Tim Keel’s Postures of Leadership (see Part I ):
4. A Posture of Stillness: From Preparation to Meditation
Tim suggest that leaders consider the difference between comprehending God and apprehending God. Apprehending God involves beholding the mysterious reality of God in a way that does not seek to place limitations on his nature that he doesn’t place on himself. In other words, leaders can often get caught up in the constant activity of study and preparation to "present" God to their people. Yet, God wants us to be present to him–to move from preparation to meditation. Preparation means doing research and finding material that supports and illustrates our research. But meditation is deep and intimate conversation with God on God’s terms–simply allowing oneself to be present in stillness before the God we serve. Can we as leaders stop ourselves from constantly preparing to do something so that we might have the possibility of engaging Someone? What if we postured ourselves in stillness rather than constant activity?
4. A Posture of Surrender: From Control to Chaos
Chaos theory posits that while we look at chaos and see only unpredictability, randomness, and erratic noise, there is actually patterns and a sort of order that exists. A posture of surrender acknowledges that chaos is not necessarily crisis. Normally, leaders respond to chaos by attempting to take control, but such decisiveness can be dangerous. In chaotic situations, we just don’t have enough information. Surrender, Tim Keel says, forces us to read the environment more deliberately, to become more adaptive and creative. If we adopt this posture, we’ll ask a different set of questions in the seeming chaos. Where are the patterns? In the midst of disruption, where are the opportunities? In crisis, we want control. In chaos, we want discernment and must be willing to surrender control so that we can better engage the changing environment.
5. A Posture of Cultivation: From Programmer to Environmentalist
Movements depend upon relationships. By moving from programmer to environmentalist, leaders avoid the default position of relieving people from the hard work of building relationships, from our Christian responsibility to be hospitable. When leaders don’t create, discover or facilitate programs, but rather cultivate an environment of hospitality, they animate the relational ecosystem. Leaders should be environmentalists, not administrators and programmers. We are about nurturing space for people to connect with each other and with God. We cultivate environments of growth. Thinking in those terms leads to significant implications in our leadership—implications, which a "program mentality" could never engender.
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