When previously writing on this blog, I contemplated on how to develop appropriate attitudes towards the communities we’re a part of. I identified the need for unity within community and the potential obstacles to such unity.
Zoning in on the topic of training and supporting missional (community) leaders, I’m wondering how the issue of unity relates here.
Recently, I’ve come across some pretty distinctive young adult leader-types. And...have myself the privilege of helping to lead them through a shaping time in their lives. Now, most of them are just at the start of discovering their passions, calling and leadership potential, but seeing their personalities unfold, as we get stuck in with different activities, it is clear that they are the next generation leaders in our church, our nation, potentially across Europe!! Keenly aware that it’s my job to help them discover how to grow in intimacy with God and submit their lives to him as they learn to walk out their (leadership) callings, I come up against all sorts of what feel like disunifying issues; situations where what they do or say clashes with what I and/or others think they should be doing or saying.
But: have you ever been in a situation where someone said something you found inaccurate, untrue, even offensive, but the Holy Spirit is not allowing you challenge them? Or you’ve observed somewhat unconventional, or maybe even inappropriate behaviour, vowed to bring it up as a “discipleship issue” only to find yourself unsure as to whether that’s really the right call? I frequently find myself in those kinds of scenarios, and as I’m not the type who’s afraid to challenge, I don’t think we’re talking about a case of needing to learn to be firm.
No, the lesson I think God is teaching me about how to support and train the next generation of missional leaders is about discerning his core values from my own personal ones (however legitimate and godly they may be) and allowing those I lead to rock my boat and make me feel uncomfortable about how they choose to live life, while at the same time being clear about what I sense God really wants them to take on board. It’s quite an uncomfortable place to be in, as I’m having to ask myself how sure I am of what I consider to be essentials. The oft-quoted phrase “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity” sounds great, but fails to bring about the spirit of being “united in love” Paul encourages in the Colossians, if we don’t know what the essentials really are.
Our goals of seeing our cities and nations transformed for the kingdom of God sound grand, but sometimes unspecific. If we’re going to see thousands of un-churched people come to be led by the missional leaders we train, the values these leaders hold on issues like sexuality, social justice, care for the elderly, developing God’s call on your life, etc. will invariably influence the kind of transformation we’re going to see. Think of the scale of people who may look to the people you train for questions relating to the very make-up of our society.
So, in order to not end in a completely dis-unified quarry ten years down the line when we’re surprised what our lack of clarity in the essentials has produced or failed to produce in the disciples we make and in those we trained them to make, I wonder whether we need to ask ourselves more rigorously how sure we are of the essentiality and biblical-ness of our values in areas we maybe haven’t so far cared to think through or study too much. In order to attain true unity (one of the building blocks of revival) and for the sake of the sustainability of the revival we all long for, will you join me in digging deeper in defining the essentials of the life we sense God is calling humanity to live, as well as training others to do the same?
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