What culture are you part of??

Having spent a lot of time abroad recently, I have often found myself speaking about “culture” whilst processing my new experiences and relationships. It is seemingly agreed that culture and cultural values can be defined by observing the following aspects of life in a community or society: language, thoughts, arts and sciences (which are essentially the most refined forms of human expression), spirituality, social activity and interaction. Each of these certainly represented a point of difference to me whilst living in a different country. Essentially everything is different!

 All this has made me realise that, when establishing a new culture in a Missional Community, the values of what I am trying to grow must pervade and be evident in every aspect of that group of people. In recently starting a new community, I have also seen what a challenge this can be! Our word “culture” was actually first used in Late-Middle English to describe a piece of land that had been tilled or ploughed. I think this is helpful picture to have in our minds when we find it hard or exhausting and the change is slow! It takes consistent time and effort.

The main missional values that we tried to establish in this particular MC were love and service. This involved a slow process of getting people to engage with opportunities to serve mission “projects” around them that were already happening and using it as an opportunity to learn to think about others in a more missional way in their primary mission context; in this case young adults. It was exciting to see the change in people over the course of a few months as they began to adopt a culture of loving and serving those less fortunate than themselves and asking the question of “How does this apply to the rest of my life?” I think this is the point where it became part of the culture as people looked to make mission part of their whole lives and not just an event. Over time and in small ways, it became part of the language, thoughts, expression, spirituality and activity of the group.

My observation would be that, as leaders, we also need to be so aware that what we consistently model is what sets the culture of our community, because we are the ones that define it. This has got me thinking about the following;

Which values do we want to define our culture?

Do we talk about them?

Do we model them in our lives?

Do we give others invitation/challenge to practise them as well?

I think once we have “tilled” these cultural values into our communities, it becomes so much easier for people to grow and become fruitful and see mission become part of our lives and not just our diaries.

Images courtesy of xedos4 and Bill Longshaw

“Here are a few tips for releasing vision in the non-pioneers, the under-encouraged or those lacking in confidence:

1. Get to know people’s passions, dreams & desires, especially those who are less ‘obvious’ as leaders. Make some time for those who don’t seek you out to tell you their new vision or idea – look for those who are putting away the chairs, or serving coffee. Often these guys make brilliant missionary leaders because they know how to serve and love others.
2. Help potential leaders to clearly articulate their vision - writing it down or talking it through with friends can help with this. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just clear. If it helps, get them to think about what they want to see in the UP-IN-OUT of their community. It can (should!) be that simple!
3. You can’t encourage the unconfident too much! They need to know you believe in them. Take plenty of opportunities to let them know what gifts/skills you see in them and how you see God’s call on their life. However….
4. Don’t let them get away with procrastinating about getting to grips with vision and/or getting started. Hold them accountable and pin them down to a plan of writing a vision/plan/asking team/etc, or they might well never bite the bullet and get on with it!
5. Give people space to experiment and fail. Sometimes this might be easiest / feel safest for them within the context of a larger community from which they can then be released at the right time.
6. Train them to lead in their own style/giftings rather than in yours or someone else’s. They stand a much better chance of succeeding! Help them to develop team who will balance out their giftings.
7. Good coaching is key to their success. They might well need more coaching than a ‘natural’ leader. Concentrate on encouragement and helping them to make decisions for themselves rather than giving them all the answers (or telling them what you would do!)
8. Don’t necessarily expect their communities to grow as quickly or easily as other more experienced leaders – after all, they are just learning how to be a leader and how to lead with a vision. This will be especially true if their vision is quite ‘specialised’ or has quite a narrow focus.
9. Keep them missional! It’s easy to get overwhelmed with leading people so keep their eyes on why they’re doing it.
10. Celebrate success! Share testimony, encourage (again!) and remember that mobilising a whole variety of leaders across the body into missional vision and leadership is worth your time and effort.”

So……… we are going to kick off our “Highlights” series with this two-part blog from last summer on Discovering and Developing Missional Vision. Enjoy!

As previously mentioned, please feel encouraged to leave thoughts and questions that come up!

“One of the things that gets me most excited is being able to release and support people into putting into action the vision God has given them. Seeing people live out their calling, especially those who aren’t your typical pioneer or confident leader, is something I find really fulfilling.

I expect most of you who have been on a journey with Missional Communities with us for a little while will have been thinking about and concentrating on releasing your pioneer leaders, the ones who are ‘early adopters’ – those who are usually bursting with vision and raring to be released. Great! That’s definitely the place to start.

This week however I’d like to use this blog post to explore a little how to help those for whom vision comes a bit less easily, who are less ‘self-promoting’, more introverted or simply lack confidence or experience. For Missional Communities to become fully established within a church it is important to be raising up leaders of all shapes and sizes – MC leadership is not just for the raving extroverts or the ‘obvious’ leaders you have in your church!

I’ll post in 2 parts; today I’ll ask a few questions of you to ponder on, thinking about some of the underlying foundations and leadership culture in your church. Next week I’ll give a few tips of how to help encourage more people into leading with a missional vision.

So, some questions for you to consider:

• · Do you have a vision for raising up leaders?
• · What is the culture of leadership in your church? Do people know that leadership isn’t restricted to one ‘type’ of person? Do they have a biblical understanding of leadership?
• · Do you have a process by which vision is taught, released and nurtured across the whole body? Are you making it simple or expecting too much?
• · What examples of leadership are you holding up to the church?
• · Are the testimonies you profile of God at work in every day life as well as the more ‘spectacular’?
• · Are your MC leaders able and equipped to encourage and release others in their MC into their own vision and calling?

Setting good foundations and a biblical view of leadership in your church is vital in enabling people to discover the vision and call God has given them.

Next week I’ll share my top 10 tips on releasing vision in the non-pioneers, the under-encouraged or those lacking in confidence!”