“The absolute ever-changing given in any management system system is how tricky it is to guide any complex human activity within the even more complex systems of the planet with imperfect understanding, lack of foresight & high momentum.”
A leader is a crestrider, a hope-giver & a story nudger ! A leader helps people tell their story, creating safe places which allow for the creative and frank sharing of ideas. A leader inspires & creates energy – always striving to empower those who he leads. A leader’s integrity is born from self-awareness that is immersed in humility & coated with the reality of an imperfect world. Her constancy comes from a center that is comfortable with divergence & diversity. A leader is uncompromising yet ultimately flexible because he discerns he can only control himself & unleash those who follow him. A good leader is straining to hear from the past, those she works alongside in the now – so she can intuit what might be in the future. A leader is led by his deep spirituality & relationship with his Lord.
I first penned these words in March 2001. I was working in Africa at the time and the team to which I belonged was contemplating the appointment of a new team leader. I wrote in response to the quote I extacted from something I was reading. It seemed to capture for me something of the reality that is just below the surface of leadership. Looking back at it with some space in between, some of these things I wrote still connect, particularly in missional contexts while others leave me wondering...
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
Missional Image II 'Bride of Christ'
Yesterday I was reading a blog post titled ‘Anthropomorphising the Church’ by Mark Porthouse at http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk & he got me thinking about the metaphor of the church as the bride of Christ. Far from being a tired image of institutionalism, I found myself being energised by the possibilities of this metaphor.
I know there can be problems with mixing metaphors but stay with me. The bride of Christ reminds me of a similar image in Ezekiel 16:4-14. Israel is depicted as an abandoned baby girl flailing about in her own blood, with umbilical left uncut. It is an image of weakness & absolute vulnerability. Yet the image builds to one of extravagant love, of wholeness & completion. God is depicted taking care of the baby through to womanhood. Then when you think God’s responsibilities are ended, His love extends even further by taking her as His bride & lavishing her with dazzling gifts.
The power of metaphors is in their potential to evoke new possibilities in a way that defies habitual thinking & dogma. For me, metaphors are the perfect antidote to the baggage of the rigid institution & tired old habits precisely because of their ability to generate creative zones of anti-structure around themselves.
David Bosch initially brought the image of Ezekiel 16 to my attention, when he used it to describe the missional Heart of God. I want to belong to a company of disciples in whose presence it is safe to be weak & vulnerable - who are a significant missional presence in the world because they are regularly being smitten by the extravagant love of God. I want to be this kind of blushing bride of Christ. Outwards & downwards !
I know there can be problems with mixing metaphors but stay with me. The bride of Christ reminds me of a similar image in Ezekiel 16:4-14. Israel is depicted as an abandoned baby girl flailing about in her own blood, with umbilical left uncut. It is an image of weakness & absolute vulnerability. Yet the image builds to one of extravagant love, of wholeness & completion. God is depicted taking care of the baby through to womanhood. Then when you think God’s responsibilities are ended, His love extends even further by taking her as His bride & lavishing her with dazzling gifts.
The power of metaphors is in their potential to evoke new possibilities in a way that defies habitual thinking & dogma. For me, metaphors are the perfect antidote to the baggage of the rigid institution & tired old habits precisely because of their ability to generate creative zones of anti-structure around themselves.
David Bosch initially brought the image of Ezekiel 16 to my attention, when he used it to describe the missional Heart of God. I want to belong to a company of disciples in whose presence it is safe to be weak & vulnerable - who are a significant missional presence in the world because they are regularly being smitten by the extravagant love of God. I want to be this kind of blushing bride of Christ. Outwards & downwards !
Thursday, September 22, 2005
The Rejected Prophet...
For me recently, the place of significant learning has been last few verses of Luke 4. Before I went to Africa, I tended to skip over vv22-28. So impressed was I by Jesus’ declaration in the Synagogue that I hardly noticed the rage invoked by his teaching in the Synagogue or the murderous intent of the crowd trying to throw him off a cliff. What I failed to appreciate was that when Jesus went back to Nazareth and spoke the truth in the Synagogue, he not only impressed but profoundly offended his listeners. In the desert he had encountered holy otherness & become an outsider in the process.
Jesus speaks truly when he says, “…I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown”. Why ? Because a true prophet is always an outsider. A true Kingdom vision expressed and acted upon is one of reversals. It is a vision of the world where the poor are empowered, where the captives are released, where the blind are given vision and the oppressed go free.
I’ve got to tell you, this is a powerful & threatening alternative for many people in the centre whose interests are best served by maintaining the status quo. Indeed whenever Jesus encounters people in the gospels whose interests are best served by domesticating & watering down the Gospel - offence quickly turns to rage, then to hatred & murderous intent that finally ends in a painful death on the Cross.
Walter Bruggemann says, “the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a perception & conscious alternative to the consciousness & perception of the dominant culture around us.”
That is the way of the discipleship & it is certainly the way of mission !
Outwards & downwards...
Jesus speaks truly when he says, “…I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown”. Why ? Because a true prophet is always an outsider. A true Kingdom vision expressed and acted upon is one of reversals. It is a vision of the world where the poor are empowered, where the captives are released, where the blind are given vision and the oppressed go free.
I’ve got to tell you, this is a powerful & threatening alternative for many people in the centre whose interests are best served by maintaining the status quo. Indeed whenever Jesus encounters people in the gospels whose interests are best served by domesticating & watering down the Gospel - offence quickly turns to rage, then to hatred & murderous intent that finally ends in a painful death on the Cross.
Walter Bruggemann says, “the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a perception & conscious alternative to the consciousness & perception of the dominant culture around us.”
That is the way of the discipleship & it is certainly the way of mission !
Outwards & downwards...
The Prayer of Place...
God maybe all around us but I have a question… are there places in the world where God is more active and present than others ? If so, where are those places ? Have you ever wondered why we don’t seem to see miracles very often ? I tell you its because we aren’t in the places where God is doing them !
What I love about stories is that can take you to a place and make things very clear.
In Matthew 25 we are given an image of Jesus as the great Son of Man sitting in judgement over all people – like a sorting out a mixture of sheep and goats. The criteria he uses for allowing people to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven is what they have done for others – particularly the poor, the weak, the outsiders and the disempowered. Jesus pronounces, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me…” For me the message is clear - God’s holy habitation – the place where his awesome and terrible presence dwells is among ordinary people. The good news is that God is most present among the most needy people among us & beyond.
The discipline of developing awareness and of increasing sensitivity to the places God is most present, I call the prayer of place. Choosing to go & dwell & immerse yourself in those places is mission. The prayer of place is about discernment, it is about choice & it is most certainly about location. I believe the prayer of place is also a communal prayer – something we sense most effectively together. Participating together in places where God is most present, binds us strongly in genuine community. Yet another quality of the prayer of place is that it challenges different groups and individuals to go & dwell in all kinds of different locations. Some are closer & some are very far away indeed !
Outwards & Downwards.
What I love about stories is that can take you to a place and make things very clear.
In Matthew 25 we are given an image of Jesus as the great Son of Man sitting in judgement over all people – like a sorting out a mixture of sheep and goats. The criteria he uses for allowing people to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven is what they have done for others – particularly the poor, the weak, the outsiders and the disempowered. Jesus pronounces, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me…” For me the message is clear - God’s holy habitation – the place where his awesome and terrible presence dwells is among ordinary people. The good news is that God is most present among the most needy people among us & beyond.
The discipline of developing awareness and of increasing sensitivity to the places God is most present, I call the prayer of place. Choosing to go & dwell & immerse yourself in those places is mission. The prayer of place is about discernment, it is about choice & it is most certainly about location. I believe the prayer of place is also a communal prayer – something we sense most effectively together. Participating together in places where God is most present, binds us strongly in genuine community. Yet another quality of the prayer of place is that it challenges different groups and individuals to go & dwell in all kinds of different locations. Some are closer & some are very far away indeed !
Outwards & Downwards.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Concrete Holiness
In Luke 4, when Jesus stood up in the Synagogue he could have read from other places in the scroll of Isaiah. He could have read chapter 42:1, “Here is my servant, who I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight, I will put my spirit on him and he will bring forth justice to the nations”. Likewise he could have rolled onto chapter 63:1 and read, “Who is this that comes… with his garment stained crimson ? Who is this so splendidly robed marching in the greatness of his strength ? It is I, speaking in righteousness – mighty to save.” Both of these readings would have described the identity and the mission of Jesus, yet he chose something different, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind & to let the oppressed go free…” Why ? Why did Jesus read that passage ?
He read it because he knew that fundamentally the story of the Scripture, the grace of the Kingdom of God exists within people. Ours is an embodied faith, concretely expressed in the lives of you & me. Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” because it is an anthem of holy action. Embodied faith can only be expressed by people engaged in holy action in particular places.
Think about it for a moment. Jesus the God-man, the exquisite & perplexing mystery of the Incarnation. For those of us who follow after him – he was the enfleshed presence of Almighty God himself - accessible, totally interactive and living among ordinary people. Michael Frost says that this sense of God intimately involved among ‘the stuff of life’ means that we need to recover a sense of ultimate meaning in our own actions. While ideas and theology shape our thinking, we are fundamentally formed & transformed by the places we chose to be in & the things we chose to do while we are there.
As disciples we are called to deny ourselves, to empty ourselves & affectively die to ourselves – so that we may come, as Eph 4:13 says, “…to maturity to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ”. That’s the Incarnate Word active and powerful & living within us.
The journey of discipleship is the self-revelation of God from the depths of our very being.
He read it because he knew that fundamentally the story of the Scripture, the grace of the Kingdom of God exists within people. Ours is an embodied faith, concretely expressed in the lives of you & me. Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” because it is an anthem of holy action. Embodied faith can only be expressed by people engaged in holy action in particular places.
Think about it for a moment. Jesus the God-man, the exquisite & perplexing mystery of the Incarnation. For those of us who follow after him – he was the enfleshed presence of Almighty God himself - accessible, totally interactive and living among ordinary people. Michael Frost says that this sense of God intimately involved among ‘the stuff of life’ means that we need to recover a sense of ultimate meaning in our own actions. While ideas and theology shape our thinking, we are fundamentally formed & transformed by the places we chose to be in & the things we chose to do while we are there.
As disciples we are called to deny ourselves, to empty ourselves & affectively die to ourselves – so that we may come, as Eph 4:13 says, “…to maturity to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ”. That’s the Incarnate Word active and powerful & living within us.
The journey of discipleship is the self-revelation of God from the depths of our very being.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Missional Image (I) 'Encountering Difference'
This image is from an African village in a rural backwater. I was a spectator watching a friend playing a game of bawo. Despite the excitement, I became aware I was staring at the feet of a young boy sitting close by me. It must have been the contrast of the white soles against his richly tanned skin that got my attention. I found myself questioning, “What is this place that a young boy’s feet can look like those of an old man – cracked and eroded ?”
Suddenly my concentration was broken and I was looking up into the eyes of some children staring back at me. Instead of being a spectator, I was now the focus of many deep brown eyes looking my way. Each face seemed to be asking the same question, “Who are you ? What are you doing here ?”
I wish I could say that was the only time I felt like an alien in a strange land…
Betwixt & Between...
I have a problem. The whole focus of discipleship is that we are profoundly changed by the experience, "...to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Yet when we allow ourselves to be inspired by visions of newness and possibility, when we journey out & dwell in the margins - sharing hospitality with the stranger, with the widow and the orphan, in a sense we become like strangers and widows and orphans when we return back home. A disciple’s home is now on the road - betwixt and between.
It is like the character of the Wiseman in TS Eliot’s 1929 poem, ‘The Journey of the Magi’. After returning home from his long journey to see the Christ child, he says, “This birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like a death - our death. We returned to these kingdoms, our homes but no longer are we at ease here in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching at their gods. I should be glad of another death”.
Betwixt & between are never easy spaces to inhabit - seldom tidy. They are like London train stations - mostly chaotic, with people going everywhere and nowhere - never still, feeling edgy ! There is often an overwhelming sense of anxiety and restlessness and difficult labour – even pain. Yet betwixt & between are also places of tremendous excitement and energy, of experimentation & newness & reversals – where dreams are boldly dreamed & visions are nurtured. Mostly they are places of meeting & genuine community because people are participating & journeying together.
Disciples are formed and the Kingdom of God is established in those places !
It is like the character of the Wiseman in TS Eliot’s 1929 poem, ‘The Journey of the Magi’. After returning home from his long journey to see the Christ child, he says, “This birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like a death - our death. We returned to these kingdoms, our homes but no longer are we at ease here in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching at their gods. I should be glad of another death”.
Betwixt & between are never easy spaces to inhabit - seldom tidy. They are like London train stations - mostly chaotic, with people going everywhere and nowhere - never still, feeling edgy ! There is often an overwhelming sense of anxiety and restlessness and difficult labour – even pain. Yet betwixt & between are also places of tremendous excitement and energy, of experimentation & newness & reversals – where dreams are boldly dreamed & visions are nurtured. Mostly they are places of meeting & genuine community because people are participating & journeying together.
Disciples are formed and the Kingdom of God is established in those places !
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Missioning Presence 101...
A Story about a Prophet in the Desert…
In November 2004, I had an opportunity of visiting 3 aboriginal communities near Alice Springs. This particular morning we were in the community on the edge of the Tanami desert. I was with a wise older disciple – Hannibal – who had been working among this group of people for 30 yrs.
Driving through the outskirts of town we were confronted by 25 or so aboriginal women walking along in a group. I use the word confronted because most of the women were naked from the waist up – their bodies painted with white stripes. Most were crying out in great distress. They were sweeping the ground as they walked with the long leaves of green eucalyptus branches. The women were morning the death of a respected female elder of the community - gradually making their way to the ‘sorry camp’ on the edge of town.
We drove to The church in the centre of town, entering the cool interior. Hannibal said the women would have recognised him & would soon be coming into the church. Sure enough, in a few minutes we began hearing the wailing again. It got louder & louder until the first women appeared in the bright light of the open doorway.
Imagine the church filling up with 25 dark skinned bare chested women. They were covered in white stripes, wailing loudly, carrying their large eucalyptus branches. Imagine a conservatively dressed, white haired Hannibal standing next to the communion table – focused & ready.
Then the culturally startling thing happens. The lead woman – the close sister of the dead woman walks up to Hannibal & they embraced each other – Hannibal enfolding the woman deeply into his arms. I was standing nearby not sure where to look but I was also too entranced to turn away.
Hannibal stood there for what seemed like the longest time. The woman’s loud wailing quietening to a gentle whimper. While no more than a couple of minutes had passed, I found myself profoundly moved – almost tearful. All around us were the other wailing women. However, I was focused and overwhelmed by the silence of Hannibal. Such amazing enfolding presence he was giving to this grieving woman. When they released each other the imprint of their embrace literally covered Hannibal in whiteness. I was conscious of being in a sacred place in those moments - a holy space.
Now he is embracing and shaking hands with other women – all the while speaking nothing. Then in a few minutes the women were gone. We were left standing in the silence of an empty church.
The point is Hannibal didn’t need to say anything. He said it all by the intensity of his silent presence.
In November 2004, I had an opportunity of visiting 3 aboriginal communities near Alice Springs. This particular morning we were in the community on the edge of the Tanami desert. I was with a wise older disciple – Hannibal – who had been working among this group of people for 30 yrs.
Driving through the outskirts of town we were confronted by 25 or so aboriginal women walking along in a group. I use the word confronted because most of the women were naked from the waist up – their bodies painted with white stripes. Most were crying out in great distress. They were sweeping the ground as they walked with the long leaves of green eucalyptus branches. The women were morning the death of a respected female elder of the community - gradually making their way to the ‘sorry camp’ on the edge of town.
We drove to The church in the centre of town, entering the cool interior. Hannibal said the women would have recognised him & would soon be coming into the church. Sure enough, in a few minutes we began hearing the wailing again. It got louder & louder until the first women appeared in the bright light of the open doorway.
Imagine the church filling up with 25 dark skinned bare chested women. They were covered in white stripes, wailing loudly, carrying their large eucalyptus branches. Imagine a conservatively dressed, white haired Hannibal standing next to the communion table – focused & ready.
Then the culturally startling thing happens. The lead woman – the close sister of the dead woman walks up to Hannibal & they embraced each other – Hannibal enfolding the woman deeply into his arms. I was standing nearby not sure where to look but I was also too entranced to turn away.
Hannibal stood there for what seemed like the longest time. The woman’s loud wailing quietening to a gentle whimper. While no more than a couple of minutes had passed, I found myself profoundly moved – almost tearful. All around us were the other wailing women. However, I was focused and overwhelmed by the silence of Hannibal. Such amazing enfolding presence he was giving to this grieving woman. When they released each other the imprint of their embrace literally covered Hannibal in whiteness. I was conscious of being in a sacred place in those moments - a holy space.
Now he is embracing and shaking hands with other women – all the while speaking nothing. Then in a few minutes the women were gone. We were left standing in the silence of an empty church.
The point is Hannibal didn’t need to say anything. He said it all by the intensity of his silent presence.
Missioning Presence 102...
I am interested in exploring the shape of missional spirituality, what it means to be a disciple out on the edges…
Recently I have been thinking about some verses in 1 Kings 19. The prophet Elijah is standing at the entrance of a cave on a lonely mountain, about to witness God’s passing by. It says, ‘there was a great wind… but the Lord was not in the wind’. After the wind there was a rumbling earthquake but God ‘was not in the earthquake’. After the earthquake came a blazing fire, ‘but the Lord was not in the fire’. After the fire there came, ‘a sound of sheer silence.’ In that moment Elijah covers his face with his mantle because God’s presence is in the silence.
Why the silence ? The sound of sheer silence ! It is such a contrast ! Why is God in the silence ? Because silence not only speaks of absence, it can also speak of a special quality of presence.
Silence can be that special gift we give to another when we give of ourselves totally, undistractedly & openly at that moment. Silence can indicate concentration, a straining to hear, an openness to receive from & to understand the other. Silent presence is a bounded space that can say to another person, “you are safe right here in this moment with me”. When silent presence is given, peoples’ stories can deepen and transparency is released.
Holy silence speaks about the shape of a disciple’s presence in the world.
I am wondering about calling this quality of attentiveness & openness to the present moment... the prayer of presence. Such prayer regularly attempts to capture something of the profound & sacred gift of life. It participates in the unique celebration of diversity we have before us in another person - all in the midst of an often dull, repetitious and unfriendly world - a world of unspeakable pain, yet equally aching beauty.
We are attentive and open to the present because Abraham Heschel* says time is the very presence of God in the world. Every moment of every hour, day after day is God’s subtle arrival! That is why the disciple’s task is to be genuinely present to the reality of this moment because when we inhabit that space, we capture glimpses of God’s glory. The prayer of presence is a redemptive action that dares conceive of the possibility of releasing the holy sparks of God’s glory that are pushed down & concealed by the brokenness of our world. Every disciple is called to be like Jesus - to be a redeemer who claims back God’s glory through their holy action in the world.
Attentive & expectant presence is about being, concretely expressed in the places we chose to be in. It becomes prayer when everything we do is directed towards the glorious light of that awareness. Holy silence speaks about the shape of a disciple’s presence in the world... moment by moment. In God’s holy presence Elijah becomes aware of a question, “What are you doing here, Elijah ?” God is saying to Elijah, ‘I am also silent because I don’t dwell on this mountain. Instead, I choose to make my dwelling among ordinary people’. The prayer of presence !
Outwards & downwards !
* Quote from ‘God In Search of Man’ by Abraham Heschel (1955). [Available from amazon.com]
Recently I have been thinking about some verses in 1 Kings 19. The prophet Elijah is standing at the entrance of a cave on a lonely mountain, about to witness God’s passing by. It says, ‘there was a great wind… but the Lord was not in the wind’. After the wind there was a rumbling earthquake but God ‘was not in the earthquake’. After the earthquake came a blazing fire, ‘but the Lord was not in the fire’. After the fire there came, ‘a sound of sheer silence.’ In that moment Elijah covers his face with his mantle because God’s presence is in the silence.
Why the silence ? The sound of sheer silence ! It is such a contrast ! Why is God in the silence ? Because silence not only speaks of absence, it can also speak of a special quality of presence.
Silence can be that special gift we give to another when we give of ourselves totally, undistractedly & openly at that moment. Silence can indicate concentration, a straining to hear, an openness to receive from & to understand the other. Silent presence is a bounded space that can say to another person, “you are safe right here in this moment with me”. When silent presence is given, peoples’ stories can deepen and transparency is released.
Holy silence speaks about the shape of a disciple’s presence in the world.
I am wondering about calling this quality of attentiveness & openness to the present moment... the prayer of presence. Such prayer regularly attempts to capture something of the profound & sacred gift of life. It participates in the unique celebration of diversity we have before us in another person - all in the midst of an often dull, repetitious and unfriendly world - a world of unspeakable pain, yet equally aching beauty.
We are attentive and open to the present because Abraham Heschel* says time is the very presence of God in the world. Every moment of every hour, day after day is God’s subtle arrival! That is why the disciple’s task is to be genuinely present to the reality of this moment because when we inhabit that space, we capture glimpses of God’s glory. The prayer of presence is a redemptive action that dares conceive of the possibility of releasing the holy sparks of God’s glory that are pushed down & concealed by the brokenness of our world. Every disciple is called to be like Jesus - to be a redeemer who claims back God’s glory through their holy action in the world.
Attentive & expectant presence is about being, concretely expressed in the places we chose to be in. It becomes prayer when everything we do is directed towards the glorious light of that awareness. Holy silence speaks about the shape of a disciple’s presence in the world... moment by moment. In God’s holy presence Elijah becomes aware of a question, “What are you doing here, Elijah ?” God is saying to Elijah, ‘I am also silent because I don’t dwell on this mountain. Instead, I choose to make my dwelling among ordinary people’. The prayer of presence !
Outwards & downwards !
* Quote from ‘God In Search of Man’ by Abraham Heschel (1955). [Available from amazon.com]
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