Spiritual Formation & Leadership

I'll organize today's entry around what Tim Conder suggests are the first two pieces that existing churches need to address emerging culture: spiritual formation and leadership issues. I appreciated Conder's approach to issues of spiritual formation because he took an usual approach. Instead of defining spiritual formation as a set or practices or techniques, he instead associated spiritual formation with the value of hospitality. He does this because he suggests "the spiritual practice of hospitality begins with our openness to God" ( The Church in Transition 115). I love this core value because it shifts the cultural paradigm of a worshiping community away from consumerism; it defines our spiritual life as based upon the bedrock principle of openness to God. What a radical concept for our faith communities to reclaim. There were many, many things I appreciated in Conder's section on spiritual practices (i.e. his delineation of five dangerous assumptions we make about spiritual practices and his explanation of the four types of hospitality). As the pastor of a progressive faith community, however, the thing I most appreciated was Conder's quote of Henri Nouwen that suggests hospitality is rooted in a strong sense of individual and collective self. Nouwen wrote in Reaching Out: "When we want to be really hospitable we not only have to receive strangers but also to confront them by an unambiguous presence, nothiding ourselves behind neutrality but showing our ideas, opinions, and life style clearly and distinctly. No real dialogue is possible between somebody and a nobody. We can enter into communication with the other only when our life choices, attitudes, and viewpoints offer the boundaries that challenge strangers to become aware of their own position and to explore it critically" (113). What a wonderful call for all of us to consider in our ministries. I didn't draw as much from Conder's section on Leadership. This was because Conder focused primarily on issues of pastoral leadership. He rarely teased out the nuances of the challenges facing lay leadership these days. I did like how he emphasized that emerging culture calls for a model of leadership that is "more inclusive and participatory" (132). I'm hoping that our emergent worship team will model these values as we prepare to launch our fall worship experience. If they don't, the value of our efforts will be undermined before the first worship gathering even begins. I appreciated Conder's clarity about the values needed by an emerging leader. He wrote, "The emerging culture wants leaders who are vulnerable with their experiences and involved in the life of the community" (133). He suggests that the future of emergent churches points toward bi-vocational leaders whose lives are grounded in another profession beside ministry. I know this would scare many ordained leaders. I can see the value in this reality, however, in that it would further ground faith leaders in the lives of the people they are serving. It would also force members of the church who have depended upon pastors to do ministry for the to get more involved with various facets of the faith community. I also see this as a huge plus. I am really benefitting from Conder's awareness that starting an emergent worship gathering has ripples that spread far beyond just the 60-90 minutes of worship. Emergent experiences are about a way of being, not simply a style of worship. For that awareness I am grateful. Tomorrow I'll move forward and explore his perspectives on community formation and mission. Til next time...