leadership in a postmodern context september 25, 2012 effective church leadership kennon l. callahan
TRANSCRIPT
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Leadership In a Postmodern Context
September 25, 2012
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Leadership
• A leader is a Person• Who influences People• To achieve a Purpose
The Day of Mission
The day of the professional minister is over. The day of the missionary
pastor has come.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Day of Mission
The day of the churched culture is over. The day of the mission field has
come.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Day of Mission
The day of the local church is over. The day of the mission outpost has
come.
A mission outpost is more a people than a place.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Day of Mission
Life is a search. Leadership is being a missionary pastor focused on
discovery & fulfillment.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Day of Mission
The missional leader is preoccupied with helping people discover
fulfillment in their four foundational life searches.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Four Foundational Life Searches
1. The search for individuality2. The search for community3. The search for meaning4. The search for hope
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Search for Individuality
• A search for identity. • A search for autonomy. It is a search for a
sense of freedom, of being independent, of being one’s own self.
• A search for power. It is a search for the ability & the authority to shape one’s own life & destiny.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Search for Community
• The search for community is the search for roots, place, and belonging. It is the search for sharing and caring, for family and friends.
• Construct new communities of reconciliation, wholeness, caring, and justice.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Search for Meaning
• The search for meaning is the search for value and significance, purpose and understanding in everyday, ordinary life in the light of the gospel.
• People don’t want their lives to be empty and worthless. They want there lives to count.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Search for Hope
• The art of being a missionary pastor in our time is to help persons who have postponed their hopes to the next-life future discover the realization of some of their hopes in the present and in the immediate and distant future.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Search for Hope
Two things are true about God’s kingdom:1. The kingdom is now here, now there.2. The kingdom is not yet in its fullness.
The kingdom is now here, now there, in every event of reconciliation, wholeness,
caring , & justice.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
The Missional Leader is:
• Proactive rather than reactive• Intentional rather than responsive• Relational rather than organizational• Missional rather than institutional
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Missional leadership is more art than skill.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Missional Leadership is more map-making
than map-reading.
Major Resources for Leaders
• Wisdom• Judgment – “a missionary pastor doesn’t
always insist on being right.”• Vision – God’s preferred future• Common Sense• Prayer
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Occasional Resources for Leaders
• Healthy Humor• Detachment – don’t take things
personally• Relaxation – personal sustainability• Intensity – knowing the appropriate
moments when intensity will be helpful.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
“There are really two major theologies of the church – a
missional theology & an institutional theology.”
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
“The missional leader understands that to be faithful is ‘to be faithful to the mission’
not to success. Indeed, the missional leader redefines success as mission.”
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
“For the missional leader, one does the mission for the sake of the mission. If, as a happy by-product, there is success (as the
world defines success, such as church growth,) the missional leader praises God & continues in faithfulness to the mission. The leader does not allow the success of
growth to alter his or her mission.”
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Faithfulness & Success
• Some churches are faithful & successful.• Some churches are faithful not successful.• Some churches are not faithful yet are
successful.• Some churches are not faithful and not
successful.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Faithfulness & Success
• Some churches use faithfulness as their excuse for not being successful.
• Some churches us success as their excuse for not being faithful.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Missional leaders are convinced that compassion & community are more helpful motivations than challenge, reasonability, &
commitment.
Key church leaders tend to rely on the motivations of challenge & commitment while the grass roots people & the unchurched are
best touched by the motivations of compassion & community.
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
• Compassion: sharing, caring, loving, giving, serving, supporting
• Community: good fun, good times, fellowship, affiliation, belonging, family, home
• Challenge: accomplishment, achievement, goals, objectives
• Reasonability: logic, data, analysis, “it makes sense”
• Commitment: dedication, loyalty, duty, obligation, vows
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
“We turned the community of compassion into an institution of
commitment.”
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
Effective Church Leadership Kennon L. Callahan
“We discover our theology as we engage in specific mission tasks in the world. The
theologians most helpful to the theological task are missionary pastors, who discover their
theology in the heat of the battle. The discovery of new meanings can best be advanced as
missionary pastors and missionary leaders move forward in mission.”