Three hours later, one Thursday morning.

For 3 hours one day recently I sat with several other pastors and we debated and discussed the Emerging Church movement and the rise or not of postmodernity within our day and generation.
I enjoyed it very much.
I had the privilege to lead the discussion and on a topic that intrigues me I had the chance to dig deeper into to try and lay out a balanced and fair critique.

I then returned to my office to write and email to a dear friend in Kenya who lead the Kenyan church in a countrywide tour of reconciliation (check out his blog of some incredible events - http://msafara.wordpress.com ), and I read again the struggles of displaced peoples, injustice, families left with nothing and the key role of my friend in brining hands on, real help to real people.

…..and I couldn’t help but wonder ….did our emerging church discussion add any value to the Kingdom of God. It seemed removed from the real world – cerebral, academic, and too removed.

This wasn't helped by one of the pastor friends as he left saying "I didn’t understand a word you said!”

So how do we ensure that our days are spend in true kingdom extending, valuable ministry and not deflected to mere genealogies or boring administration etc, etc?

How many times that does happen in ministry? We write reports, we attend committee meetings, we do constant emails, we meet Board deadlines, we write more reports, we answer more emails, and we attend more committee meetings.
Give us the real stuff of kingdom leading!!

But then we have to ask further, maybe more analytical questions.
Is administration stuff not kingdom stuff also?
Could a 3-hour discussion on emergent theology not be critical to forming a strong ecclesiology without which we could be floating around in naivety let alone ineffectiveness?

[Maybe here I’m leaning again back to my last blog. Is most effective ministry not ministry that is placed within a broader, bigger, comprehensive ministry?]

So let’s return to my Kenyan friend.
He’s helping displaced Kenyans, he’s mobilizing the Kenyan church to model reconciliation, he’s working constant on the front line of a national crisis with the truth of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. BUT ……..he’s not doing that in isolation for the sort of things sometimes we see as getting in the way of ministry – long dialogical meetings, deep theological reflection, major administration and management support, clear systems and processes in place.
Rather than see them as hindrances to ‘real ministry’ we have to see them as crucial catalysts to effective ministry.
As practitioners we live in this tension.
Even as long ago as my first time through seminary …I went into seminary seeing it as a nuisance – “Why can’t I just begin preaching”.
But wisdom prevailed (if you give it a chance it always will) and seminary became a learning zone important to effective future ministry.

So in daily, weekly church life. The countless emails, the staff reports, the diligence to systems and management – they all deepen the impact of your ministry.

Let’s take our church’s glocal initiatives – When I Grow Up. Three initiatives in three countries all helping children. This idea could not fly without a strong theology undergirding it, countless hours of planning, strategizing; and it will not remain impactful without strong systems and management processes.

The rub however, or the contest …is to make sure you hit the right balance.
Larry Bossidy & Ram Charam wrote a book back in 2002 called “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done". On first read you might think their philosophy is quit all the strategy, all the planning, all the techniques and just do it, but this would be to misread their philosophy. Their leadership philosophy is that execution must be built into the company’s strategy, its goals and its culture. Execution flows out of good management and developed systems. It is the result of all the stuff we see as a nuisance.

We are aware that we can hold out too long for execution. We are holding out for the 4-star, bells and whistle plan. This can swing the pendulum too much towards management and systems. Rather we often now go with a 2-star plan that we can execute in the near future but still the out working of satisfactory systems and management in place.

It’s learning to live in the tension zone.

We need execution, but execution not adrift from effective systems and comprehensive thinking. It is the latter that enables the former to produce.

I used to be a banker. I saw so many small businesses go south – not because they weren’t great at their craft or their skill …but because they had lousy systems in place. You need both to move from good to great.

So let’s return to our 3-hour dialogical discussion of the Emergent Church.
Better things to do? Things that would add more kingdom value to our Thursday morning? OR ……gaining insight and knowledge about culture and the emerging of a new ecclesiology to meet this new culture (depending on which side of the EC debate you sit on), could be crucial to enable any execution of any front line ministry in the coming years ahead.
By itself ….it is meaningless, but attached to thinking, implementing leaders it could be transformational.

One Thursday morning could see years of impact and expansion. Effective missiology, flows out of developed ecclesiology built upon a true and discerning theology.

Maybe not next Thursday …..but I’m happy for another 3 hour discussion soon to help me better be a front line kingdom builder.