Vision

I have three quite contrasting ‘vision statement’ stories to tell from three different congregations. One common theme was the length of time it took to come up with a vision! In the Edenvale Methodist Church I can’t quite remember the exact words, but the mission statement’s focus was ‘reaching the lost and caring for the poor”. In the next 10 years of my stay in Edenvale this is exactly what the church did! It built a 100-seater soup kitchen and employment agency for unskilled labour, it developed a nursery school for some 150 children employing 23 staff members, and it built a fantastic hospice for the poorest of the poor dying from HIV/AIDS. To reach the unchurched it ran an Alpha Course every quarter for 10 years! The church grew phenomenally. And the worship and spirituality deepened alongside with all that was going on. Home groups flourished! In the Leland United Methodist Church, the vision statement was: “Filled with the Holy Spirit, we are a people of prayer, committed to love one another and equipped to share Christ’s love through the world.” Like Edenvale, Leland became who they said they were. It was a place of great love and powerful healing prayer, and it did equip itself to share Christ’s love throughout the world, investing greatly in mission in India, eventually sending four congregation members on a memorable life changing mission trip. In the Grace United Methodist Church, after much discussion, the small elderly congregation decided their vision was to keep the church doors open so they could be buried from their home church one day. Some whispered quietly that we should be sure not to let the church reflect the increasing growth of the black population in the neighbourhood. What was different here was, whilst I remained true and respectful to the ‘vision’ of the old folk, God had other ideas in mind! Through illness and a few other adverse circumstances the doors of the church opened to the black population, whom contrary to the whispered part of the ‘vision’, the folk loved and embraced as their own. The church doors not only remained open, but also widened a bit! The moral of these three stories? Be sure to ask the question, “What is our vision?” Even if we get it wrong a bit. The journey, and the enthusiasm, and the passion, and the direction a ‘vision’ brings is worth every cent it took to find it. Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (King James Version) “If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed” (The Message)

Servant Leadership

I want to write about leadership in general, and not just ministry, which by definition is service. My understanding is that the greatest leader is the servant leader, and true leadership equals service. I am not sure where that got lost, and how other models of leadership took over. Luckily in South Africa we have Nelson Mandela as a great model of servant leadership. He seems to stand alone in the modern world. Jesus is the perfect model of servant leadership! He not only taught it (‘the first shall be last’, ‘the least among you is the greatest’), acted it out in the foot washing, he lived it out in the way he lived, and died. I remember sitting in a lecturer’s lounge at Rhodes University listening to a visiting Professor of Sociology and a Conflict Resolution expert from the USA speak to us, when the resident fox terrier walked into the middle of the lounge and vomited. We all sat in silence as the Professor got up, fetched a cloth from the kitchen, cleaned it up, and carried on with the lecture as if nothing had happened. Today it seems the need for status, financial reward, and power have moved servant leadership to the backseat. So many leaders today model the powerful status model. It is true even in ministry, the very definition of servant leadership, where we ministers are trying to balance sacrificial service with status, financial reward and power. Not that status, financial reward and power are wrong, great servant leaders can attain to these, it is just not what motivates them or the secret of their success. The desire and ability to serve is innate. In his research book, “From Good to Great” Jim Collins and his team discovered the first and foremost reason why companies were able to move from good companies to great companies was in the nature of their leader. The great leader turns out to be “Not the charismatic upfront leader, but the hard working unassuming, inner strength leader. We were surprised, shocked really to discover the types of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.”