Two quotes that have helped me grow as a leader:
1: A parallel culture develops as ordinary people feel the loss of the capacity to make sense of their lives. In this state of flux arise those revolutionary moments when ordinary people find something awakening in them that begins to reshape the nature of community and society.[1]
This is a powerful concept, and something I can offer as a tool and reflection to people in the leading edge of the fight for human rights in our current climate. This parallel culture has been growing among the people I know who are fighting for common identity rooted in love and compassion within feminist spaces, parenting spaces, and disability rights spaces. The entire idea of identity is shifting. Being able to take this idea and bring it into the idea of wayfinding from my geography experience and training is giving me some new ideas for where my future ministry can go.
2: Getting to the back of the boat involves some painful, yet necessary losses. There are things that must be left behind, at least temporarily, if we are to experience the release and revival that comes from being in the back of the boat. What were some of the things Jesus gave up when he made his exit? He gave up being the central attraction. He gave up, at least for the moment, being responsible for what did and did not happen. (Give this up, and your ministry will be transformed for the better almost overnight.) He gave up the need to be present in order to ensure that things were being done right. He gave up his multifaced role as Jesus, the teacher, preacher, healer, and master, to be Jesus, the child of God. [2]
This concept isn’t new to me at all, but the one that caught my attention is the need to be present being one of the necessary losses. As a manager and boss, the need to be present was something that was eliminated very quickly – you just cannot be in every meeting. If you can’t delegate and relinquish the control of how things go, you will fail. No questions on that. But I find that I have a need to be present with the people, not just about the getting things done right, but being with them in some way. While this is likely better than needing to be present ‘in order to ensure results’, it still is a need that one cannot hold onto and tend to oneself simultaneously.
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[1] Alan J. Roxburgh, Missional Map Making (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010), 145.
[1] Kirk Byron Jones, Rest in the Storm (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2001), 46.