Me First … or Mission Mindset
Friends,
Swept away by travel and consulting, I’ve been remiss about posting from the mission field. Thanksgiving allowed me to catch up. This is from my notes …
A persistent question from would-be transformational leaders is this: Is it really possible to change the consumer, “Me First”, attitude into an authentic Mission Mindset? (see my book Fragile Hope).
My answer is yes, but it may take seven years of doggedly persistent and opportunistic leadership. This alone is hard for many established churches, because many pastors have no intention of staying that long. They are, in fact, driven by personal decisions (family expectations, school systems, retirement plans) or by career decisions (appointments by a bishop, moving up the ladder of success). That very reality reveals that the biggest difficulty about transforming a church attitude lies in the unwillingness of leaders to transform their personal attitude.
However, praise God that there are leaders ready for the challenge. They still ask: Can it be done?
My answer is yes (again), if you rigorously pay attention to the following leverage points and do not allow yourself to be sidetracked. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but it includes:
v Begin by mentoring leaders;
v Hold leaders accountable for mentoring volunteers in there sphere of influence;
v Preach it;
v Upgrade training for newcomers and all leadership teams (beyond skills to train attitude);
v Clarify vision, mission, and core message;
v Intervene to break control;
v Seize opportunities or “mentoring moments” to illustrate the mission attitude;
v Have courage, and build personal support, to endure stress;
v Develop a profound, visible, prayerful, personal spiritual discipline.
The real key to changing attitude is not program development … unless we think of specific continuing education or mission action. It’s really about taking relationships to a deeper, riskier, level. The word “accountability” does not begin to cover it. It is about “intensity” more than “intentionality”, because it is the intensity of eye contact, behavior modification, personal reinforcement, and modeled self-sacrifice that is important. In the end, you need to embed a kind of “Ur” story … a paradigmatic story-line of death and new life … in the hearts of members.
Tom Bandy