Today’s church is in serious trouble. The crisis we see is a crisis in leadership, because leaders often resist change in fear of loss of status or position. Moreover, our conception of leadership is changing. The old dualistic and hierarchical models are disintegrating in favour of egalitarian and holistic models. The crisis is thus an opportunity to rediscover the nature and calling of the church as an authentic community, a missional people in a hostile land. Instead of leadership cults, we need leadership cultures; instead of lone rangers, we need meaning makers; instead of the Wizard we need Dorothy.

The leadership style that once dominated our culture is becoming passé. Instead of the Lone Ranger, we have Frodo: the Clint Eastwoods and Sylvester Stallones are replaced by ordinary men. Frodo, Aragorn and Neo (the Matrix) are self-questioning types who rely on those around them for strength, clarity and purpose. Indeed, while they have a sense of the need and a willingness to sacrifice themselves, they may not even know the first step on the journey.

This is a far cry from the self-assured presentation of the John Maxwells and Rick Warrens of the world. It is equally distant from the Greek heroic journey (see James Houston’s recent work, “The Mentored Life”) Indeed, the contrast we are seeing is sharper the further we travel along the road from modernity to post-modernity. What kind of leadership is rising within the emerging church? Is it biblical? If so, does it look different from the leadership style we have seen in the past twenty years? Is leadership still about power, confidence, knowledge, and position?

In the book Retrofuture Gerard Kelly indicts the established church for working overtime attempting to create a rational propositional faith in order to become acceptable to modern culture. Post-modern Christians do not reject the historic faith or the reality of revelation. Instead, they reject modern assumptions and embrace paradox and the postmodern critique of culture. Often this is done with the hope of stripping away modern distortions and recovering the ancient faith once delivered. We are learning that in order to move forward, we must reach back.

When church leaders fail to engage the postmodern movement, they risk becoming isolated from the culture they live in. This in turn guarantees that the church communities they build will gradually stagnate and die, becoming museum communities rather than missional communities. Instead, modern leaders must listen to the tolling of the bell that indicates the death of the modern world, and not ask for whom the bell tolls.

peace
Joel

p.s. these thoughts are not mine, although I really enjoy them. They are excerpted from this amazing article.