Missional Leadership

In Introducing the Missional Church: What It is, Why It Matters, How to Become One (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), Alan J. Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren write:

A key to missional innovation is empowering the people of a local church to discern and develop actions that come from among themselves rather than strategies and programs proposed by leadership. To be blunt, most change plans and programs initiated by leadership will not change the social system or imagination of the people. Leadership has a choice: it can either be in control of plans, programs, and outcomes or it can work at creating the environment that will release the missional imagination that is among the people of God. Leaders need to decide which of these is the most important in terms of being in this new space. The job of leadership is to create the environment in which that can happen, which requires them to learn new skills. This is what the Missional Change Model is intended to be (pp. 137-138).

One of the tasks of missional leadership is not to introduce and reinforce methods, programs, and strategies in the church, but to create an environment in which the people of God can develop a way of life. I believe that this environment can be cultivated through personal or small-group discipleship. A way of life is often nurtured through an intentional, relational engagement through which old habits and practices are being replaced by new habits and practices as we learn to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Nowadays, church leaders usually function within an institutional setting. The job description of church leadership is to play designated roles and perform specific tasks in a formal setting. But the underlying requirement for being a pastor is in Mark 3:14—Jesus calls disciples so that they can be with him. Jesus as a shepherd always spends time with the sheep—being with him—in a personal way. Jesus then sends them out to do works.

Being with Jesus is a discipling process in which the kingdom-of-God mindset and mission of Jesus are being internalized by disciples who externalize the message of Jesus the King in Jesus’ way. Being with Jesus comes before doing works in his name. Jesus spends time with the disciples to disciple them; the disciples who are being discipled are sent out to participate in God’s mission.