I've been reading over the last couple of weeks the book "The Emerging Church" by Dan Kimball, who is the pastor of an emerging church in Santa Cruz, CA called Vintage Faith Church. His name is one of those that is recognizable within the Emerging Church movement, and although I have read his great book "Emerging Worship", I finally picked up this one. Almost every book that I've read on the emerging church movement or the missional church movement have resonated within me in certain ways, and this one is no exception. Kimball does an excellent job of laying down the foundation of the emerging church (or at least what it should be). There are two things that Kimball does in this book that are most intriguing and interesting to me. One is that he has guest "opinionators" (for lack of a better term) who obviously read the book before it was published and commented on certain parts. Kimball includes these comments on the sidebars of the pages. It's interesting to read especially Rick Warren's take on certain aspects of the books, especially because Kimball talks about the move away from "seeker-sensitive" styles of church to this emerging, missional style.
The other thing about this book that might not be as impressive as the first thing - but I think has really helped me in my thinking of the shift from the modern church mindset to an emerging church mindset - are the tables that he has in the book, usually in each chapter, that help show the different ways that the emerging church is shifting philosophically/strategically/missionally from the modern church. They are all great, but the one that has really hit me the most is actually the last one, which talks about the shift in leadership styles between the modern church and the emerging church. I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I like how Kimball uses the two main captains you think about when you think of Star Trek - Captain James T. Kirk and Captain Jean-Luc Picard - as an illustration of the differences between modern church leadership and emerging church leadership. The table above really helps me understand the differences and makes me really excited for the future of leadership within the Church. When you have been a "church leader" for a long time and have felt pigeonholed into the modern church leadership mindset, it's really freeing to see that there is another way to lead people in your church and in your ministry. My personal prayer is that God would work on my heart to form me into a leader that has the values and heart of the emerging church leader.
11 comments:
Kimball's book, plys Joseph Meyer's "a search to belong" were some of hte most influential and inspirational works for me. I read them when i was going through a "crisis of faith." Interestingly, my crisis was never a doubting of God, but of His Church. Some people will right off the perspectives of these men and the hundreds of thousands who are in the same camp. SOme want to think it is a trend, some would like to think it is apostacy. What is interesting to me is that the missional approach is much more like the 1st Century Church than many of the other current church leadership models.
I liked the charts he used too. I think in general most leaders have difficulty giving up power and that's what you have to do in emerging/missional churches. If they don't, it's the same stuff with a different look and it doesn't work.
I have no doubt that you are a great missional leader Adam...that's obvious with praise team ,creative arts, and esp Element..you just need support with your ideas :)
Remember it's also a generational thing.
It's not always generational though. Several of the people leading the way with this type of thinking are in the "boomer" generation. it is mroe about mindset than it is about chronology. sure, people bourn in the late sixties to early seventies are different from their parents and grandparents, but not always. there are a lot of 20-30 year olds who want no part of this "new way" and there are plenty of 50 year olds who champion it. i think it comes down to experience. when you get to the point that you realize that things are broken and they can't be fixed by using the same old techniques, then you reach a point where change is appealing.
Let me rephrase...understood about the mindset thing but I still say a large 'chunk' of "x-ers" lean towards this mindset in comparison to a large 'chunk' of "boomers" or even "y-ers". There are cross-overs in every generation but there is saturation of mindsets in certain generations. Most of the time it is repro's from 'their' parents saturated mindset. Does that make sense? :0)
I think in the past you could have made a case for it being a generational thing - and it does somewhat follow generational lines - but this is more than generational. It's a shift from modernism to postmodernism. It's not a fad as some think, or something that will die out with the next generation. It's a whole new way of life.
Yea, I never thought it was a fad. I think it's about people getting back to the basics, trying to figure it out as they go and not the image that church has become. Most of the generational issues have to do with social, economic, environmental and global settings in which generations grow up. Always learning from the following generation, the do's and don'ts. No one wants to follow someone who isn't walking the Walk. That's what I think history has brought to this basic mindset. We've seen the image and we want authenticity which as you can tell from the chart, that's a perfect illustration.
Ultimately it's about just following Christ, not people.
The more I study the cultural shifts taking place within Christianity, the more I realize that there are really only two types of leaders. There are those who lead through managing and those who lead through guiding. Those who manage tend to think they have to have all the answers. They typically never admit that they are wrong and rarely use the statement, "I don't know." Those who lead by guiding are alert to changes and transitions and are able to point out the bumps in the road. They typically have no problem saying, "I don't know," and often admit if they are wrong.
The two differences could be assigned to generational mindset, regional influence, or theological perspective. Personally I think it breaks down to those who see the Church as being on a mission (the guides) and those who see the Church as a mission (the managers).
Good thoughts!
I need to put that down in my quote book, Mike - especially since you and I talked about it more today - the difference between a guide and a manager. :^)
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