The Ministry Collaborative is committed to developing pastors, ministry leaders, and congregations for creative leadership. Our focus isn’t simply on “skilling up.” Rather, we recognize and seek to address the need for growth at a much deeper level where things like sustainability, adaptivity, and intuition are developed. Fundamental to this approach is going to ministry leaders wherever they are, helping them interpret their context, providing facilitated space for building capacity and deepening relationships, and offering the support to move forward in the direction God is calling them. We come alongside others in the development of mature leadership.
In our current blog series – asking ministry leaders in our network to respond to key questions – we wanted to address the concept of leadership. This week, we ask once again,
What Does Mature Ministry Leadership Look Like?
A strong confidence in the call – of what it is and is not – proved to be a recurring hallmark of mature leadership. Such confidence allows for reliance on the wider community, which itself is aware of its own call and giftedness. This understanding of mature leadership lends itself to being a calm and non-anxious presence in/for the church.
Joe Scrivner, Pastor Brown Memorial Presbyterian, Dean of Stillman Chapel, Tuscaloosa AL – “Mature leaders I know are exhibiting clarity and consistency about their calling and commitments, resisting the temptation to be distracted. They are able to resist being drawn too deeply into congregational conflicts or at least maintain calm control in such situations. These leaders are also supported by a circle of strong lay leaders in the congregation, those who will step up and offer support, leadership, and run interference.”
Joe Clifford, Pastor, Myers Park Presbyterian, Charlotte, NC – “They have a strong sense of self understanding – know who they are, not trying to be anyone else. Ability to connect with people. Capacity to regulate their own anxiety.”
Related to confidence in calling and awareness of giftedness is the establishment of clear and healthy boundaries. Boundaries are not an act of defiance. Rather, they are established in order to “keep the main thing the main thing,” maintain health and develop resiliency, and recognize that call extends beyond the scope of ministry positions to family, friends, and self.
Katie Nakamura Rengers, Presiding Bishop’s Staff Officer for Church Planting at The Episcopal Church – “Mature leaders are empathetically apathetic to their church institution. They love the church, but they aren’t IN love with the way it used to be, or even the way it currently is. They care more about the people of God than about the liturgy and traditions of the church, and can articulate what they’ve had to sacrifice in order to get there.”
Marthame Sanders, Producer, Consultant, Ordained Minister, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Atlanta, GA – “I think self-differentiation is an evergreen maturity dynamic. Those who exhibit self-differentiation are more resilient (even in dysfunctional contexts) and are also healthier – emotionally, physically, and spiritually. They don’t always find the resources they need and can even be punished within their adjudicatories for foregoing a ministry of omnipresence.”
Amy Valdez Barker, Congregational and Pastoral Formation Curator, The Ministry Collaborative – “The mature ministry leaders I know exhibit balance. They have a way of finding a good healthy balance between ministry, family, personal, and social aspects of their lives. Nothing is all consuming, but each part offers a respite from the other, while also giving them hope, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. Who doesn’t need self-control when it comes to spending time with family? (or even church family?) The most mature ministry leaders I have encountered have a peaceful feeling about living that well-balanced life.”
Finally, mature ministry leadership is rooted and grounded in the Gospel. It demonstrates integrity, conviction, and courage that come from faith in and through Christ. Albert Russell, Pastor Grace Cumberland Presbyterian, Millbrook, AL. Assistant Provost for Academic Program, Tuskegee University, writes, – “The mature leaders that I know are the ones who call balls and strikes. They haven’t compromised their beliefs for political points, and they have not capitulated to the desires of political institutions to subvert the Word of God with political messaging. They keep their eyes on the unseen things and preach and teach with eternity in mind. They also engage in hard conversations while not trying to look like they have all the answers. I can’t speak to their resourcing. I believe it comes down to a basic understanding of what we have been called to do: to lead people to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel.”
What do you think mature ministry leadership looks like? We’d love to hear from you.
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