Leadership -- Pointing Direction, Sharing Responsibility


Continuing the Discussion of Disciples: Reclaiming Our Identity, Reforming Our Practice. By Michael Kinnamon and Jan Linn, (Chalice Press, 2009) -- Chapter 9.


The Stone-Campbell Movement, of which the Disciples of Christ are a branch, has been notoriously anti-clerical. Even as we have lifted up the mission of the laity, we have often done so at the expense of pastoral ministry. Alexander Campbell, as our authors remind us, was known to speak of clergy as hirelings. The odd thing is that while over time the Disciples have developed a rather formal order of ministry, that anti-clericalism is often just below the surface in our congregations.

What has emerged as an order of ministry has had to take into consideration the Disciple ethos and vision of lay ministry, because it is "fundamental to what we believe about the Holy Spirit empowering all Christians to do ministry (Acts 2). I am in firm agreement with the principle that we are all gifted and called to ministry. And yet, I've come to see the value of an educated and empowered pastoral leadership. Ironically, our sensibilities often place us at odds with our ecumenical partners, most of whom don't have our history of lay leadership. Indeed, we've had difficult conversations about things like apostolic succession and episcopacy. We've wrestled with who should preside at baptisms and the Lord's Table. And the debates and discussions don't just happen ecumenically, they happen within our tradition.

Our authors suggest that the way forward should involve lifting up both the ministry of the laity and that of the clergy.

The Disciples' historic focus on lay ministry was not intended to create a competitive relationship with clergy. Yet such a competitive relationship exists, and in some instances even in the attitude of clergy, suggesting that lingering effects of Alexander Campbell's ambiguous attitude about ministers remain. (P. 115).
If this historic tension is a problem so is the modern understanding of pastor as CEO. I know that this was an issue raised in my own interviews for my current ministry. They note that this image carries with it the baggage of the business world, where "tangible results" are expected -- including responsiveness to church members -- which are equated with stockholders, which is measured by attendance -- customers -- and offerings -- sales figures. Do we really think this way -- most likely we do. When we conceive of ministry in this way, lay ministry is seen largely as "filling slots in the organization chart to help the ministerial staff accomplish the above stated goals" (p. 115).

Although there are some deficient models of ministry out there, the authors conclude that we need good clergy leadership for churches. The reason being, good pastoral leadership is necessary to evoke lay ministry. Indeed, "competent clergy do not diminish lay ministry. They strengthen it" (p. 116). So what does this form of leadership look like? They point to a definition offered by the late Disciple historian and church leader, Ronald Osborn, who suggested that ministry is "serving in Christ's place." That is, Disciples forms of ministry should reflect Jesus' servanthood.

Chief among the responsibilities of such leadership is equipping laity for ministry.

Alexander Campbell believed laity could and would lead the church as long as they were equipped biblically and theologically to do so. His vision remains elusive primarily because the Disciples version of equipping is a lay-led Sunday School class or a sporadic clergy led Bible study that has no curriculum order to it. If this pattern is to change, a fundamental reform in the way we think about the nature of congregational life will be necessary. (p. 117).

And the recommended reform is to recover the idea of the synagogue, with its tradition of rabbinical instruction in the Torah. Their idea is that congregations become mini-seminaries with the clergy serving as the faculty. This would lift up the sense of call found in Ephesians 4:11, which speaks of pastor-teachers equipping the people of God for ministry. In their words, clergy are resident theologians, with other tasks such as administration, counseling, and pastoral visitation following after this primary role. The other tasks have their place, but they shouldn't crowd out the call to teach -- for without this role transformation will be difficult.

Why is this important? Well, we are a creedless people who affirm the right of each to read and interpret Scripture -- that presumes, so our Founders believed, "a thorough knowledge of the Bible." As we've noted before, this can no longer be assumed, as biblical illiteracy is rampant in our churches. Therefore:

"Disciples clergy urgently need to reclaim the central teaching role if we hope to avoid the gospel becoming ever more irrelevant in people's daily life. If the challenge is to know how to live the Christian life in the modern world, as Bonhoeffer suggested, it will not be met without a conscious effort to create a synagogue environment in our congregations. This is because theology matters, a fact about which all churches, including Disciples, have often been quite casual" (p. 118).


We value highly the ministry of the laity, but the authors believe competent and committed clergy are the key to transformation. Going forward we understand that there will be resistance to change, but we need "transformationalists," leaders who can "discern the practices that continue to serve us effectively and those needing to be reformed or eliminated" (p. 121).

Such leadership will, of course, listen for the right decisions. It will also be prophetic in that it will take on the task of pointing the church in the direction it needs to take. That means stepping out with words and actions to "challenge the status quo within the church when it begins to look more like the world than the kingdom of God" (p. 124). This is no easy task, since we as clergy earn our keep by attending to the needs and concerns of those who pay our salaries. So, the task at hand is to equip the laity to see the needs and concerns in a new way so that they too will seek to be faithful (and to be honest we as clergy are not always faithful!).

Ours is a partnership -- both clergy and laity are necessary to this work. Laity need good, faithful, educated, and competent clergy to equip them for the ministry. For such person to take up the calling, churches will need to nurture men and women for this calling. For the last generation of clergy, there has been a trend toward second career ministries. This is fine and worthwhile, but we need to ask the question -- where are the young people? Having just finished Fred Craddock's Reflections on My Call to Preach, (Chalice, 2009), I'm wondering if we're providing the necessary foundations to nurture the kind of call that Craddock heard as a young person. If we do not value and uphold this ministry, it's likely that our young people will not see it as a vocation worth pursuing -- especially a ministry within the congregation.

Alas, there appears to be no reason why the ministry of the laity and the ministry of the clergy need to be in any way competitive -- we need each other!




Comments

Anonymous said…
I enjoyed this post. We realize you earn the few bucks you get.

Anyway, I'll have to revisit this. In the meantime, I've been thinking bumper stickers and/or signs to highlight some of y-our thoughts. How about:

Adams at Big Beaver
Where thought meets prayer.
(where freedom meets prayer)
(where free thought meets prayer?)
CWCC (Disciples of Christ)

Others??

David Mc
Robert Cornwall said…
David,

Hey I like the ideas!!!
Anonymous said…
Cool. A Google search returns-

No results found for "where thought meets prayer".

No results found for "where freedom meets prayer".

No results found for "free thought meets prayer".


What were the chances of all those being original? We know the ideas aren't. I was checking for copyright.

David Mc

Popular Posts