Lessons in leadership

Lessons in leadership

I am no fan of books on leadership. Indeed, it’s quite the opposite. However, I like observing leaders and reading accounts of them.

And so, to Winston Churchill. On a friend’s recommendation, I read Churchill: a Life by Martin Gilbert (Holt, 1991). At 1066 pages it’s a big read and a great bedtime page turner. The book tells of Churchill’s background (significant), school days (indifferent), early career (somewhat indifferent) and then the man who was made by his times and who was made for the times (magnificent).

Churchill is best remembered (and deservedly so) for his leadership of Britain in WWII, although his leadership roles in WWI and in peacetime Britain should not be overlooked. He faced opposition in most of these roles, and not just from Hitler. Much of the opposition came from the members of his own various political parties and from his foreign allies in the Russian, American and French national leaders.

Here’s a summary of what I observe about leadership in Churchill:

-         Courage before overwhelming odds

-         Persist irrespective

-         Take advice from others, but don’t be captive to it or them

-         Indefatigable energy and ceaseless work at personal cost

-         Find, and use, means to relax

-         The importance of having some close people who nurture

-         Ignore medical opinion

Of course, Churchill’s style of leadership will not be suitable for all leaders and all contexts, as his own career suggests. He flourished in crisis and before challenges, but times of peace suited him less well. As was the hour, so was the man.

Aristotle’s (Christian) worship

Aristotle’s (Christian) worship

I go to plenty of Christian worship services. That’s the (usually) weekly gathering of God’s people as an expression of and preparation for the whole of life worship that Scripture commends as the acceptable respond to God’s mercy in Christ (Rom 12:1-2). It’s also an anticipation of life as part of the crowd in the throne room of God’s new creation.

That’s an opportunity to think about the essence of gathered worship – especially as I have just marked a bunch of student papers discussing services of worship and attended my first charismatic service last Sunday as part of celebrating the conversion of a Singapore nephew.

Aristotle has a useful distinction between substance and accident. The substance of a thing is its “stuff’ that must be there for the thing to be the thing that it is. The accident is the outward form of the substance. Substance is definitional and ontological. Accident is contextual and variable.

Here’s some accidental expressions of my recent worship experience:

·       The nephew’s church that was pitched at a young audience through the hipsters on stage, a mesmerising moving display on screen through most of the service, almost constant drum beat and four-note keyboard offerings;

·       The very traditional service that I often attend with vast pipe organ, robed choir, collared clergy, sung Lord’s Prayer and set “free” liturgy;

·       A friend’s church at which I recently preached in jeans and open necked shirt and where people raised hands, called out etc.

I respect the first because its where a nephew was found by grace. I love the second because it resonates with something in me – the music in that church touches me like no other. I love the third for its energy and life-connection – this otherwise fatigued preacher was energised.

Back to the student papers. They typically identified the following elements as core to gathered worship:

·       It’s about God, not the worshippers;

·       Worship should be first vertical (directed to God);

·       Worship should also be horizontal (foster fellowship);

·       Worship should edify God’s people (in all the senses of that word);

·       What we do should be Word-regulated and gospel-shaped;

·       Gathered worship is significant in itself and as preparation for life worship;

·       Essentials are:

o   Reading and preaching Scripture,

o   Prayer on multiple horizons (eg, Adoration, Confession, Thanks, Supplication)

o   Sacraments,

o   Singing

How do substance and accident relate?

Substance is easy ... it must be there for it to be called worship.

Accident is tougher, because it varies. Those variations will be a product of times and circumstances. Who is gathering? What is their sense of space and time? Do they privilege order and predictability or spontaneity and flexibility? And so, the questions roll.

How are these questions to be answered? Some different answers may be: let’s do as we’ve always done; let’s do as we’ve not always done; let’s do what I like; let’s do what most of the people like.

Here’s another way of answering those questions by asking some further questions. It fits with what some older Christians called the “general rules of the word”:

·       What will most glorify God? (1 Cor 10:31)

·       What will most build others up? (1 Cor 14:26)

·       What will least give needless offense to others? (1 Cor 10:32)

·       What is decent and in good order? (1 Cor 14:40)

We can add a biggy to these worthy questions:

·       What will most point people to Jesus and help them grow into him and in him? (Col 1:28; Eph 4:13-15)

A final observation: none of this is about me. It’s all about serving God and others. And that’s why the charismatic service that doesn’t “fit” to my style, the traditional service that I cherish and the service that energises me are not the point. The point is to ask what celebrates God and points people to his grace in Jesus. That’s no accident, Aristotelean or otherwise.

Being Larry - thoughts on missionary identity

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Being Larry – thoughts on missionary identity

I recently spent time with a missionary in a majority country. Let’s call him Larry. (He was assigned as the ‘go-to’ for myself and a colleague who were teaching an intensive course to local church leaders.)

Larry was just into his second year on the field. It is a challenging context physically and spiritually. He had faced the disappointment of a forced move from his initial assignment and was in a holding role while awaiting a new assignment on the same field.

Larry had an identity issue. Who was he, when there was presently no assigned mission role? Back home Larry was an active member of his own church and involved in its various programs of outreach and discipleship.

Larry was a nurse and, like most nurses, a grounded person who deal with ‘what is’ rather than ‘what could be”. As he talked through the identity issue, he concluded that his calling was to be who he was at home. And so, he was an active member of the church he belonged to on the mission field and involved in its various programs of outreach and discipleship. He was also a nurse, and was about to commence a role in the local nursing service where he could help upskill nationals in nursing skills.

As a missionary Larry was being himself – the same person at home and on the field. It would, of course, look a little different but was essentially the same. Larry was being Larry.

That’s not a bad sense of Christian identity whether on the mission field or anywhere. All of us are called to be followers of Jesus whether at home, work, play or the market place.

That’s’ faithfulness in a life worthy of the Lord.

In your face theology

In your face theology

There are times where vigorous and even heated debate is right. The core truths of the Christian faith are the teaching about the who, the what and the so what of Jesus (Rom 1:1-7; 1 Cor 15:1-6). The denial of these is the “another gospel” that Paul refers to (Gal 1:8-9) and which led Paul to rebuke publicly his “senior”, the Apostle Peter.

However, notice how the rebuke was given. It was face-to-face (Gel 2:11-14). What a moment of high drama and we can imagine the reaction of onlookers. The- face-to-face is important. Paul didn’t leave an anonymous note for Peter to ‘find”. Nor did he leave a message for all to see, but which denied Peter and easy reply. He spoke face-to-face.

All that brings us to the modern phenomena of Christians disagreeing on social media such as Facebook. All too easily we let our fingers do the talking and hurl insults and reflections on character to the world through cyberspace.

In recent times, my Facebook circles have included several rounds of strongly worded debate between Christians on this or that issue. In at least one case, this has been noticed by enemies of the gospel and used to disadvantage the cause of Christ.

Here’s a few reasons to think before we hit “post” and maybe either delete the comment or arrange to make it face to face.

·      We fellow Christians may understand the context and why this issue is important. However, what about non-Christians who overhear the conversation through being friends of a friend. Will they understand the issues and comments or will they think that we are out of our collective minds? 1 Cor 14:29)

·      Does a vigorous Facebook argument about theology help a non-believer trust in Jesus or does it put up a scandal or stumbling block? (1 Cor 8:9)

·      Do the limitations of Facebook posts allow us to discuss theological issues with the care and depth that they deserve, or do the push us to combative salvos of theological soundbites?

·      Is God glorified and his people built up by such exchanges? (1 Cor 10:23, 32)

So maybe it’s time to get off Facebook and get in one another’s faces to have the debates in a setting where we can see body language, have opportunity for questions and talk truth in love without the potential for digital destruction. As John says, there things best left unwritten and left face to face (2 Jn 12; 3 Jn 13-14). This is even more so when the things written are there for the world at large to see.

Everest and Easter

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Everest and Easter – a mountain top experience

Last weekend I had a mountain top experience.

But first some context. I was in Kathmandu for two week’s teaching and preaching. Saturday is church day and so I went to church and preached an Easter sermon.

So, my Sunday was different to normal. Instead of being in pew or pulpit, I was on a scenic flight (thank you Buddha Air). Bright and early we soared aloft from Kathmandu airport and headed for Mnt Everest. My host had suggested that I take the trip and I was resolved not to spend the rest of my life with the regret of missing the opportunity.

The Nepalese mountains are stunning and Everest is prince among them. For minute after minute, we passed the grandeur of snow-clad peaks, ridges and valleys around which light and shadow played. All too soon it was down to earth and the city of man.

Stunning though my Easter Everest was, it was not the real mountain top experience this Easter. That experience was on the Saturday. There we were – a group of people who differed in ethnicity, gender, age, education and all the rest. What united us was the risen, reigning and returning Christ. He was present in the praise singing, the preaching of his word, the Lord’s Supper and in the fellowship. As we participated in him by faith we were united to one another in faith, hope and love.

Everest is stunning. Better still is Mount Zion, the mountain of the house of God where God’s people gather week by week in the new temple that is Jesus.

When the Copts cop it – why theology still matters but is not everything

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When the Copts cop it – why theology still matters but is not everything

On April 9 2017 the Palm Sunday liturgy at two Egyptian Coptic churches left 45 dead and over 100 people injured (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39555897). It’s not the first attack on Copts in Egypt (Google “attacks on Egyptian Copts” for more details as recently as December 2016) and, sadly, it’s unlikely to be the last. Besides, death and injury, the Copts have suffered other forms of persecution over the years.

As an evangelical Christian I find much to disagree with when it comes to the Copts. If leisure afforded space for a conversation I’d love to open the Bible and talk. I’d like to talk about the way that the Coptic church and its rituals seem to have crowded Jesus out and to stand in his place. I’d like to talk about how their view of the sacraments puts attention on the sacraments to receive grace and not on Jesus in whom the riches of God’s mercy are found. And I’d like space to talk about their synergistic view of salvation. And somewhere in all that I’d like to go back to the Bible and discuss their rejection of the creed of the 451 Council of Chalcedon and their profession of a “one nature” Monophysite view of Jesus. These are big points of disagreement, for they go to the heart of the gospel which is  .. concerning his Son .. (Rom 1:3).

But that’s not the point right now, for there is no leisure for such conversation. The Copts are copping a beating and this is a time to identify with brothers and sisters who profess Christ. It’s time to remember those who are persecuted, to pray with them, and to seek to publicise their cause in the hope of some relief. When the Copts suffer, every Christian suffers (1 Cor 12:26). When one is in prison, we are all in prison (Heb 13:5).

And that’s why this evangelical Christian wants to pause the theological conversation, identify with the Copts and say that their suffering is my suffering and their persecutors are my persecutors. I’ll pray for the “kings and governors” of Egypt that my brothers and sisters there may be able to live a peaceful and quiet life and that there is space to tell of God’s salvation on behalf of God who desires that all people should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:1-2).

And if that prayer is answered we can sit down and discuss the big questions about Jesus that Coptic beliefs and practices raise. However, that is not the need of this present hour.

Perhaps the title of this post should be changed: When the Copts cop it – when theology still matters but is not everything.

Slice of life ... the book

The book

There was rain. Lots of it. Enough to breach the levee by the river. Roads were blocked, bridges made impassable, crops ruined, stock drowned and many thousands evacuated.

He was caught. He’d gone to the farm for a day trip but was now flooded in. The farm was on a safe and dry ridge, but the low lying wooden bridge over the creek was flooded well and truly.

And so he stayed. Plans were disrupted and he had nothing much besides a phone with a dwindling battery.

But he had a book. A big, fat and mostly unread copy of The Count of Monte Christo. When asked if he was okay he smiled and waved the book. It made him happy.