Friday, February 05, 2010

Archbishop Anis' call for New Leadership

The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, the "blogfather" of the Anglican Communion, has a post about Archbishop Anis' call for a new executive leadership in the Anglican Communion.

As much as I respect +Anis, I cannot join him in this call. I think we spend way too much time worrying about leadership in the Church. We need to concentrate, instead, on discipleship.

We need new discipleship for our Church. As I've remarked in the past, TEC (and I would bet CofE and ACoC and other western, Christendom models) does a very poor job of making disciples out of members. We then take our members and look for leadership qualities in them and send them off to seminary without first making sure that they are gounded disciples. We look for people who can organize and inspire, but we don't seem to care what they inspire to.

We, particularly the clergy, need to be better disciples before we can be better leaders. We need to make sure that our leaders are disciples first.

A disciple is not just a "student" but closer to an "apprentice." The apprentice hears the voice of his master (the Holy Spirit) and does what the Holy Spirit says. in TEC, we have substituted the voice of the spirit of the age for the Holy Spirit. If you doubt that, look at how we discuss and debate issues. We form advocacy groups and put out press releases. We fight in courtrooms and use the canons of our Church like cudgels to beat each other with. We fight with political will and not with enlightened debate on the teaching of the Church.

And we wonder why we are declining in membership.

I call for a renewed focus on discipleship within the Church. Before you send someone to the Commission on Ministry, ask them what being a disciple of Jesus Christ means. Before electing a bishop or a person to the vestry, ask them how discipleship is evidenced in their lives.

We need to be more focused on being disciples first and leaders second.

YBIC,
Phil Snyder

3 comments:

Dale Matson said...

Phil,
I agree with Archbishop Anis. The church has plenty of disciples and not enough leaders. Those in authority specifically the Presiding Bishop and the ABC do not posses the necessary Spiritual Gifts for the roles they have assumed. It would be better for TEC and the WWAC if both would step down.

Stephen Lybrand said...

I agree. I believe the reason the Anglican Communion is in the turmoil it is in, particularly in North America is that we do not know how to make disciples. We would benefit greatly by teaching members what discipleship means from a Biblical perspective, and how to conduct it.

Thanks for your comments.

Free Range Anglican said...

Whether or not one agrees with Anis, your words are wise and timely.
By the by, I have read you off and on for ages; I can't believe I hadn't "followed" you before!!! Blessings from your sister deacon