J. R. Kerr, the singles/teaching pastor at Park Community Church in Chicago, IL, recently wrote an article in Leadership Journal. The title of his article was "Open Source Activists." The motivation behind his article is to demonstrate how leadership styles need to change to reflect the changes in how people process and interact with information.
Open Source tools like YouTube and Wikipedia give the average person on the street the ability to create and give input where before that person would be forced to simply observe or only interact with a limited audience.
J. R. Kerr challenges the way our churches today use leadership and specifically a top-down mentality. The pastor becomes the focal point and without his input and direction, people are left powerless to perform their tasks and accomplish their ministries.
He put it this way, I was supposed to have some degree of control over every part of the church, supposed to have the answer to whatever problem arose. One day, I had a string of meetings that kept me from my office most of the day. Upon my return I met five people whose jobs had come to a halt because they needed me. They all had the information and the skills necessary to do their work, but they lacked the authority—the necessary space—to lead. This kind of organizational environment expects leaders to know and control virtually everything in the life of the community.
Mr. Kerr's big push is that leadership in churches today needs to relinquish control and allow others to be involved in the creative and development process of ministry within the church. He argues that people today want to be heard and have a voice in the development of ideas and even the shaping of vision for that assembly.
Kerr holds that nothing within our churches should be considered off limits or untouchable if it is felt to be an obstacle to success.
J. R. Kerr's final paragraph helps summarize his view. This new generation sees themselves and their potential differently. They don't require titles and positions to influence the culture. This is a generation of social activists, artists, and leaders who intend to accomplish great things for the kingdom of God. Our responsibility is to make space for them, and that requires thinking differently about how we lead.
Read the article if you find time and I am going to react more in my next blog. It
is a challenge to us as "leaders" to make sure that we are truly leading in a way that is Biblical, effective, relevant, and going somewhere. Are we leading or just being control freaks? Are we enabling or just micromanaging? Are we shepherding or butchering our flock? We are to be leaders so how should we lead? Kerr is pressing an issue here. Is he right or reactionary? Is he on target or misguided? Is it situational, personality, or is it overarching?
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