There has been a lot of talk lately about the need for creative leadership in the church. Recognizing that in the Reformed Church, leadership is shared among elders, deacons, and clergy, I think there is a need to expand our nurture of that leadership. I learned a long time ago that one of the barriers to creative leadership is the power of negative responses. Often new ideas are not fully formed when they come into our heads. When we share them in their unformed state, and people point out the problems with the idea, we quickly learn not to be to radical in our next proposal.
I once read about a group who focused on how to nurture creativity. They had two rules that they followed when it came to responding to any new idea. The first rule was that when you responded, you were asked to first share two strengths or positives about the idea. The second rule was that when you did share a weakness or problem with the new idea, it was shared as a corporate challenge. For example, “I like this and this about your idea, but how do WE solve this problem that I think is a concern.” The person who proposed the idea, often in its newly formed state, doesn’t have to have all the answers but joins with a community to strengthen the idea proposed.
Now lets apply that to the nurture of church leadership. First let’s think of ministry outside the immediate church community. What if the leadership identified several areas of ministry that seemed to be supported by the Gospel’s mandate but were not part of the current outreach of the congregation. Then ask the leadership to enter into a time of prayer seeking to identify one of those areas for deeper reflection. While the group still has not determined what they will do with respect to the area, they seek to come to some consensus about one area for the current discussion, knowing that others can come later.
Next, both the clergy and the lay leaders are asked to take at least one-half an hour each day for a week to pray asking what God might be saying to them about possible directions of ministry in that area. When they regather, in almost Quaker fashion, any who wishes is asked to share what has formed in their thinking. After all have shared, using the rules above, they begin to focus down on how they might seek to respond to God’s call in this area.
Leadership needs to listen and be strengthened by the spirit working among them.
