10 Paradigm shifts for leaders
September 2009
10 Paradigm shifts for leaders
The way we think about church has to change – that is the view of Eric Swanson. In this article he lists ten key paradigm shifts that church leaders need to make for their churches to be relevant in today’s world. Swanson offers many examples of churches that have embraced these changes and are experiencing very positive results.
Here is an extract - “There is a growing awareness that we cannot continue to do the same old things and expect a different result. If we want to be the salt and light, we as the church were created to be, we have to do something different…we have to be something different! Community transformation is not found in programs, strategies, campaigns or tactics. For most of us it will take nothing less than a shift of seismic proportions in what the church is to be in the 3rd millennium….. To maximize our impact on our communities–urban, suburban or rural, we need changes in at least ten of our paradigms of how we currently view church.
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Market place ministry
As Christians rediscover the message of the Kingdom they are realising that ministry is not confined to church activity but impacts every sphere of life. This focus on ‘market place’ ministry is growing strongly. To assist Christians better understand this area the Lausanne Committe for World Evangelisation produced an occasional paper which was co-authored by Gordon Preece from Melbourne. It is a very helpful resource.
Here is an extract - “Some only have a creational/cultural commission emphasis. They rightly stress the biblical wisdom tradition that we are creatures first, then Christians and stress the horizontal relationship to the world. Yet they can become easily secularised and lose a sense of the evangelistic urgency and christological finality and uniqueness, in their comfortable chaplaincy to secular, pluralistic societies.
Others are rightly Christ-centred and urgently evangelistic. However, they forget that Christ is also the creator as John 1 and Colossians1:15-20 and the first chapter of almost every NT book shows. They stress the urgency of training more ‘fulltime Christian workers’ for kingdom work and see ordinary or ‘secular’ work as worthwhile only ‘to put food on the table and money in the plate’ or for opportunities for verbal evangelism or ‘kingdom work’ alone. They fail to recognise that exercising dominion is kingdom work and that the kingdom is ‘creation healed’ as Hans Kung said. Witness and mission is broader than verbal evangelism or proclamation, although the latter is included and important.”
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How the Kingdom advances strategically
Colin Stoodley has a real passion for church planting and for the growth of the Kingdom. In a recent article he takes an interesting look at the way the Kingdom advanced in the book of Acts and the principles this teaches us for our day.
Here is an extract- “What has fascinated me of late, is the way that the Kingdom advances through the missionary- church and into the various jurisdictions that fill the earth in order that the Kingdom may come. This missionary – church, releases its people (intentionally or otherwise) to move across from its own jurisdiction to new jurisdictions with its unique message. This message is a message of the King and His Kingdom and the application of the King’s will into the whole of human life expressed in this new jurisdiction or sphere. Actually it is essential that this transfer happens over and over again in order that the Kingdom should advance throughout human life on earth.
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