Ministry Vine

Its been a while since we have posted a blog to our site and instead of continuing with our blogs on the self-care inventory, I thought it would be helpful to take a break from that and look at an aspect of our role as leaders. There are a lot of wonderful leadership gurus, teachers and speakers in our world today both within the church (and other Christian organizations), in business, education, government (yes, even in government) and so many other settings. Its hard to wade through all of the great leadership material, but its often worth it. One of my favorite leadership thinkers and writers as of late is Scott Cormode. He is the DePree (another great leader) professor of leadership at Fuller Seminary and his book Making Spiritual Sense is a must read for all leaders. In this short, but powerful book Cormode talks about the role Christian leaders have as spiritual interpreters. We should not control, dictate or even force those we lead, but to help them interpret the spiritual truth and reality in the midst of both secular and sacred challenges. “The first duty of a Christian leader is to provide a Christian perspective, an interpretive framework for people who want to live faithful lives.”  A key aspect of Christian leadership is not only Christian perspective with a theologically grounded framework, but also to help people find meaning in all things; meaning that is rooted in a kingdom perspective. This kind of leadership is difficult, especially in Christian churches and organizations—a reality that is not lost in its irony. It is in ‘providing a theological framework’ that those we lead can find ‘spiritual meaning.’ What is it that we can do that might help us to make spiritual sense of our own lives so that we can better lead others in this way? What aspects of our own lives need some solid theological interpretation so that we might live more faithfully? How can we best lead by example in finding and interpreting spiritual, Christ-centered, kingdom truth in all things?