Urban Leadership Foundation
A hub for leadership training in cities and among the world's 1.4 billion slum-dwellers
The Pastor: In
The Evangelist:
The Builder: The Pittsburgh
Leadership Foundation has been used by God to spawn numerous institutions that
are transforming major sectors of the city
and its society.
Which
Leadership style is appropriate for your city?
Perhaps it depends on the redemptive gift of the city, on God's purposes
for your city, or on the nature of the leaders in your city.
Effective Christian city leaders tend to be highly developed in intuitive responses to needs and issues. This is perhaps because the very context of the diversity and fluidity of cities requires constantly changing Leadership strategies and styles. Cities are monsters with multiple faces, or put the other way are diamonds that sparkle with a multi-varied hue.
During
the 1970's in the Western world, what Jacques Ellul calls "technique" began to take over in
Western management theory, with schools of thought related to "management
by objectives" that are based on unbiblical cultural values emerging from the industrial revolution.
These change the basis of managerial relationships from the biblical view of
man in the creative image of God, to man as a production machine. Executives become interchangeable cogs in
sustaining the machinery of organizations.
Standardization and mass production of people become goals, as against
the development of the uniqueness and gifting of each individual. Time
increasingly ceases to be considered in the Biblical manner as being
directional yet seasonal and becomes linear, able to be squeezed.
This
should not come as a surprise.
On
the other hand a networking and consultative strategy for a city based on
encouraging the development of intuitive abilities through relationship and
story, probably will release enormous amounts of energy towards the same
goals. This could be the reason why
Pentecostal growth of churches in cities is so rapid, as their apprenticeship
training structures and theology based on listening to the Holy Spirit, both
highlight the development of intuitive abilities.
Reflection
on how God exercises power among his people lead to a similar conclusion
towards a servant, listening model of Leadership and away from centralized
controls. He is in control and
constantly releasing energy and his plans at the grass roots. He does not appoint someone to exercise his
control over the city. Rather he uses
those who listen to those grass roots leaders and are able to integrate and
perceive the wider vision and reflect it back to the city leaders.
On
the other hand, there is a place for clear management by objectives. Harnessing the intuitive leaders into
effective teamwork requires some degree
of clear goal-setting, pressure to meet timelines, and the normal moulding,
limiting, stretching, or utilizing of each other that occurs when you are striving to accomplish a goal as a
team. Acceptance of these team pressures
is part of the price of city Leadership
for leaders and wives.
The
giftings of prophet or evangelist are connector ministries. They are inter-church people usually and
these ministries are mobile often. This
does not always go well with the duties of pastor. Yet in most denominations
there is no acceptable slot for the prophet, the evangelist or the apostolic
leader. So men and women with such a
ministry must become pastors.
Sometimes
our pastorally-designed structures hinder the emergence of such men and women
rather than encourage them. Sometimes as
a result of their giftings they of necessity have to form structures outside of
the local congregation. These are
wrongly and unbiblically called "para-church". If the denominational structures had roles
for them, this would be ideal, as this is a structure external to the local
congregations that has more legitimacy, despite an obvious inconsistency
theologically.
The
prophets to the city may not be well accepted.
Ezekiel 22:1 for example is a command from the Lord to Ezekiel:
"Son
of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable
practices and say: "This is what the sovereign Lord says....Therefore I
will make you an object of scorn...."
I
laughed with a friend who has been much used by God in mobilizing
For
this reason, the pastors need to seek out and identify the prophets and enmesh
them into the Leadership, protecting them, listening to them.
John
Dawson in his book, "Healing
© Viv Grigg
and the Encarnação Alliance Training Commission
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Last updated: 05/15/09.