That'll teach me for talking about abundance last week. This week I have an abundance of cold symptoms. I also have an abundance of RAT tests which keep cheerfully informing me I don't have Covid. I went down to Northcote for a PCR test because I wasn't trusting the self-administered RATs.
The one good thing about being on sick leave is the increased opportunity for reading. I just finished Water Under the Bridge by Don Barry, a Pentecostal pastor who moved his congregation out of the AOG fold due to his dissatisfaction with their handling of a couple of leadership crises within the denomination, including the cover-up of the historic Frank Houston sexual offending.
Barry captured my interest with his memoir of a life in ministry infused with useful insights about authenticity and persistence. His learning journey was a move away from the Prophet/Big man/Visionary/CEO leadership style so typical in Pentecostalism, towards a values based approach that brings the gifts of many in the congregation into play. People are valued over 'the vision'. Visions emerge from the diversity of the body, not just the talking head. Some preferred the old way, and departed.
I guess his experience was that so often the authoritarian, prophetic leader spiralled into burnout or moral destruction. There had to be a better, values-based way. I've been listening to a video summary of Australian research that is showing young people are now largely turned off by church leadership that is authoritarian, moralistic and somewhat hypocritical. Young adults are far more likely to value diversity in the community than their forbears, and have different priorities. We ignore this at our peril.
Just this week we have seen the All Blacks double down on the sort of leadership that clearly hasn't been working for them this last while. Will this pay off, or will they have to change in the end anyway? We can watch and take note, and hopefully learn.
What impressed me in Pastor Don Barry's book was his persistence, and his authenticity. Not afraid to abandon observed and typical 'top-down' ways of leading and being, he and his team adopted people-centred, values-based ministry. The leadership of 'old school' Pentecostal pastors has been in the news of late, and sometimes dragging the wider church into disrepute.
Our faithful persistence needs to be infused with innovation, not clinging to past clichés, but trusting the Holy Spirit to lead us into God's will for the current circumstances, maybe even somewhere new?
