What is an emerging leader

I read this post recently on No Guarantees about what an emergent leader looks like.  Thought provoking!  We are definitely in a state of change in the church as to how we go about being the church! Click here to read it all.

 

Emerging Leaders Think “Community” not “Congregation”.

Jim Peterson says in “The Church Without Walls” that God’s people are not, in essence, a congregation. They are a community. “Congregation” is frequently used in the Old Testament to describe the gathering of the people of Israel. “Community” implies life together, a life of caring for one another that touches the full spectrum of our affairs. (pg 150)

Eddie Gibbs says that congregations should not be viewed as a group of people who gather together for an hour or two each week. Rather, he says, they should be viewed as a federation of teams – people who support and encourage one another as they live out their faith commitment and minister to the people they are in contact with…ministry and mission flow out of relationships. (Leadership Next 37) This describes – community.

We seem to have made congregating the major priority in our churches. Emergent leaders I speak with recognize the importance of gathering for teaching and worship, but it seems that many people are unsure how living and loving in community in full view of unbelievers actually works. How do we live out Jesus command in John 13:33ff to Love one another (believers) as Christ loved us, SO THAT OTHERS WOULD SEE AND KNOW THAT WE ARE BELIEVERS? Where does this actually take place? Where does the world observe first hand, believers loving one another in their day to day living?

Emerging Leaders Define Success Differently.

Bums, Budgets and Buildings are ways of describing what are the measures of success in so many churches (not yours of course!).