I did tell myself I'd stop re-posting blogs from Mark Driscoll, with incredulous comments added.
But then I looked at his latest series: leadership lessons from baseball, and I had to share. It's scary; it's alarming; I'm starting to wonder if we should see it as cultish. Except that I've never heard of a cult modelling itself after baseball (yawn!) - save for the cult of baseball itself. Lesson 2 is particularly encouraging, as is the under-defined notion of "underperforming" in the later lessons. Though there is more to leadership than this, I can't help thinking that the first things I'd look for are abundances of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But those do not seem to be the characteristics of interest. Indeed, one forms the impression that Jesus wouldn't fare well as an elder at Mars Hill.
You see, I have this love-hate thing going on with Driscoll's writing. Most of it, frankly, revolts me. But - like so much else - it contains nuggets of value, some of great value. The observation in the latest of these leadership lessons that Christians would rather soldier on with something that's not working - inventing a theology of suffering to cover it - rather than address the problem itself (my paraphrase), is a good one. That's a perspective we hear too rarely, and I'm glad he brought it up. But the idea that we must sack underperforming and overpaid pastors (who? I've never met such a person), not so much.
2 comments:
Number of men on staff who have young children and wives who work outside the home. (lesson 2) I find this question a bit baffling. Should it be matched with other questions like "Number of men on staff whose wives are barren," "Number of men on staff who have rebellious teen-age children," "Number of men on staff who 'still haven't met the right woman'"?
Some years ago I heard about a church split caused precisely because the leadership forced the senior pastor, a "broken old veteran" (who, it seems, truly was broken and old) to retire. International members from cultures which respect/revere the aged were horrified, and left the church en masse.
I like your question about how well Jesus would fare. Would he be accepted as a candidate for ministry in many other churches either, though? ;)
Are we supposed to maximise or minimise that figure, do you suppose? :)
As for the last comment, yes indeed. I'm struck by the observation I heard a while ago that there are plenty of curches where the pastor would get the sack for bringing wine to a party... which seems to suggest they would have frowned upon the Wedding at Cana.
I've heard it suggested (by an evangelical) - but I don't recall the details - that Jesus isn't the ideal model for church leadership. As for me, I'd want to think that I'd look for a Christ-like leader, but doubtless I would have my own blind-spots.
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