Lose Your Job. from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

Travis Reed sits down with Sally Morgenthaler and discusses the provocative idea of church leadership.  If you are looking for an alternative way of being the church, we can help.

Last night, we had an awesome conversation about the nature of going inward for three years.  In many ways it feels strange having permission to work out our own restoration in a small tribe.  It feels somewhat selfish.  But this is what Jesus did.  He gave the disciples permission to follow and listen in a very intimate way.  Each got to wrestle through the questions of what it meant to live in the kingdom of God.  I have alway said, I would love to be a fly on the wall during their private conversations.

The simple fact is Jesus left after three years and said, “Now you go do it.”  So as my own group begins to wind down, we are now beginning to prepare for what it means to lead others in the way of Jesus.  And this means asking some hard questions about our own participation.  Have we really done the work necessary to prepare ourselves for leading others? Have we really taken advantage of this space in a way that leads to our own restoration?

Leadership requires being prepared to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in the moment.  It requires the willingness to step into darker spaces so we can be love and trust to those in those spaces.  And if we haven’t prepared ourselves for that step, we won’t just be missing out on what God is doing, we will be missing out on our own journey.

What are you doing to prepare yourself to lead others in the way of Jesus?

About six months ago I had a conversation with a friend that I’ve had at least a thousand times.  He was intrigued by what we were doing in Thrive and wanted to participate.  But there was a wisdom in his thoughts that allowed him to realize he was not ready to lead a tribe, but he definitely wanted to participate in one.  He wanted to discover a place of restoration and wholeness but knew he needed to first follow.  He knew that he needed to find his own place of humility and learning before he could ever lead anyone else in the footsteps of Jesus.

I applauded my friend for his genuine honesty and humility.  Yet my heart broke for him.  I knew from the countless conversations that I have had with those looking for a more restorative approach to Christianity, that my friend was one in a very large crowd.  He just needed a leader to show him the way.

I also knew that somewhere out there are those who are ready to lead.  They’ve done the hard work of embracing the cross, of restoring their heart, and in practicing love and trust.  I knew there were people out there who get that it is about relationships and wholeness.  But I just didn’t know how to bridge the two.

So if you are a leader, I am inviting you to step up and lead.  If you have stood in the footsteps of Jesus and understand what love and trust look like in a restorative community, I am asking you to find those around you who are looking for that community too.  You’re own life will be made more whole in the process.  You will discover why Jesus said, “Now you go and make disciples.” And if that caustic voice inside you says, “That’s so vain,” I invite you to shout back, “But that is my calling.”

In this call to leadership Jesus was inviting those who knew to share that wealth.  And when we did, we became more whole in the process.

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Jonathan Brink is the Managing Director of Thrive Ministries.  He loves helping leaders follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

The following is a letter to all new leaders who are considering starting or are starting out in the Thrive process. Sometimes we just need a little perspective for the journey. (Excerpt, Leadership Manual, pg 7)

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Friends,

I want to welcome you to the missional leadership journey.  Engaging God’s mission of restoration is the journey of a lifetime.  It will stretch you, pull you, push you and twist you in ways that will give life meaning.  You were meant to do this and we at Thrive applaud you for taking the risk.

Much of the leadership questions and processes you will need are here in this manual.  But there is a side to the journey that can never be in the manual.  And that is your specific route.  I want to launch you by telling you a story that describes the freedom to discover that route.

If you live in the twenty-first century you’ve probably tried an online map service.  They’re really great. They provide detailed instructions as well as a picture of what your route to your destination looks like.
A couple of years ago, I took my family on a trip to Disneyland and punched in the route to one of these services.  The site promises to provide me with the best possible route to my destination.  It felt really good leaving with all the information I would need to get there fast.  We left in the morning and hit Los Angeles about 2:30 PM.  It was a hot day.

Little did I know that Highway 5 in Los Angeles is now a parking lot.   Millions of cars were moving at the speed of a slug, all seeming to want to get to the same destination as me.  I honestly could have walked faster.  It was the kind of slow death crawl that brings out the worst in little children.  Mine were not spared.  It felt like a scene out of Chevy Chase’s Vacation.  “When are we going to be there?”  “I’m hot.”  “He touched me.”  Little children are not meant to sit in a car shaped box, strapped in for longer than two hours at a time.

I used to live in Los Angeles and knew of other possible routes, but my memory of the freeway system seemed hazy.  Sensing a need to get out of the parking lot, I took a chance and cut over on some main streets and winged it.  Before I knew it, I was flying down another highway feeling sorry for anyone who had to drive the 5 on a regular basis.  I was a free man, but something troubled me.

You see my map had fooled me into thinking it was THE path to follow.  It had provided me with the best potential route, but it had no way of knowing there was going to be traffic, and heat, and screaming children.  This was a recipe for disaster.  My printout only had this one route, so I was left to inch along the 5 or venture out and try another way.  For most of the route it had served me fine.  It was easy.  But at some point I had to make a decision to detour, mostly for the sake of my sanity.  By doing so, I had opened myself up to getting lost a long the way, but also to potentially a quicker, more effective route.  I took a chance and we got there in once piece.

As you navigate your journey with your group you will often be left with a decision when to discover your own path.  This material is like a map in that it is meant to provide an interesting route to wholeness but it is not the only route.  This is A map.  Not THE map.  This is a very liberating thought when you really think about it.  What this means is that you can take detours, tread new uncharted ground, and figure out a different path along the way.  Just remember that when you venture into uncharted territory there are usually no WalMart along the way.  You may be on your own.  If you do, seek wise counsel along the way.

As you tread along the path, remember that you carry the promise of the Holy Spirit to guide you.  Where ever you go, look to the Holy Spirit to lead you into a rich experience of faith, hope, and ultimately to love.  I encourage you to try new ideas, take chances, and see what works for you.  If you sense the Holy Spirit’s leading you in a direction, which is different from this material, trust the Holy Spirit.  He is your true guide.  This material just provides you with possibilities and options.  You can always come back to it, or even stay with it as it serves you well.  You may find that it is exactly what you need most of the way, or just some of the way.

Blessings on your journey!

Jonathan

At Thrive, we encourage what we call, “open hand leadership”.  It is the idea that we are stewards of what God has given us, but at any moment we may be called to surrender a part or a whole of what has been given.  In many ways this has been liberating.  There is something infinitely more rewarding that comes from nurturing and stewarding something as opposed to trying to control it.  But recently I had an experience that reminded me that this practice must continually be revisited.

A couple of weeks ago, my tribe went on our Q7 retreat.  The week leading up to the retreat we participated in an exercise designed to speak wholeness into our lives.  It was simply spending 30 minutes listening to how Jesus saw me. And during this exercise I asked him what I was being called to do.  With my eyes closed, the only image I was given was of my hands.  That’s it.  Nothing more.

So with this my tribe went to the retreat. And on Sunday, we had the opportunity to spend time alone walking with Jesus and really listening to how He wanted to speak into our lives.  And much of my work during the weekend was with family.  At one point I stopped and just enjoyed the surrounding beauty of the mountains trying not to force anything.  And as I closed my eyes I began to ask, “What have you been trying to tell me Jesus?  I want to listen.”

And what happened next surprised me.  Jesus took my hands and held them out with my palms down, as if covering something.  He said, “This is what you are trying to do with your family.  You are trying to control them.”  My heart broke because I knew it was true.  I knew that my own wounds had driven me to create unreasonable expectations for my family.

When we try and control the world around us, we inevitably get in the way of what God is trying to do.  We hold onto the image of what we expect and miss what God is already doing.  By trying to protect my family and control who they should be, I was getting in the way of what God was doing.  And worse, I was missing out on what He was already doing.

And then Jesus did something that restored me.  He took my hands and turned them over.  He said, “This is how I want you to participate.”  And in that moment I suddenly felt the weight of expectation drop off me.  It was incredibly liberating.  By letting go of control, I was letting go of an unreasonable burden that I had picked up along the way.

And then I learned something that I had never seen before.  When we returned as a group we shared our stories and then closed in prayer.  We typically hold our hands out together.  One of my brothers jumped in a read Colossians 1, which takes about seven minutes to read.  And normally I hold my hand out palm down.  And what I’ve noticed in the past is that during a long prayer my hand starts to fatigue.  And as he was reading I could feel the weight of all the guys hands on top of mine.  When he was finished, my hand was physically sore from trying to hold up my hand and the guys on top of mine.

And then we closed in prayer, but one of my brothers did something that I had never experienced before.  He turned my hand upwards.  And as we prayed I realized that the burden of the weight wasn’t as hard.  Structurally it was a better posture for my hand.

Thank you Jesus.