Yes!

"Talking to, and answering, oneself aloud is the result of too much time spent offshore, and it is a habit that does not go away once formed ."

("The Angry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey", Linda Greenlaw Hyperion, 1999, pg 19)

AJR lost in a West African Journey.

Old Paradigm Leadership!

"Jesus isn't an absentee King who's delegated the task of leading His church to a small committee of Christian leaders while He's on vacation."  Neil Cole (Twitter Feb 18th, 2012)

I believe that western church Leadership has been hijacked by the market. 

In the OT we see the Prophets stepping out, we see rare anointed leaders walking before, and in the NT we see the disciples, but even  the tone about them is different.

Jesus is the anointed, and Acts begins with the church being born saying old & young men and women, will see visions and dream dreams. It is the allusion to the indwelling Holy Spirit now being in every believer. All beleivers are Anointed.
 
I don't see the future hope of the church boiling down to Eldership in the New Testament. Leadership is not a central theme of the New Testament, other than the headship of Jesus, when that comes in to doubt.

Sure there is leadership, but not this all controlling, all directing, all managing stuff we see today.
It is broader based in the New Testament, involves more people, more interaction, more coaching.

Anyway, I find it all a bit arrogant, and I was there. One day I realized I am to Lead people to Jesus, his truth, and then let Jesus, through his Holy Spirit, guide people into their service. I can be a coach or guide on that journey, but simply put, I don't want to set the direction for them or a whole church.

I have to trust that Jesus will move his people, a people hearing his voice, not mine. People sensing His direction, not mine because I am holding the page of my plans, my dreams two inches from their nose.

I guess what I am saying, is that for me personally, when I started down this popular road of leadership, I began to find it works to get things done, the things I desire to get done, but people are following the wrong guide, seeking too much direction from me, and not enough from Jesus.

I was suplanting the role of the Holy Spirit in peoples lives. I, in the name of "Leadership", was getting in the way of the Leader. People are hearing our voice much more than the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit. In fact, few people in the pew even know how to get their direction from Jesus anymore. Ask them! I'm serious, ask them! They run to church and do what ever the church says..... sure.  But I feel we need to sense his direction every day.

Anyway, maybe it is because I know me too well. My motives can be blurred, my visions can be foggy, by selfishness can be to great to be telling others "What to do" to serve Jesus, let alone
the details of "how to do" that. I'm now trusting Jesus to do that, when they are ready for it.

I do not want to be a leader who lords it over people with my vision. When there is so much other good stuff to do, in his name. I need to free people to do that too.

The real cracking point for me was when I realized I don't want to be under leaders like me. Too myopic. Leaders who, often know few of my friends, with church program that do nothing to be light where they are. Because 6 leaders vision rarely, if ever, extends to these places. So that is why I must extend into them. 

Your purpose in life is not to simply attend my church, and be a tool in the hands of it's leadership, to get our chosen job done. Oh the job, I am sure, is "Jesus stuff".  However our purpose is to be in Christ, living in community with others, loving God and neighbors, in a colorful diversity of ways relationships require. 

My vision, is to give my network vision (sight), an ability to bump into Jesus.

Old Paradigm Leadership! A few top dogs sending it down the pipe line. The New Covenant brought a change to many things, and I believe it brought a change to leadership too.

When Not Helping Hurts!

We are working in West Africa. With simple drip irrigation supplied by gravity fed water from a small five gallon bucket, we are helping people grow gardens in drought conditions, just south of the Sahara Desert.
80-90% less water than hand watering.  This

Child's family is benefiting. From this project.

 Following is picture of a garden growing on such a system. This picture is taken in Peek drought conditions. It has not rained for over 4.5 months  in temperatures reaching 40 c.

Enforcing Rules is An Exhausing Experience

Read and interesting web article: "Why Flexible Hours Inspire Performance"

It resonated with my experience as a fisherman. We don't tell people how to do their job once on the boat, they just do it, the best they can at the speed they can. Despite what "Deadliest Catch" shows we don't harass people, we set in to a self evident routine and the day goes on like that.  

"Don't waste a minute tracking your employees' hours. They'll get more done."

It resonated with my experience for 20 years with a home office. I never understood people who said they could never work at home. I crank out lots of stuff form the home office. What is more I find I can do more there in 4-5 hours than I can at an office all day. Generally by 2 I was looking at the door wondering when I could leave. The Home office allowed you a cange of pace, get up and get a coffee, make or receive a "Personal" call takes the stress down, and you are ready to go back at it guns a blazing.

It resonated with my Church community experience. The times I have been the most stressed, and unhappy with that experience was when I was in charge of getting things done, and put on myself the burden to change people. The only person who can change is the person themselves, and it's not usually a lack of opportunity or resources, it's a lack of will or desire, and some encouragement.
And I have been around faith people who have tons of rules - Man made rules they are convinced are from the scriptures. They wish the whole body to adopt these rules too. They will work behind the scenes to manipulate and maneuver things to get people in line.   I for one am tired of rule making.... I am tired of carrying the burden to make things grow, when it's not even my job.

"You could say I'm the opposite of a control freak, in the sense that I have always resisted rules, for myself and for others. Why? Because once you have rules, you have to enforce them—and there's no more tedious task in life."

No more tedious task in life than enforcing rules...