Feb 07 2008
cheese on the trail
Today we had our normal Wednesday staff meeting. Normal, only in that we meet every week and so it feels like we have some consistency. That’s about all that’s normal. We’ve been sniffing for clues from God about how we should lead the Adullam network, but up until a few months ago, it was only Matt and myself. We’d meet every day, grab a cup of coffee and stare at each other. Eventually one of us would grunt out,” So what do we have to do today?” We’d then piece together some “strategic plan” about churches we needed to work with, sojourners we needed to spend time with, Christians we needed to renovate, and then cover any schedule issues related to parties, gatherings, or our weekly community time. In a sick, beautiful sort of way, we’d try to encourage each other that we were on to something.
Emotional reality, however, was that we didn’t really know what the heck we were doing. We didn’t have any people we could call. Most pastor buddies we knew probably thought we were nuts, and we didn’t have much more than our gut intuition and Alan Hirsch’s friendship and book to make us feel like we were getting somewhere.
Somewhere along the line, our incarnational communities began to pick up speed, our gatherings started to make sense, and it just seemed like it (still not sure what “it” was) was working. Defragged and jaded Christians loved our experience, really great young leaders put their eggs in our basket, and we realized God was giving us continual favor with spiritually lost folks.
We would host some occasional conference and even other pastors and church planters thought we knew exactly what we were doing. Many times however, Matt and I would drive home from an event and giggle over how God showed up and saved our bacon.
Now we’re blessed to have 9 leaders with us. Their average age is about 25 and their average ministry experience is about three years. I suppose they look to us as the experts (after all, we have a book coming out in April), but now that they’re spending time with us every week, I think they’re starting to realize that we really don’t have it all figured out.
Today was a great day. We sat around and re-architected some major structural pieces to the Adullam network. Some of it was around our villages, some was around spiritual formation and shepherding issues. We fought a little, helped each other get to greater clarity, and at the end of two hours I felt like God just saved our collective butts again…mostly at the emerging leadership of our rookies.
In Acts we see a few times where Paul acknowledges that the Holy Spirit redirected their schedule and strategy. Jesus even seemed to expose that day by day He wasn’t pre-planning his day until he heard from His Father.
Look, I’m not one of those guys that thinks you can just plant or lead a church by cosmic osmosis like a hippy in the 60’s would lead his 6 buddies down the highway in their VW van. I still believe deeply in living intentionally and in providing structures and processes to help move people into mission. Yet, there remains this strange balance where I have to admit that all the cool stuff happening with Missio and Adullam over the last five years is not because we pre-planned it. Crap, most of it hit us in the side of face like a slap from your grandma!
Hanging with young leaders and sojourners, re-orienting Christians back to mission, throwing parties, living incarnationally, blah, blah…Yes, we planned that. All the rest has been like waking up weekly to find a new piece of cheese on the path.
Is it possible to be both Spirit-Led and intentional? Yep.
The Post-everything world provides some unique opportunities for us, but I fear only the most intuitive and flexible leaders will be able to navigate the unique intangibles of fruitful mission. The leaders we train who are too rigid don’t make it. The leaders who de-construct too much don’t make it. The ones who don’t want to plan or who don’t believe in leadership don’t make it.
Hard working, quick to listen/slow to speak, team-oriented, leaders who take the responsibility to dive into the culture and take the responsibility to keep leading seem to make it.
Look for the cheese. (Gouda is my favorite)
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Robert Michel
“Hard working, quick to listen/slow to speak, team-oriented, leaders who take the responsibility to dive into the culture and take the responsibility to keep leading seem to make it.” I like this quote, Hugh. After I read it, I felt inspired by it. All to easy to sometimes see the vision or the big picture, yet it takes courage, tenacity, and endurance to follow through with the vision one has floating in their heart and bitty brain. I think God has and is dropping vision in His servants about the Kingdom and His heart. We start out gung-ho, thinking we are out to save the world. Inevitably, however, the cynics, the judgers, the despondents – and life – come along and sideswipe us and the vision. I think what keeps leaders from being side-tracked is the disposition of their heart. We realize this can’t be done, nor was it ever meant to be, by ourselves. It seems that God-inspired visions, while they originate from the individual, are carried out in the context of community for the larger community . Good leaders inspire others to join in their vision – not for the benefit of the leader, but the community itself; the “leader” is merely the catalyst or the instrument, if you will. When we tend to follow only the vision, I have found I was usually looking at the possible fringe benefits I might get if I participated in the vision (friendship, money, blah, blah, blah). Consequently, a lot of my actions were based around me and how I could defend my interests. Subsequently, it was hard to be quick to listen/slow to speak, team-oriented if my interests were threatened. Thus, good leaders are those characters listed above, but such character has been forged and formed in suffering which produces a heart for others and not merely their own interests. I find myself content in quietly leading from places in my own heart. Nothing to prove any longer. Nothing worth seeking after – at least materially. Being poor in spirit produces a richness in heart for others and laying down your life for them. When I understand my wrestchedness and the pain I have caused others simply in not being able to or just plain not loving others well, I begin to hunger and thirst for a righteouness derived not on my own that seeks what is good for others and their righteousness. Thanks, Hugh. I appreciate your heart towards us. You’re a blessing.