This is a series of guest posts by Scott Bessenecker. He is the Associate Director of Mission for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Each year he helps to mobilize thousands of students to domestic and international mission. He is author of various books including his new release Overturning Tables: Freeing Missions from the Christian-Industrial Complex
One of the very first words our kids learned was “MINE!” (spoken with all caps and followed by an exclamation point). One of the first sentences our kids learned was “I DO IT!” again with all capital letters and an exclamation point. Somehow the idea of private ownership and rugged individualism is picked up very early in life without an economics course or special classes in self-awareness. We appear to be born with a nasty strain of independence.
For those of us who come from northern European stock, the tendency to cling to independence and individualism is rewarded and reinforced our whole lives. We never quite grow out of a sneaking suspicion that we could manage quite well on our own. On the individualism – collectivism continuum the countries of northern Europe rank as some of the most individualistic on the planet. So it should come as no surprise that Protestantism, influenced by the German, Swiss, Dutch and English cultures of its earliest champions, bends toward a theological framework which is highly individualistic. Jesus is my personal savior, communion is a quiet and individualistic sacrament, and spirituality is mostly about me and God.
The truth is that the Bride to whom Jesus will be wed is a community. Communion is a social event. And in scripture spirituality is as much our relationship with one another (“a holy nation”) as it is about individuals relating to God. God is unified but exists in the plural (“Let us make humankind in our image,” Gen. 1:27, or “so that they may be one as we are one,” Jn 17:11), and we were made to exist in communities (the only thing that was “not good” in creation was the alone-ness of Adam, Gen. 2:18). Those of us from individualistic cultures need the corrective lens of our friends who live in collectivistic cultures to help us view God, ourselves and ministry from a communal mindset.
It Takes a Community to Reach a Community
My friend, John Hayes, founder of the mission InnerCHANGE, says “It takes a community to reach a community.” I believe that we need to free ourselves from the individualist, Lone Ranger, maverick vision which has governed what a minister should look like and recapture a more communal vision for ministry.
We Minister Not Just to Individuals but to Communities: I often interact with people whom I serve as if they are disconnected individuals. But how might things be different if we saw people as part of a living communal organism? Even conversion is mentioned in Acts as a communal experience (Cornelius’s household [Acts 11:14]; Lydia’s household [Acts 16:15]; Philippian jailer’s household [Acts 16:31]; Crispus’s household [Acts 18:8]; Stephanas’s household [1 Corinthians 1:16]). Those of us from individualist cultures will need to make an effort to get to know the community connected to the people we work with. Make it a point not just to get to know individuals but families. Perhaps instead of just inviting a person to an event, make it a point to personally invite their family members as well.
Moving Away from a CEO-Head Pastor Approach: A paradigm for ministry that is based upon the capitalist corporation has promoted an individualized leader. The cultural elements which I sometimes find imbedded in Protestantism push us toward ministry monarchs. God’s intention for Israel was not a singular king but a plurality of judges. Leaders of New Testament communities were always referred to in the plural. The singular head pastor model was a second century deviation from the earliest models of Christian community. My church (an many others) operates quite well without a head pastor but a rotating group of elders. One mission I work with, Servants, has a team of 4 international leaders with no first among equals. While the lack of a CEO-styled leader requires additional coordination and complexity, what might flatter structures offer us? What new paradigms could we imagine?”
Consensus Decision Making: There is an African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” Our desire for singular leaders is partly driven by our value of speed over distance. It is more efficient to have one person calling the shots. But is it more effective? I have been part of mission organizations or communities which choose a consensus decision making model. In InterVarsity, the Strategic Plan is not something the Board or the Cabinet deliver to the rest of us. Various levels of leadership must come to agreement. It is slow and at times tedious. But in the end I have seen the wisdom of this method. Servants (mentioned above) works with this model and the entire community (or representatives from each field) comes together every 18 months to make major decisions together. Decisions have thoughtful nuance and enjoy wide acceptance, something hard to achieve by individualistic-styled leadership. This model is different than inviting people to give their opinions and trusting a singular decision-maker. Stakeholders in a consensus-run organization have real power over decisions, and this changes the atmosphere in the room when it comes time to decide. People generally take that power very seriously, think about the whole, and use their voice carefully.
When Jesus sent the 12 and the 72 he sent them “two by two” (not alone). He sent them in desperate dependence upon the communities they were going to serve (“take nothing for the journey”). And he asked them to plant themselves inside household communities (“Whatever house you enter, stay there”). We would do well to recognize how white, individualistic culture has influenced our theology and examine places this cultural preference is hindering the good news. Let’s look beyond the individual we minister alongside and see the community they belong to. Let’s structure our leadership, our planning and our decision making along communal lines. And let’s invite those whom God has called us to serve to become primary players in our communal work. Maybe then we can bring a needed balance to our hyper-individualized visions of the mission of God.
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