{"id":1019,"date":"2012-10-30T09:12:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2012-10-30T09:12:06","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:12:06","slug":"tuesdays-with-walter-part-06-the-language-of-leadership-is-theological","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/10\/tuesdays-with-walter-part-06-the-language-of-leadership-is-theological.html","title":{"rendered":"Tuesdays with Walter Part 06 \u2013 The Language of Leadership is Theological"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m in the midst of a long term experiment with the staff at Redemption Church where I pastor. Over the past few decades it has become popular for the typical church staff to study leadership books. Evangelical pastors in our society are expected not only to be theologians, preachers, and pastors, but they are expected to be leaders. The paradigm for the pastor-as-leader has undergone a significant change over the past decade as business paradigms have come front and center. The pastor, we are told, is now a CEO who must learn the methods and practices of a CEO in order to be effective.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not\u2026<\/p>\n

So, we are taking an open ended break from reading leadership books. We are trying to read theology instead. We are trying to read the scriptures, and talk about the story of God so that we can catch a vision for the kingdom come. Our hope is that we can become so captivated by God\u2019s vision for the world that we\u2019ll lead out of that hopeful vision, not out of a bag of administrative and leadership gifts that can produce desired results. We seek not to be effective, but to be faithful.\u00a0If you want to catch up here are links to:\u00a0Part 01<\/a>,\u00a0Part 02<\/a>,\u00a0Part 03<\/a>,\u00a0Part 04<\/a>, Part 05<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walter Brueggemann\u2019s great work The Prophetic Imagination<\/a> is our current text. Brueggemann\u2019s paradigm for prophetic leadership is that most of our society is dominated by what he calls the Royal Consciousness<\/a>. The job of the prophet is to present an alternative consciousness (way of meeting reality), that \u201ccan energize the community to fresh forms of faithfulness and vitality.\u201d (59). Brueggemann proposes this hypothesis:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe royal consciousness leads people to despair about the power to move toward new life. It is the task of prophetic imagination and ministry to bring people to engage ythe promise of newness that is at work in our history with God.\u201d (59-60)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The hopeful future calls into question all current narratives of despair. Those who seek the kingdom reject hopelessness; reject the notion that the way things are is the way things have to be; reject any story that is not anticipating a new reality that is breaking into the world in and through Jesus and the people he has called.<\/p>\n

Brueggemann writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe task of prophetic imagination and ministry\u2026 is to cut through the despair and to penetrate the dissatisfied copying that seems to have no end or resolution. A prophet can do little in such a situation of hopelessness.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brueggemann suggest a three pronged approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n