Living In The 3rd Culture: July 2013

You may have noticed how I purposely made a point of stating my conviction that when one receives the call of pastor, they accept the role of leadership. Every pastor is a leader – either negatively or positively! I hope this two part blog will help you be an effective leader who points people to Jesus. In my last entry I touched on the big picture, the broad or general roles of leadership. This week I am going to touch on a few specific areas. Please understand that this not intended to exhaustive, but simply some areas that come to mind as I reflect on my years as a pastor.

The role of preaching has always been the top priority for me primarily because it is at the very heart of what we do. At the same time I can’t help but recall a Steve Brownism[i] that states, “Good preaching covers a multitude of sins”. In other words, if you make preaching a priority - do a good job at it - people will overlook the many inadequacies in your life. Back to my point, you lead when you preach. In my opinion our task of preaching is not to inspire and offer therapeutic suggestions on life, or to simply teach Scripture to our people, but rather to be a prophetic Gospel saturated voice that takes the whole counsel of God and applies it to the context God has called you to serve. As one friend told me, “you white preachers like to make suggestion how people should live. You use phrases like ‘you might want to consider’ when the Bible says “thus saith the Lord!” Most of us have a lot to learn about leading through our preaching.

We also lead when we administrate the Sacraments. If you are not familiar with these Presbyterian terms, this is presiding over baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Communion, Eucharist). As the pastor presides over the Lord’s Supper, he leads God’s people to the table were they are “re-membered” as a body and spiritually nourished through God’s grace. In baptism he is the one used by God to administer the sacrament and the blessings that come with it.

As I have written in an earlier blog, I believe the pastor is the director of worship regardless of whether he actually leads or participates in the musical aspect of the service. I fully realize that there are many who may debate this perspective; nevertheless in the end the pastor must lead through having either direct or indirect responsibility of every part of the worship service.

An area that many pastors may feel uncomfortable is vision and strategic planning. In my opinion the pastor is to be the chief vision keeper. This is a vision that comes through prayer and careful discussion with the leaders (elders) to discern God’s vision and strategy for the church. Once these are in place the pastor should work with the elders to insure that annual goals are established, implemented and evaluated.

Leadership development is a very important area that a pastor should not neglect. The best leaders are those who are developed, or “home grown” from within the church. Therefore a clear plan should be in place where new leaders are regularly being turned out for ministry both in the church and out in the community. Please understand that the task of developing new leaders is perpetual and the pastor must lead by always looking for potential leaders and challenging them to action.

The pastor also leads through congregational care and spiritual development. It is the pastor’s responsibility to mentor and empower the elders to shepherd the flock by example and through training. He also provides oversight of deacons and mercy ministries.

The pastor also leads through administration and management as he is the moderator of session. That is the to say he is the one who leads the elders meetings by setting the agenda and making sure the meetings occur and are lead appropriately. He is also to make sure pastoral care is taking place whether he does this himself or through others on his staff.

Let me conclude with this quote from Dan Allendar, “What most organizations want is clarity — the banishing of ambiguity and a plan that is guaranteed to work. But a limping leader who lives and breathes faith won’t offer those restraints. Instead, he offers an open field on which to play and to fail, to reframe and redesign. The process of chaos-induced creativity invites us to surrender to the God who honors all creativity with new chaos and, with it, opportunities to re-create again and again. A leader-fool blesses complexity because he knows it will humble the team, expose their idols of control, and invite them both to listen with greater depth and to open their hearts to the inverted paradoxical ways of God.”     (Leading with a Limp by Dan Allender, pg. 93)

[i] A Steve Brownism is a statement or thought that I have heard from my long time teacher, mentor and friend Steve Brown.

Third Culture Defined

The term “Third Culture” has been used in various ways. One “Third Culture” group “consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectuals in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.”Another common use of “Third Culture” in fact describes my personal experience. The term was first coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem, professor emeritus of sociology and education at Michigan State University. She used the term to describe children growing up outside their citizenship countries because of a parent’s work abroad. A “TCK or Third Culture Kid has since been defined as, “someone who as a child has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture" Though I am a TCK, it is my desire to use the term in referring to the people who make up the true Christian Church (Theologically defined as the “Invisible Church”). In other words, the Church is a Third Culture. Scripture teaches us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law and the punishment of Hell, and through faith in Him we become citizens of His Kingdom, receiving not only the full benefits of citizenship in His Kingdom, but indeed the right to become sons and daughters of God. The moment, we step into this Kingdome we experience a new and different culture. We are no longer in the kingdom of darkness, but now live in the kingdom of light and that changes everything! At the same time we never went anywhere physically as we continue to work, live, and play with the same people as before, we see the world differently, we no longer truly fit – we are “in the world, but not of it” -- we have a new culture. For most of us this life changing experience occurs within our birth culture and our Christian experience is saturated by those influences. For those who grew up in non-Hispanic White North America, Christianity is uniquely different than those who grew up in an African American context. Our birth culture effects how we live out our faith in the Kingdom of Christ. Yet the Kingdom of Christ requires one more cultural shift and that is away from birth culture and into a culture made up of people of every ethnic and cultural group that has ever existed on the face of the earth. This Kingdom is no more North American than it is Tanzanian or Tibetan. It is a unique or shall we say a “Third Culture” that integrates elements of all cultures into one new and better one, where there is no Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal 3:26-298). In fact Revelation 7:9-10 gives us a description what this will look like one day:“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." A Third Culture Perspective is one that understands and appreciates that God gathers people from every ethnic and cultural group and brings them into the new culture of His Son Jesus Christ. It is a perspective where birth cultures are appreciated and respected as coming from God, but none are superior. It seeks to have a deeper understanding of the Gospel, pays attention to culture, our own as well as others, and then attempts to bring them together. It is a perspective that “seeks first His Kingdom and His Righteousness” and lovingly and passionately enjoys and glorifies God in all we do. It is a perspective that welcomes immigrants….

The Pastor is a Leader - Part II