide. Instead, I would rather that they shoplift.”

Can a Spiritual Leader Endorse Illegal Activities?

Okay, so that is what Father Tim thinks, and I agree with his indictment of society. I also might possibly accept his argument of the lesser of two evils, if in fact evil was the only option available.  But it isn’t. There is another option that would be a demonstration of grace and redemption and unconditional love. I say respectfully (and without knowing what his church is doing to alleviate poverty), that Father Tim has not considered all the options. I don’t think his leadership reflects what we expect of a Christian leader in this situation. Please be assured, I am not condemning him as a leader. I am just saying that on this one point there is a better response to the crisis of poverty.

Principles for Thinking Theologically about Leadership

Here’s how I applied my faith to the answer. I started with some basic principles:

• The Bible says (pretty clearly I think) “Thou shalt not steal!”  That’s a good starting point.
• There is a general biblical principle of obeying the law of the land (in both Testaments) unless the issue is blaspheming God. Daniel refused to worship an idol and the early church refused to acknowledge Caesar as Lord.
• There is a closely related biblical example that is quite helpful. The consecrated bread of the Temple was to be eaten only by the priests and their families (Ex 29:32-33), but upon David’s request, the priest Ahimelech gave him consecrated bread for him and his men to eat when they were hungry (1 Sam 21:3-5). Note that they had permission from the custodian of the bread. Jesus commented on this apparent breaking of God’s law in Mat 12:1-8 by drawing on Hosea 6:6 and saying, as one commentator paraphrases it, “human need may take precedence over ceremonial laws.” In quoting Hosea, Jesus said “I desire compassion and not sacrifice.” David did not take the bread by force or stealth, but by openly asking the priest to extend compassion to his hungry men. One modern application would be to ask the stores to give their food to a foodbank when it goes past its “best before” date rather than throwing it out.
• Christians are to demonstrate God’s love to their neighbours.
• Churches are to be models for the way God expects us to live together.
• While God’s people have sometimes engaged in civil disobedience (i.e., continuing to preach when told not to), the more general approach has been to work within the law of the land (i.e., Esther approaching the king willing to bear the legal consequences, Paul appealing to his citizenship rights, Jesus “rendering unto Caesar” by paying his tax – (Oh I wish I might find a few fish like that!).
• The sharing of resources with the poor has been either ordered by God (i.e., leaving grain on the fields for the poor to glean – Lev 23:22) or has been an encouraged voluntary practice (i.e., the offering taken by Paul to support the hungry in Jerusalem – 2 Cor 8:1-15). Causing people to be involuntarily separated from their assets doesn’t seem to come up in Scripture as a God-approved option! Even the Israelites, when leaving Egypt, did not plunder the Egyptians; they asked and the Egyptians voluntarily gave (Ex 3:22).
• All sin is sin. Little sins as much as big sins. Sinning against the rich or a corporation is just as sinful as sinning against an individual or a small family business.

I then thought of an excellent application of these principles that comes to us in Acts 4:34-35 and that applies directly to Father Tim’s church, which has a wide range of social conditions in it. “For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as they had need.” Here was the community of believers looking after their own.

And when a dispute arose? What happened then? Acts 6:1-5 says that when a complaint arose from the Hellenistic Jews that they were being overlooked in the distribution of food by the Hebrew Jews, the apostles “summoned the congregation and said, ‘…Select from among you seven men…whom we may put in charge of this task…’ The statement found approval with the whole congregation.”

An Invitation for Churches to Be Authentically Present

So, I think the priest missed the mark on this issue. Instead of advising his congregation to steal, he should have taken this opportunity to call his congregation to be faithful to the purpose to which God has called them and challenged them to come together in mutual support to provide for the needy among them. Their generosity should spur other churches to do similar good deeds, encourage the public to be charitable and invite the government to step in and do its part. If the people of his own church were all poor and needy, then Paul’s example with the Jerusalem church would be for other churches to lend their support.

Father Tim could also have offered to connect the needy with the social agencies and charities that could help them. He could even lay out  some ideas for how the government could solve the poverty problem.

There are, of course, a lot of other issues related to the reporter’s question that I couldn’t get into without making my answer too complex to use, such as civil disobedience, dealing with the Nazis sending Jews and others to death camps, and so on. In the context of this priest’s sermon, the issue is shoplifting and to that I say, “No, it is not okay to tell your congregation to shoplift.” That avoids our Christian duty to take care of each other.

The post Thou Shalt Steal…? appeared first on CCCC Blogs.