I just returned from a pastoral meeting that included a session on church leadership models. This session suggested a framework with “love of Jesus” in the middle, and then “reach,” “connect,” “equip,” and “serve” rotating cyclically around the love of Jesus. The model is just the latest I have heard about through the years, all intended “to make disciples for Jesus Christ” through intentional leadership strategies.
I admire such models. I appreciate the accountability, structure, passion, and creativity they generate. These visions help combat the tendency of churches to slip into maintaining a “church-as-usual” approach, led by laissez-faire ministry.
I am also alarmed by the calculating nature of such models. Every event, worship service, or outreach opportunity provides a “plug” for another upcoming program. It is easy for church leaders to become caught up in the model itself, and lose sight of the larger vision of God’s dynamic, infinite kingdom.
The leadership models recommend constant evaluation in order to measure the “success” of an event, sermon series, or outreach ministry. From formal congregational surveys to first-time visitor interviews, we are encouraged to build accountability structures into our day-to-day church operations. Such evaluations alone are certainly understandable, yet they can create a narrow, data-driven measurement of success. Increased participation in worship, new professions of faith, and additions to the membership rolls disproportionately define a congregation’s faithfulness to the Gospel.
These hyper-defined models seem somewhat cold and legalistic in light of the depth and fullness of the Gospel. I am reminded that Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Admittedly, I am not above using such strategies. I have stuffed my share of church flyers in BBQ plates and sent worship invitations to parents who used VBS for childcare. I will continue to do so. Yet I cannot help but wonder if the kingdom that God is building is beyond our human measures of success.
I know of a couple who underwent a horrific tragedy with the loss of their only child. In an attempt to buffer the pain of the first Christmas without their baby, they traveled abroad. Broken and wounded, they sought solace in the worship service of a small church tucked in the recesses of the European countryside. They heaved with tears throughout the service, and for the first time since the death of their child, they reconnected with God. The pastor visited them after the service and prayed for them and their loss.
They will likely never return to that particular church. They might not return to any church. The congregational leaders did not intentionally “reach,” “connect,” “equip,” or enable them to “serve.” Yet through living into the commandment to love God and neighbor, they bore witness to the most “successful” Christian leadership model possible.
When we reach out to the out-of-town visitor who will never return, when the congregation rotates bringing meals to the non-believer who just returned home from the hospital without mentioning the church, when we do prayer walks through a neighborhood, when we pray privately for the passers-by who seem sad or stressed, or when we leave a casserole at the door of a non-believer with no note, are we not practicing “effective” Christian leadership?