MIM Ezine May 2, 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS--

--"Our Disruptive God"  by Thomas Tumblin

--Purpose-filled Ministry: "RUNNING BEHIND THE BIKE:  AFTER YOU RELEASE CONTROL"  by Teena Stewart

--Book Review – Coached by Jesus:  31 Life-Changing Questions Asked by Master by Teena Stewart

“Our Disruptive God”

Thomas Tumblin, PhD

Associate Professor of Leadership, Asbury Theological Seminary

District Superintendent, West Ohio Conference United Methodist Church

Throughout our faith history God notoriously breaks in. Adam and Eve were unprepared for God’s visit after indulging in the forbidden fruit. Messengers wandering by for a makeshift meal under the tree at Mamre brought a birth announcement and bartered for the future of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses certainly did not expect the burning bush. The post-resurrection disciples had no way to predict when Jesus would appear in their cloister prior to Pentecost.

Ready or not, God chooses to redirect our lives. Sometimes the interruptions unfold in dramatic ways worthy of documentation, much like many of the conversion testimonies we read. Usually, the break-ins are quiet breaches of our common experience. We establish a predictable rhythm only to have God reroute our lives. We could choose to ignore the encroachment on the ordinary or we could choose to allow a divine intervention.

About a decade ago, Clayton Christensen coined the phrase “disruptive technologies” in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. He observed the emerging developments in society and business that eventually displace existing technologies, e.g. the automobile displacing the horse as the primary means of transportation. He has since upgraded the term to “disruptive innovations,” but the idea is the same. In the church world, the lay equipping movement of the 1980s and 1990s pulled the church back to shared ministry after the professionalization of the clergy that occurred in the early and mid twentieth century. The emerging church movement of the late 1990’s and early twenty-first century may become a disruptive innovation to the modern forms of ecclesial life.

In every era the Church faces the call to reform if it is to reach the generation of that day. Wesley’s open air pulpit offended the establishment but might have saved England from a civil revolution. (For an intriguing exchange on this view, go to http://www.evangelismcommunity.net/index.php?id=449 where Leonard Sweet discusses three commentators’ affirmation of Wesley’s impact.) Billy Graham’s stadium crusades revolutionized evangelism in the twentieth century. The cell movement of the last fifty years, the use of multimedia in worship, the attention toward marketplace ministries – each of these innovations have been part of the Church remaking itself for new generations.

Where are you infusing disruptive innovation into your congregation to help it better reach your world? Maybe the question gets formed this way: Where is God attempting to disrupt the life of your congregation?

Change researchers suggest there are three primary ways to innovate: add, lose or displace. Either we see God adding a new element to our life and ministry, an element is removed, or an element is dislodged from its primary position without being lost altogether. As an example, the Emmaus movement provides an additive that has energized many congregations with a fresh understanding of God’s grace.

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Purpose-filled Ministry

RUNNING BEHIND THE BIKE:  AFTER YOU RELEASE CONTROL

Teena Stewart

My last column dealt with letting go of control of a ministry so leaders learn how to manage the ministry themselves.  I compared it to teaching someone to ride a bike.  As they learn, you hold the bike steady helping guide it.  If you truly want them to learn, you must let go.  Clinging too long retards their progress and exhausts you.

Once you do let go, your task is to find the balance between controlling and coaching. Here are some actions you can take to make sure their ride goes more smoothly. 

    -Pray for the leader and ministry.  As obvious as it sounds, this is easily overlooked due to busyness. Prayer strengthens the ministry and fortifies the leadership from the start.

    -Provide resources. With whom do they need to stay in touch to make this ministry succeed? Give them those contacts. Provide any additional resources that will help them.  This might include how to books, notes from your previous work with the ministry, etc.

    -One to two weeks after releasing control, contact the leader.  Determine any questions he/she may have.  Answer as many as you can immediately.  Address lingering questions at your follow up session.

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Book Review – Coached by Jesus:  31 Life-Changing Questions Asked by Master

Alan Nelson, Howard, 2005, 158229464X, 184 pages

Reviewed by Teena M. Stewart

What would happen if we took many of the probing questions Jesus asked and applied them to our lives?  We’d be challenged to change.   Alan Nelson’s book is simplistic in concept and yet profound in its wisdom.  And challenging us to change is exactly the book’s purpose.  Coached by Jesus has 31 short chapters centered on a specific theme.  Each chapter begins with a quote in the form of a question, taken from Jesus’ teachings.  Though you may wonder what possible new insight could be gained from many of these already familiar quotations, Nelson doesn’t disappoint, often sharing new glimmers of wisdom from the poignant questions.

Many of the topics covered are appropriate for leadership development and Nelson concludes his chapters with a “Let’s Get Personal” section that causes us to examine our own mode of operation related to the theme.  At the end of each chapter is a “Let’s Get Going” section that helps the reader define work areas and apply them to his/her own life. 

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