pneumetaphors: a sextant for sacred leadership

When I feel a cold chill hit the back of my neck, I twitch. When I catch myself falling asleep in church, I twitch. When I am startled, caught unawares, brought back to attention, or am suddenly caught up in a moment of existential awareness, I twitch. “Twitchery”, then, is a physiological reaction I cannot seem to control when confronted with something that needs to change immediately, be it as trivial as warm air on my neck or as serious as a rethinking of the way we understand leadership in church. I twitch every time I meet a self-proclaimed Apostle. I twitch when a Prophet introduces them self to me on the street, or a man presumes to Teach me or Pastor me whom I have never met. Too many corners still support soap-box Evangelists.

Of course, these examples are extreme – not representative of the most noble portions of our faith; and yet, they are consistent in one regard: our perspective on church leadership – specifically on the five fold Leadership gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 – have not changed much in the last several thousand years. There is something very positive about this, but also something profoundly disturbing. On the one hand, we believe our theology and understanding of authority should not be swayed by time and by popular culture. On the other hand, we are intelligently served when we discover new ways to express old truths. Creativity Engineer John Kao put it this way: “the trick for every leader is to find a motivational metaphor for the organization.”[1] If we take Kao at his word, and apply his reasoning to churches, we’re confronted with the fact that our perspectives have not evolved.

Consider Jesus’ decision to compare His ministry to that of a Shepherd watching over sheep.[2] This was an Agrarian metaphor designed to communicate to people immersed in a society of farming and agriculture. Today, however, we live after the Agrarian Age, after the Industrial Age, after the Information Age, and in the Age of Creativity.[3] If Jesus were to have lived throughout these epochs as a man, His genius would undoubtedly have reframed itself to best fit the current context. In the Industrial Age He may have referred to Himself as the Good Factory Manager, or in the Information Age as the Good Web Master. Everything we see of Jesus Christ in the New Testament tells us He was a masterful communicator, gifted in supplying new ways to see, so our question must be “How would Jesus choose to represent Himself in a culture with no sheep?”[4]

My intention here is not to replace the images and metaphors supplied in scripture,[5] but to offer additional[6] metaphors that may help us to twitch our way into a new perspective that will serve to broaden and deepen our understanding of why God has placed us on the earth and appointed us to minister. Indeed, our Christian commitment certainly involves a “commitment to clear perception”[7] and if we can further our sense of alignment with the biblical text through a generous acceptance of new models, then we are another step closer to sacred, or biblical, leadership.

PNEUMETAPHORS
Walter Breuggemann makes a solid argument for the need of new metaphors, stating “People do not change, or change much, because of doctrinal argument or sheer cognitive appeal…or because of moral appeal…people in fact change by the offer of new models, images, and pictures of how the pieces of life fit together.”[8] This is why I have chosen pneumetaphors. Pneumetaphors, joined from the Greek “pneuma” which means “spirit”[9] and the English word “metaphor”, are literary devices used for seeing the spirit in new ways. In our bio medically enhanced, technology-as-pet world, the church must find new metaphors to advance our aptitude for leadership. John Kao writes:

…this [is] the new creative era, dramatically expanding the space for speculative thought. Information technology is evolving into the technology of relationships, facilitating the flow of creative interaction through computer-based communication networks, groupware, increasingly intelligent agents, knowledge representation and management systems, videoconferencing systems, and the convergence of different forms of traditional media.[10]

It is left to us to “bow to the invitation”[11] given us by God to redefine our roles in Sacred Leadership through energy, unity, and mission. Indeed, what is yearned for is not new doctrine or new morality, but a “new world, new self, and a new future.”[12]

ASCENSION GIFTS
Lastly, I think it is important to answer the question “Why leadership from Ephesians chapter four?” As a pastor in a local church, I found the knowledge based on Ephesians to be tremendously liberating. Not only was this multi-dimensional schematic of leadership supported biblically,[13] but also because I found the lives of the biblical characters inspiring.[14] Service in a church exposes one to all manner of expectations, demands, and suppositions about what a pastor should be. Once I discovered that there were multiple paradigms for ministry presented – even required – in the New Testament, I experienced a sense of personal freedom and destiny. I was emancipated from the shame of not living up to the expectations of parishioners. This was a change wrought about by the offering of a ‘new model of how [my] ministry may fit.’[15] This kind of thinking has since been reinforced through my understanding of Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence Theory,[16] Weston’s Spiritual Gifts Inventory,[17] the DISC test,[18] Thomas’ Sacred Pathways to God,[19] and the collision of several scriptures about God’s knowledge and love for me personally.[20]

Much has been made of the Ascension Gift Ministries, particularly in Pentecostal-Charismatic settings, and I do hope to provide fresh insight into this environment while staying true to the biblical text and honoring Christian tradition. The purpose of the Ascension Gift Ministries, as outlined by the Apostle Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, is for the “perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”[21] It is with this end in mind that I offer these five pneumetaphors as a sextant for sacred leadership.




[1] John Kao, Jamming. (New York: Harper Collins, 1996), 103.
[2] John 10.11
[3] John Kao, Jamming. (New York: Harper Collins, 1996), 4.
[4] Of course, I am speaking from the standpoint of living in a large urban metropolis and I am aware that sheep do still exist; however, the point remains that shepherds and sheep are neither common, nor accessible to the general populace in North America, in the way they were BCE.
[5] Of course not! Any such attempt to replace anything in scripture should be highly criticized, to say the least.
[6] Again, the point is not to supplant scripture, not to find equality with scripture, but to foster continued conversation about what the Bible has to say about leadership.
[7] Reginald W. Bibby, Restless Churches. (Kelowna, Wood Lake Books, 2004), 29.
[8] Walter Brueggemann, Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and the Postmodern Imagination. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 24.
[9] Crosswalk New Testament Greek Lexicon, Strong’s Number 4151. http://www.biblestudytools.net/Lexicons/Greek/grk.cgi?number=4151&version=nas
[10] John Kao, Jamming. (New York: Harper Collins, 1996), 4,5.
[11] Leonard Sweet, Summoned to Lead. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 82.
[12] Walter Brueggemann, Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and the Postmodern Imagination. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 25.
[13] Support for the New Testament and post-Ascension biblical basis of each of the five ascension gifts will be given section-by-section in conjunction with the pneumetaphors. It should be noted, however, that there is debate about the post-Ascension ministries of both apostle and prophet in the Church today. I believe I will supply sufficient evidence to support my personal views in the sections to follow, but the fact that there are sharply defined divisions on the issue is worth mentioning.
[14] Specifically the Apostles Peter, Paul, Timothy and Barnabas.
[15] Walter Brueggemann, Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and the Postmodern Imagination. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 24.
[16] Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind. (Cambridge: Basic Books, 1993).
[17] Owen Weston, Spiritual Gifts: Your Job Description from God. (Bethany: Lifesprings, 1996)
[18] http://www.discprofile.com/
[19] Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002).
[20] Namely Jeremiah 1.5, Jeremiah 29.11, Matthew 6.34, and Ephesians 4.4, 1 Corinthians 12.28,29.
[21] Ephesians 4.11-13 KJV.

testing...one...two...is this thing on?

i picked a fight with 6 music pastors some time ago [i know, what a surprise...]
i told them that i thought the band slipknot had been redeemed for god's purposes because a conversation surrounding their music between myself and someone without faith had led to me sharing my life story and opening a very positive discussin about christ and spirituality.
so, slipknot has become a part of my experience of the incarnation

after they put down their pitchforks and torches, the others told me that slipknot was evil and i should never, ever listen to their music. a few minutes later, however, they began to talk about how narrow the church's view of art was, and how hypocritical it is for believers not to listen to mozart's masses just because he himself wasn't a christian. they maintained that the music was drawing people to god, and therefore was good, even though the artist wasn't.


am i the only one who thinks
[1] we were making the same argument, and
[2] somewhere god was laughing his/her head off?

on from here...

Last week I broke a glass pitcher in my kitchen. I spent an hour trying to pick up the pieces, but cut myself later that day when I stepped on a piece I had missed.

For the last seventy years we have been breaking glass churches, and now I am trying to help people of like mind pick up the pieces and avoid getting cut.

Let’s do all we can to pick up every piece from off the floor, carefully and mournfully, and put it away so we can protect ourselves from the mess we made and are now trying to fix.

After all, we cannot have company in a house full of blood.

Fragments of Postmodern Liturgy VII

Environment + Metaphysical

There is a spiritual dimension to how we view the Earth. I’m not simply talking about ecology, but society and culture and every form of life. Author and pastor Brian McLaren is like a surrogate Santa Claus to me – not that he knows it [or me, for that matter] - but I get so many gifts from his books and writings that I feel like leaving him milk and cookies at Christmas. McLaren, in his book A Generous Orthodoxy [which you should never read unless you are slightly charmed by being offended], gave me my first clues as to the redemptive purposes of God for the whole planet and its contents. Music, movies, pop culture, animals, the ozone and the wilderness, Russia and Madagascar, oil and clean air are all affected by a theology that compels believers to understand our purpose here is to redeem, not to condemn; to save, not to judge. If indeed we believe God has entrusted this planet into our care, what should we do about it? What does that mean for the environment? For war? For the funny divisions we make between secular and sacred? For Muslims and Democrats, Conservatives and Homosexuals? In our diverse and beautiful world, we must bring Jesus to all people and all things in the same way He presented Himself to the Samaritan woman at the well – uncompromising, but gentle; a sweet presence and a friend.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple once warned us that “it is a mistake to think that God is only, or even chiefly, interested in religion[i]”and his words could not have been more provocative in my search for a life of meaning. What else does God care about, if not we whom He has created? Might I be so bold as to suggest that He cares for everything else He created? I am inclined to believe that God values people, but not just people; and not just animals and plants or ecology either, but also cultures, societies, language, art, and technology. If “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,[ii]” then surely we must begin to understand that His interests uphold the sacred nature of all that Is.

Faith that is envirometaphysical, is faith that contends for the redemption of the Earth and all its contents.[iii] Envirometaphysics upholds the mandate to revalue the world and hasten the day “when greed and consumerism are exposed, arrogance and irreverence are unplugged, when hurry and selfishness are repented of [and] when the sacred-secular rift in our thinking is healed.[iv]” Furthermore, those who ascribe to this creation faith must not merely warm their hearts to the world, but take an active role in redemption. We must enter the world and transform it, rather than hope our good thoughts and smiles contribute to lasting change.
When I taught classes on worship at a local bible school, I asked my students to go outside and find something, anything, that they felt could be redeemed for the purposes of worship. What answers! One student came back with a roll of film they had bought – ready, like us, to be imprinted with life. Another came back with a used paper cup, claiming we are only containers for that which God destines. That was the beginning of environmetaphyics – a belief that anything could be redeemed, even you and I.

In order to contextualize our lives, and revalue the world, Walter Brueggman suggests that we return the attention of our peers and betters to both the origin and the consummation of ourselves, of our world, and of the church[v]. Indeed, when we remind one another of our fleeting presence here, the present life we lead becomes one stroke of a divine brush, and we can appreciate the art of life all around. While this may seem far-fetched, the danger in envirometaphysics is not in thinking too largely, or in valuing too much. The true peril lies in not taking envirometaphysics far enough to be of any use to the next 10,000 years of humanity looking for God like kids looking for lost socks.



[i] attributed. Source: worldofquotes.com
[ii] Psalms 24.1, NIV
[iii] or, “the fullness thereof” is you prefer a KJV rendering.
[iv] Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy p.239
[v] cf. Walter Brueggman, Texts Under Negotiation pp.29-46

facts v. ???

forgive me, friends - but i'm just not sold on the idea that the bible is full of 'facts.'
my wife will kill me for propogating this position, but we cannot argue that the bible is full of true facts just because it is the bible.

any religion could make that claim about its sacred text and we would scoff - why would we consider our argument any different.

and - as far as science is concerned - we've been wrong with our science for all time, why would we now be so presumptuous as to think our current science will still be right in another thousand years?

but - i am a firm believer in the truth of the bible, and my imagination knows no limits as to how i can reconcile present science with present faith, as well as future science with future faith. just don't ask me to defend a flat-earth, a third-planet centered universe, or a 6 day creation

Fragments of Postmodern Liturgy VI

Interactive + Activity

I would like to suggest that church in the new millennium has to be more about what people do, as opposed to what they see or hear. So much of our programming is visual/aural expression, not personal and emotional immersion that we must now shift our focus to connecting people with Jesus personally, not simply demonstrating for them what that connection might look like. People want to feel like they are an active part of what is going on in this new economy of shared experiences.

Interactivity redeems the audience. It elevates the everyman to a position of artist and entrepreneur. It gets Nicodemus out of the tree and Peter out of the boat. Interactivity also makes the crowd worthy of attention, not disdain, and gives bread to all 5,000 at once. Sidestepping issues about the individual, interactivity suggests that there is an individuality to each audience as well as to each person. Therefore it becomes necessary to do away with our old paradigm of the “uneducated masses” and instead view a new audience: a better educated audience that has developed their own standard for excellence, that takes responsibility for evaluating truth, and that works hard to find voices worthy of trust.[i]

According to Edwin Schlossberg, “excellence exists only in the variety and quality of our interactions[ii]” and he further suggests that we begin to consider the audience as an integral part of composition design.[iii] Because I have found this line of thinking to be so accurate, I have begun to evaluate many of our services and events based on how the audience itself was involved, instead of merely entertained or shown. For example, a recent outreach we did was “Purchase of God”, a play about a World War One soldier which incorporated 7 different mediums[iv], and most notably facilitated a discussion around themes of the play lead by table pastors instead of a traditional altar call.

This was done in an effort to avoid the danger of breeding consumers, and while it is certain that not everyone wants interactive experiences, it must be said that if we do “provide everything for people when they come, there is nothing left for them to provide.[v]” Instead, interactivity creates opportunities for awe, delight, truthfulness and hope[vi] wherever the experience of an event happens both in front of its members and in between them. Schlossberg contends that this kind of “necessary first step” is also an entry into a whole new paradigm of interactive experience[vii].

Interactivity takes us away from reading the story, and places us with a sword in our hand atop a white horse chasing dragons.




[i] This description of the new audience is a synthesis of several sections of Schlossberg, found primarily on pp.29 and 49.
[ii] Edwin Schlossberg, Interactive Excellence p.98
[iii] Ibid, p.5
[iv] photography, dance, live music, computer-generated graphics, drama, film, audio sequencing and efx
[v] Edwin Schlossberg, Interactive Excellence p.71
[vi] Quentin Schultz, in High Tech Worship?, proposes these four characteristics as essential qualities in Christian worship. Cf. p.30
[vii] Edwin Schlossberg, Interactive Excellence p.26

The Coriolis Effect: A Model for Shared Leadership

[I've been asked a few times about Westwinds' model of shared leadership - so, here is our broad, guiding document for you all to enjoy]

There is power in metaphor. A metaphor unlocks the imagination and gives new sight to those blinded by a tired reality and the cataracts of the ordinary. At Westwinds, metaphors have been used to elucidate who we are as a church and why God has placed us in Jackson.

Even our name, Westwinds, is a metaphor. A west wind is created in two ways: first, through the uneven heating of the earth by the sun,[1] and second, through The Coriolis Effect. The Coriolis Effect[2] is the pulling in of a moving object that creates speed in air movement. It is a result of the elliptical shape of the earth’s orbit which pulls the planet around the sun and causes wind.[3] Because the earth is a sphere, air moves along the circumference of the planet resulting – at high times – in cyclones. Other examples of The Coriolis Effect include the twirls of a figure skater, the motion of a pendulum, and the trajectory of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In our efforts to best serve the people of Westwinds Community Church, the elders and lead pastors have agreed upon a model of shared leadership based upon The Coriolis Effect. It is our desire to create new wind movement, to align ourselves with the orbit of the sun, and to work together to ensure that the future of our church is exciting and secure.

Shared leadership is not a new concept. Biblically we see the examples of Joshua and Caleb,[4] Moses and Aaron,[5] Peter, James and John,[6] and the Holy Trinity as examples of the good sense and health in wise counsel, strong contribution, and open communication between leaders. Historically, shared leadership has also proven to be an innovative way to lead people forwards. The Spartans had two kings in ancient Greece, and the Romans elected dual consuls to lead them prior to the Roman Empire. Other historical examples include the partnership of the Wright brothers and that of Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.[7]

Coriolis will serve as the lead position of paid staff at Westwinds. In contrast to the traditional model of a senior pastor, Coriolis will offer a broader perspective on staff issues and church-wide initiatives while maintaining the creative impulse necessary for Westwinds’ ethos to be both protected and evolving. In this model Randy Shafer will serve as the Coriolis: Journey, David McDonald as the Coriolis: Narrative, and John Voelz as the Coriolis: Experience, signifying both the unity among Coriolis as leaders of one mind and the diversity required of the individuals to oversee specific arenas of ministry. In short, Coriolis is unity in leadership and dreams.

While we recognize that there is some risk inherent with shared leadership and Coriolis, we also recognize that the potential for success outweighs the apprehensions of slow decision-making and unfamiliarity. With Coriolis our chief tasks have become the management of new ideas, fresh vision and enthusiasm, and the growing wonder of what God is doing in the city of Jackson and with His people.

It is good for us all to remember that we are not the Cause, but we are part of the Effect.


[1] Because of the planet’s orbit around the sun [placing almost half of the planet at any given time is further away from the sun’s rays], and because of the bulges at the poles and the equator the earth is closer in some places at some times to the sun. This results in greater heat transfer. When the warmer air from the closer areas meets the cooler air from the further areas wind is created.
[2] For a full description of The Coriolis Effect, including the formulae and history of the research pending, see the Wikipedia article “Coriolis Effect” found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect.
[3] As low pressure systems are formed and begin to pull air into themselves, a vacuum is created. This vacuum causes air that was moving north [as an example] to also be brought slightly west, thereby creating a slow loop. This loop is known as cyclonic pressure, the fundamental requirement for a cyclone, and a textbook example of the Coriolis Effect at work.
[4] Cf. Numbers 14, 26, and 32.
[5] Cf. Exodus 4 & 5
[6] Historically we understand that Peter became the first leader of the church, James the pastor of the mother church in Jerusalem, and John the leading prophetic voice for the Christian people.
[7] Paul Allen resigned his post as co-head of Microsoft Corp. in 1983 while battling Hodgkin’s disease.