I was watching this video from Clay Shirky hoping to learn what he had to say about leadership in light of this revolution of media and technology. Most of it was information we had read about in the book for class, but near the end he tells a story of the Linux Operating System creator and how he leads. Shirky says Linux is going in a direction that Linus himself does not care about, but he realizes that this is where the people who are working on it want it to go. The power of the people is what is driving Linux, not the power of one leader.
To me, this relates directly to ministry. It is becoming less and less about where the 'pastor' wants to lead than it is where the people want to go. I think God works in that. That's how we got the Apostle's Creed and the doctrine of the Trinity. It was a group that decided to go that direction. It was a group that worked out the details. It was a group that came to enough of a consensus that it gave us these important church doctrines.
The challenge will be in churches where the clericalism of the pastor may not line up with the wants of the people. If the pastor is used to being a strong leader and a stronger decision-maker and the people are used to having more say, then there are different expectations that will have to be worked out.
The term used to be congregationally-owned ministry. Maybe now it'll just be 'postmodern.'
No comments:
Post a Comment