EL’s Dribble

As the primary instigator of Haven, I’m often asked why we do what we do. Those who have gone to church for any significant length of time always have the most difficulty understanding. And I don’t necessarily blame them as reflected in this post. When you’ve done something for so long and have understood it to be true, it’s hard not to have extreme reactions.

But the dialogue on why we do what we do always begins with the organizing question [principle] of “How do we make disciples?” And “disciples” would then need to be defined as being “wholly devoted followers of Jesus.” And even this could be broken down to being genuine and passionate lovers of God and people.

I realize that the mistake most make is that they always begin the conversation with form. I heard a prominent pastor share about how he started his church and he said that he didn’t really know where to start except that he needed a Sunday worship and Sunday school. A few years down the line, he had an epiphany that his forms [structure] were the things that were hindering him from doing what he really wanted but he never saw it.

This isn’t to say that churches need to abandon weekly Sunday worship services… but that we should evaluate what we do by what we want to accomplish. The church has borrowed too much from the business world, but asking this simple management question seems necessary.

A lot of things also play into this with regards to my own leadership style, my spiritual giftings/bent, etc. So I’ll start a few string of posts explaining why we do what we do and I’m sure that’ll help our people and help me articulate what has been ruminating in my head for these past few years.

More to come.

Originally taken from here. An excerpt from Seth Godin’s book Tribes.

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. The scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile. In other words, if everyone could do it, they would, and it wouldn’t be worth much.

It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.
It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.
It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.
It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.

When you identify the discomfort, you’ve found the place where a leader is needed. If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.