Great question. In my research on this, I have found that two things are needed. First, the senior pastor must be envision, support and participate in the life of the groups. If the pastor has the gifts to be the architect and champion of group life that is great. But this would require that some of the traditional senior leadership duties be given to someone else.
Second, in many circumstances, the senior leader does not have the gifts to be the group champion. In such situations, a group champion is empowered to work with the pastor to provide the support and direction for the groups.
Mark,
Very astute observation. Sadly "missional" is being too often captured by the cool, hip, well-educated crowd, which results in it being branded for what it is not. This does not mean that those you describe in Symptom #1 should not be missional, but when that is all that is promoted then there are problems. (BTW-I'm white-male, educated, use a Mac and an iPhone, and wear Rob Bell glasses.)
We have struggled with this at our church. We are sitting on the edge of the inner city and the suburbs and we are a church led by over-educated white people. We had a 10-week series last fall on ministering to the poor and we struggled repeatedly with all of the material that we found on this subject. Most of it focused on how middle-class white people could do something nice for the poor. There is little out there about how people from different economic backgrounds can sit down together and learn from one another. As we practiced this alternative approach, we found that those who are labeled as under-resourced don't want our nice handouts. They actually want relationships.
But this is challenging because we have been told in the while. middle class, Christendom view of church that when we minister to people that we go to them with a predetermined plan of how we will minister to them. To address the issues that we raise, we need to learn new skills and quite honestly, few have recognized this need much less have developed any resources that can equip us.
Posted in: What role does/should the pastor play in the small group ministry in the church?
Great question. In my research on this, I have found that two things are needed. First, the senior pastor must be envision, support and participate in the life of the groups. If the pastor has the gifts to be the architect and champion of group life that is great. But this would require that some of the traditional senior leadership duties be given to someone else.
Second, in many circumstances, the senior leader does not have the gifts to be the group champion. In such situations, a group champion is empowered to work with the pastor to provide the support and direction for the groups.
Posted in: Small Groups and "The Least of These"
Mark,
Very astute observation. Sadly "missional" is being too often captured by the cool, hip, well-educated crowd, which results in it being branded for what it is not. This does not mean that those you describe in Symptom #1 should not be missional, but when that is all that is promoted then there are problems. (BTW-I'm white-male, educated, use a Mac and an iPhone, and wear Rob Bell glasses.)
We have struggled with this at our church. We are sitting on the edge of the inner city and the suburbs and we are a church led by over-educated white people. We had a 10-week series last fall on ministering to the poor and we struggled repeatedly with all of the material that we found on this subject. Most of it focused on how middle-class white people could do something nice for the poor. There is little out there about how people from different economic backgrounds can sit down together and learn from one another. As we practiced this alternative approach, we found that those who are labeled as under-resourced don't want our nice handouts. They actually want relationships.
But this is challenging because we have been told in the while. middle class, Christendom view of church that when we minister to people that we go to them with a predetermined plan of how we will minister to them. To address the issues that we raise, we need to learn new skills and quite honestly, few have recognized this need much less have developed any resources that can equip us.