We can’t talk about changing the youth pastors role and the expectations associated with her/him, without talking about role of the individuals within the community.
A couple thoughts from Peter Block in his book Community that I think will be helpful. (Peter’s a consult for businesses and as far as I know is not a believer. I say this because I’m fascinated by a business guy who writes a book named “community”.)
He’s language is citizen. and the goal or him is citizenship. (If you’d prefer you can exchange it for disciple)
A citizen is one who is willing to do the following: + Hold oneself accountable for the well-being of the larger collective of which we are a part. +Choose to own and excercise power rather than defer or delegate it to others. +Enter into a collective possibility that gives hospitable and restorative community its sense of being. +Acknowledge that community grows out of the possibility of citizens. Community is build not by specialized expertise, or great leadership, or improved services; it is built by citizens. +Attend to the gifts and capacities of all others, and act to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the center. (Peter Block, Community page 65)
This is going to take some time to process frankly, but our goal would be to function as pastor who enables an environment in which citizens (disciples) can happen.
+ Hold oneself accountable for the well-being of the larger collective of which we are a part.”
Here’s my take on what this means.
It means that you and I stop talking about people outside the room and their need for change, and focus more on ourselves and what we can change.
It means that our staff meetings (or DS meetings) are ripe with owning our own contribution to the problem we have identified. By doing so it allows us to actually change things. When we focus on other members of the community and their need to change, so we can do what we need to do, then we begin to play the victim and decision making power leaves our hands. We become stuck, and victims.
This is why I think the future of leadership is about convening conversations, because by doing so we are able to talk about us, and the extend to which we own our stuff. Or to the extend to which we don’t own our stuff. This must be equally important. We must give people permission to say no to things, otherwise when they say yes it means nothing.
So. Talking about ourselves is the starting point. Convening conversations is the next.
First is means that we deglamorize leadership. It means that we stop pretending or playing with perceptions. It means we are who we are and that by doing so we are a gift to our communities. (in more than one way)
Edwin Friedman says it this way. “Leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to other in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future.”
Second I think it means that we redefine success along the way. Modern leadership defines success as: -a large number of people involved -that large number of people are happy -People fill slots the leader needs filled -that large number of people are filling the slots.
What if success isn’t about how many people are involved, but how many people are engaged. Engagement doesn’t simply come from participation in a leaders program or vision. I can participate, but never be engaged. Too few churches measure this way.
For instance, Parents come to your parents meeting, they listen to you talk about the vision for youth ministry, they ask some questions. They give a few comments. they leave. Are they engaged?
Youth workers come to a youth program and do pretty much what you ask them to do. Week in and week out. Is that engagement?
Engagement is when people begin to become citizens. Engagement is the point.
Why do I post these things? Because Mark Riddle is great – his new book will be great, he’s on the sidebar and you should check him out.
Telling The Truth Requires Courage Some people trade in loyalty. If you decide not to trade in loyalty – you must be courageous. There is no place as lonely as the fringes, as cold or as echoey. Sometimes, citizens who trade in truth instead of loyalty find themselves strangers in their own land. It’s the loneliest place sometimes. It was neither right nor wrong that led you here – it’s the road that forks. A sad road, but not a wrong road.
The Bravest Things Leaders Do
+ Hold oneself accountable for the well-being of the larger collective of which we are a part. Here’s my take on what this means.
It means that you and I stop talking about people outside the room and their need for change, and focus more on ourselves and what we can change.
It means that our staff meetings (or DS meetings) are ripe with owning our own contribution to the problem we have identified. By doing so it allows us to actually change things. When we focus on other members of the community and their need to change, so we can do what we need to do, then we begin to play the victim and decision making power leaves our hands. We become stuck, and victims.
This is why I think the future of leadership is about convening conversations, because by doing so we are able to talk about us, and the extend to which we own our stuff. Or to the extend to which we don’t own our stuff. This must be equally important. We must give people permission to say no to things, otherwise when they say yes it means nothing.
The bravest thing is not to blame, but to take responsibility. Proverbs speak about the power of kings to cover over, and to uncover. The discretion and responsibility of leadership is to choose which things to make public and which things to not.
One of the most difficult challenges in professional church staffing, is what to do when staff members aren’t performing the way we would like = or how we need them to. I like what this quote in particular says, because it walks the line.
On one side = we pursue honesty, responsibility, accountability and truthtelling. On another side = we pursue grace, growth, trust, learning, environment and Truthtelling.
The difference between truthtelling and Truthtelling is that one is small t, the other large T. Large T says that the ministry of all is valid in some way. I think most of the time, those who are deemed unsuccessful in ministry are those who denied or were denied professional development. Those who found themselves in the wrong kind of environments, or became toxic for any number of reasons. Or they made genuine mistakes. But within it all, is genuine ministry & value. Genuine God stories. Genuine God Love & Truth at work in a life that is as important as ours. (When it’s not these things.. it’s a different topic).
Truthtelling with small t only works when it’s hand in hand with big T Truthtelling. The truth content of small t is still important and valid – but must be held in isolation. And we must learn (all of us) to take personal responsibility for when we do not argue, do not wrestle, do not resist the action or inaction of those we would blame for the failings of our ministry. Because when we did not take personal resp
onsibility and we place the blame for that on others… how ungraceful is our clanging bell of love, in a hollow voice.
A good friend, mentor and advisor today reminded me, that despite the pain of our experiences, the wise take joy in the goodness that God brings despite the storm, even if we do not see and only perceive of that goodness. It is our bittersweet joy to know that things have not been without redeemption, even if it was not it’s purpose.
At last, I was so excited when this book arrived on my doorstep courtesy of a somewhat begging-type email to Marko. International shipping would’ve cost me $53 US.. which is kinda funny. The wait to see this book hit NZ shores .. well who knows how long, but considering all things.. I wasn’t prepared to wait.
There’s something great about seeing the words printed and the smell of the book. The hardcover and layout is great.
So – although I could’ve posted previously on the book – I wanted to wait until I had my copy, had re-read it just like everyone else. I’ve loved the conversations on the Facebook group as people are reading, thinking, devouring, wrestling.
Opening Statements
1. I’m entirely biased towards the overall goodness of this work. Marko is my friend, fellow youth ministry type person, thinker, wise talker, grounded theologian and passionate exhorter of positive forward movement in youth ministry philosophy and practice. He’s also incredibly humble and has been so openhanded with the creation of this work and subsequent dialogues that he’s really embodied the essence of some of the YM3.0 premises we arrive at in the final chapters.
2. I’m entirely biased because these thoughts reflect both my passion for adolescent development,’cultural anthropology’, sociology, community psychology AND young people, the reformation of youth ministry practice and the future of the world. Many of these words and ideas are threads of my own story and I’m stoked to have had the opportunity for conversations around these ideas with Marko and the many other readers of his blog, YS groupies and the like.
3. This is not a typical youth ministry book because there is no cure prescribed – in fact, more or less, we’re left openended with a brief framework of some diagnostic tools and applications. The conversation is left openended intentionally. It does not answer all the things we instinctively want to be answered, because we have to wrestle with plenty of things ourselves.
Now…From The Beginning I really loved Kenda Creasy Dean’s introduction – she nails the spirit of the book and the author. I’m a sucker for reading the forewards and the acknowledgements. And this section really sets you up for what you’re about to read. She highlights the honesty and potential discomfort of the ideas.
Framing Change in Youth Culture Marko does a great job of reviewing the key tasks of adolescence, the emergence of youth culture and the history of adolescence in a broadsweeping but clear overview for people that get lost in the chaos of what all the science and psychology tells us. I’m a sucker for most of the reference material he refers to – and the recommended reading list at the back of the book provides great material that further unpacks these key ideas. There wasn’t much about actual brain function – but that’s ok, because you don’t want to lose people too soon in!
Marko’s concluding statement addressing where youth ministry as we’ve known it is currently failing highlights the shifting priorities of adolescence and how we’ve been slow to respond.
Implicitly, the question is brought to mind – with this elongated adolescent period, what does this mean for the future of the 20-something youthworker? It’s commented on in the sidebar too.
My lingering question : What happens if you line up generational shifts alongside these adolescent priority shifts and the responding youth ministry changes? What can we learn from mapping the past and present in order to make wise choices for the future?
A Brief History Lesson The story of Youth Ministry 1.0 and 2.0 covered in chapters 3 & 4 highlights a few important things – including that the “first youth ministry missionaries” did it exactly right – they responded to youth culture by “letting it inform the language and topics of youth ministry.”
The charts included are helpful for mapping the drivers, youth culture fixation and key themes. Love those.
My lingering question : How much deconstruction of Youth Ministry 2.0 has to be done in order to have a healthy foundation for YM 3.0? Much, none or some? Is it possible to leap into YM 3.0 from 1 or 2.0 (yes, whispers of 1.0 still exist) or must there be a 2.8 process? What is the role of leadership and broader church context? Can a youth ministry grow (this is a better idea than leap or shift) into 3.0 without the active participation of the whole spiritual community?
Chapter five includes some gems.. Like Chris Cummings statement on pg 67
“This generation of teenagers knows there’s something worth living for beyond themselve, but they’re struggling with actually defining it.. and everything else in our culture says it’s all about them.”
This is a classic observation of the Generation Y tension – and what creates such a great melting pot moment for YM 3.0 to hatch in these communities of young people assured of their own value and voice, desperate for a way to make a difference.
Marko leans heavily on some of Tim Keel’s concepts from Intuitive Leadership (another big emphasis on how great both the endnotes and reading list from this little book is .. ) when talking about the role of youth workers shifting to “cultural anthropologists with relational passion”.
Much of the practice ideology here is straight out of a mission context that has been successful forever – Paul started it. “Culture informs contextualisation” is a great phrase that should stick in the mind. Themes of Communion and Mission were wrestled with publicly on the blog and the picture of a Present youth ministry took shape with the voices of dozens of youthworkers.. they translate well into this section. They also form an almost impeccable mesh with Generation Y values of tribe, cause, flexibility.
My lingering question : Ideologically, it’s perhaps the biggest shift the book deals with, something that really impacts the practices of goal-setting, future planning, curriculum development, the very fabric of what spiritual formation in practice looks like. Marko is truthful enough to say what many of us already know deep down – that programming small groups does not build true community. Small groups of young people and volunteers who truly embrace life together on a wider scale do – but that kind of “community curation” (my phrase, not Marko’s) I think requires a different mindset than what the current “ideal youth worker” might be in the minds of those hiring.
So…How do we get there? This has to be the most frustrating but the most liberating section of the book – Marko raised great concepts, ideas and gives lots of permission to experiment, to fail and to invite multiple voices into the process. He offers a few key ideas – like Contextualization and pushes at colonization approach that some have had towards youth culture.
My favourite part of this chapter throws open the question of what real life-long learning in a youth ministry context can look like when YM3.0 will also require so much unique cultural anthropology. The priority of incarnational life with real young people becomes so particular. The stories and lives of the young people we are actually with (Present).. are the best blueprint to the youth ministry we are doing (Mission in current context). To me, it feels like a welcome spring clean of the boardroom whiteboard where we’ve drawn endless visions of what we’d like our youth ministry to be in 5 years time. (I’m not convinced that there isn’t a place somewhere for t
his thinking, but probably not in the priority line it has been in.)
Points of Note: Discernment features strongly in this chapter – and my friend Jill recently commented that “discernment and intuition have a lot in common – discernment is perhaps educated intuition?” I think there is merit to the point especially in the context of discussing the communal discernment of a group in regards to youth ministry. So, discernment (being something we more naturally attribute to wisdom and age, experience) is perhaps the maturing spiritual gift of intuition that may be present in many of your young people/leaders/surrounding voices..that intuition may be found in those that naturally ‘feel’ the ebb and flow of the ‘environment’.
Multiple groups have been an issue of contention and whilst not supporting this as THE way forward, Marko presents it as an opportunity. You could argue that the response of people to this possible programming tool demonstrates a high level of 2.0 thinking that still resides. Others ask the question fairly enough, how to do this in the context of small ministries – but it’s an idea for consideration, not a prescription. My reflection is that this kind of approach allows affinity to be one of the key tasks worked out through your ministry.
Experimentation is a strong value here, especially the process by which the young people themselves are the dominant storytellers.
Supra-Culture is the youthworkers dream. “Common affinity found in Christ alone”. My thought would be that having the same philosophy or values at the core of your ministry would enable multiple groups to work out unique expressions of this Supra-Culture.. again, lots more experimentation and reflection required. More of a labratory of youth ministry as many have commented on in discussion. The messiness of this is absolute, guaranteed – but the longterm effectiveness of this approach may be highly rewarding.
My lingering question : Lifelong professional development for youth ministry that doesn’t sit in isolation from broader church leadership, that focuses on developing practical contextualization skills and anthropological thinking/frameworks that youth pastors can use. How? Also – how to encourage and enable youthworkers to hold the desire for effectiveness and the mandate to experiment and exegete locally in tension?
My lingering thoughts from this chapter: Whilst Marko doesn’t cover the brain/biology equations, I think that the role of Feelings & Experience in the faith train diagram are vital. As these experiences and feelings form neuron pathways while cognitive recognition of “God” occurs – they must be valued. Thus the “feeling” and “experiential” components of our ministry may actually help form “faith” foundations while the rest of experience is in chaos?
Youth Ministry 3.0 will acknowledge the humanity and validity of teenagers – they are contributors “in development” and “in practice”.
The role of family-based ministry will need to change – for those places where it’s in practice.
We need to come up with new frameworks for KPIs, goal setting, reassessment and staff management in this area.
And So To End I read this book last night with a drink, a starry night and a cigar.. in honour of such nights in San Diego! There were lots of things I underlined. Lots of things that will continue to be discussions over the coming years. I am excited for multiple copies of the book to arrive onshore so that meaningful conversations can start around so many things…
There are things I wrestle with – mostly to do with how we can appropriately engage in these practices and conversations in a way that sees real change. How quickly can we translate and establish new training and support structures for this new way of thinking and crafting youth ministry? How do we, taking these lessons, begin to also look ahead to what the kids of Gen X and Gen Y will look like and how youth culture may continue to map our response in youth ministry?
Mostly.. I’m glad to be part of the conversation. This reengages my hope and desire to work with young people and for young people – for the sake of attainable belonging or affinity with the person and body of Christ. (I’m not sure how they are both important or expressed, but they both are.)
Simply put, in one sentence, rather than waffling:
Good storytelling (as a communication methodology), reminds us of HOPE and enables us to confront negative feelings in a positive context, providing opportunity for good outcome.
Updates I’m still preparing for Thursday night at Blueprint .. but with some more structure at least which is helpful. I’m still caught up working through much of my own journey in this area of working for the Kingdom… others thoughts are welcome in fact necessay… Rich, Skip, Stu, Sam, Marko… heck, all of you.
Kate Tristram says: The life of a saint is not the life of a great man or woman, but of God’s life in an ordinary man or woman. Saints’ days are not all about that saint: but about a celebration of Christ. …Remembering the saints gives us a bigger idea of the things of God. When Elisha’s servant saw the enemy chariots (2 Kings 6:15-16), he had to have his eyes opened so that he could see God’s chariots of fire. It was such a big view of God that Elisha had, and now his servant could share in that. This is exactly how the saints can help us: if ever we feel outnumbered, remember that we never get to see the whole church.
I’m looking at the idea of hands, open hands and the bridge between Church/church and how that impacts our idea of what working for the sake of the Kingdom looks like. The last thing I want to do is portray an image of tentmakers as those that simply choose their workplaces as missionfields.. but something bigger and more and grander and greater – something that embodies unique DNA shaping. Modern day sainthood – inspired by Paul Newman more than Mother Teresa. Is this heresy?
More On Communication, Momentum & Community
“Something shifts on a large scale only after a long period of small steps, organized around small groups patient enough to learn and experiment and learn again. Speed and scale are the arguments against what the individual and communal transformation require. They are a hallmark of the corporate mindset. When we demand more speed and scale, we are making a coded argument against anything important being any different.” (emphasis my own) – Peter Block
Youth ministry is historically a ministry of change – very rarely do we expect things to stay the same. In fact, we are so change-oriented in our culture, that if we don’t see ‘progress’ or momentum, shifting of structures.
Especially when a new ministry leader arrives on the scene, there can be enormous communal pressure and expectation of ‘change’ being implemented on numerous levels. That pressure can be motivated by all sorts of things – ministry effectiveness, values, shifting cultures, changing personnel, style is a big factor. Sometimes, it’s easy to move smaller things and keep the PR machine going whilst implementing smaller, slower, significant remodelling.
The Necessity Of Communications So in navigating our way through this whirlpool of expectations, change, re-structuring.. what’s important? Something key that cannot be underplayed, is the role of communication. With GenY expecting and appropriating more and more ownership over their consumable product (yes, church communities fit in here), communicating what’s going on is crucial. Not just for GenY who desire ownership, but for GenX constituents who need something to rebuff and Babyboomers who are still paying for it all.
This vital role of PR is really doing several things within the community 1. Creates and highlights awareness of movement, responsiveness of leadership and the community, opening passages for dialogue and reassurance of activity. It’s election time, so never have we been more aware of the importance of a good report card. It’s better to be seen doing something, rather than assumed you’re doing nothing.
2. Answering questions asked and unasked ie: communicating the values, vision, thrust of a community. Talking about the implicit things that are crucial to the community you’re establishing. Using all the metaphors/storytelling you can to paint the bigger kingdom picture of what’s happening within the community. At every point you have the opportunity to remind people of the bigger story they are part of, and inspire them again.
3. Advancing inspiration and creativity. In the rise of the creative class (a turn of phrase but also a book you should read), never has the language of creativity been so important to a Western culture dominated by youth tastes(15 – 35years). Every opportunity to communicate is a chance to do so in a language that births warm feelings of sensuality and goodness. Do this alongside telling great stories and you’ll be inspiring people. Inspired people get connected.
Debunking The Myth Of Church Notices Often undervalued because they are often done poorly or haphazardly.. find the people who really know how to tell great stories and get them doing your church notices. Great communication is 80% great storytelling, great emotion, great inspiration and 20% information. Church notices are a great time to catch up on the family stories, not simply communicating what’s on when. Look for the people that instinctively tell great stories and there you’ll find your great communications experts. Add some creativity and flavour and this will become a highlight of your community gatherings. Employ technology like blogs, Facebook and email – but not to simply expound dates and calendar bookings… opensource sermons, gatherings, big ideas, discussion forums… open invitation gatherings with no purpose but celebration and play.
Communicating And Implementing Change The bigger the community, the longer it takes communication to flow, move..the more you have to rely on secondary and tertiary parties to communicate your message and to do it well. But, we know that Millenials excel at taking messages they care about and brands they feel ownership of and communicating in a ‘pass it on’ fashion. Dialogue potentially becomes open-ended and channels through multiple layers of community. It may be that for a time, when a new idea or leader surfaces/arrives in a community – there’s a holding pattern, a glorious time of courtship and wooing. Then the change management kicks in.
Great communication recognises always, that it’s all about what the receiver hears and that happens by way of what you say, how you say it, when and where you say it and taking into consideration how the receiver feels about the subject you’re talking about. Nevermore so than in widely owned communities with multiplestakeholders .. So truly great, Kingdom communication within communities has to allow for :
1. rarely is an opening statement final with GenY. your opening position is the starting point for their interaction with you. therefore, be cautious with the overarching finality of your opening statements. young people do respect your position and authority, but they also expect to be able to interact with the dialogue before the final conclusion is reached – they are upwardly mobile and self-assured in regards to their role and contribution.
2. their feedback is valid and needs to be taken into consideration.. move as far from the modes of behaviour modification as you can and trust the intuitively ‘core’ of people within the community. become one with the people, eliminate as much of the leadership barrier as you can.
3. allow space and time for the Holy Spirit to interact. my position or hope is that we can establish modes of communication and change that enpower both leadership and communities to have ‘ownership’.
You have to be careful moving chairs. Communities tolerate and participate in plenty of structural and idealogical change willingly, until the changing structures require them to move. Literally you can rebuild the house around them until you need them to move their seat. If you remove choice and/or opportunity/willingness to partipate, those
who are comfortably independant can feel affronted. So what are the chairs? Dialogue, identify and be fair and honest about why chairs must move, what benefits lie ahead, acknowledge the cost or sacrifice involved. But don’t expect that you can move the chairs without explaining, reasoning, working through. This isn’t making mountains out of molehills, rather it’s demonstrating that there is only a limited budget for experimentation & autocratic leadership choices. Egalitarian leadership choices will inevitably be smaller and slower as well as wider in process, but hand in hand with great communication strategies be way more productive and gentler.
All of this… thoughts that are mostly unfinished.. but I’ve been thinking about them. And, recently added to the blogroll, Mark Riddle. I really really appreciate Mark’s thinking and am desperately awaiting the arrival of his new book “Inside the mind of a youth pastor.” It should be on the pre-order list for anyone truly wanting to engage with intelligence and positivity towards healthy staffing for youth ministry. His thoughts here on commitment are great starters and flicked well with me this morning while ruminating on all this…
Riffing on Commitment from <a href=”http://theriddlegroup.com/blog/”>Mark Riddle
i think this is often about community as well. I have a couple theories on this, tell me what you think. It’s something of a chicken or egg thing.
Engagement and responsibility it at the core of commitment. People who aren’t engaged by feeling a sense of belonging and responsibility for what happens at youth, or the church but do feel that way in other areas of their lives will be more engaged in those other activities. If I’m missing from my basketball team, or cheerleading squad then the team simply can’t function as well with out me. I serve an essential function on that team, a unique role and when I’m not there, the team struggles. Whether be a point guard or the person a the base of the pyramid, i feel a sense of responsabilty to be there. In churches were leadership is taken care of, and people give up their responsibility to others, then it gives them space to no longer be engaged. Youth, families and individuals within our church who aren’t engaged in community or see themselves as responsible for their own spiritual well being and the nurture of others quite simply aren’t committed to your church. The question then becomes why?
Scenario 1: On one hand it’s a followership issue. People just won’t do what we want them to do, or be engaged to the level we think a healthy individual, family, etc should be engaged. In this scenario the leader talks about people outside the room a lot. The leader’s job is to somehow leverage influence or to persuade youth, families, indivuals of the benefits of life in the church, or with God etc. This leader either talks like a vicitim a lot, or like a visionary. The victim wonders why everyone outside them won’t align with the way things should be, at least from their perspective. The visionary attempts to conform the world to their (read: God’s) vision for the church and the world. It seems that only difference between the the victim and the visionary is the amount of confidence and force. I suppose this really isn’t a followership issue, it’s more of a leadership isn’t it? I suppose people value what we teach them to value and if our leadership style is victim or visionary then people aren’t really valued in either. The victim resents the people for not going along with their idea. The visionary sees people as cogs in their plan. “Those people will be in community and love each other if it’s the last thing I do! WE will be a beautiful church that loves each other and their neighbors!” What people really value, or are committed to doesn’t really matter in this view, with the exception of lip service. The visionary church leader sees people as sheep, dumb and in need of serious direction.
Scenario 2: On the other hand, it’s a followership issue. For real this time. That people actually value things, and some might actually value your youth group, and your church. Just in the way’s you’ve taught them to. People who see themselves as responsible for something have a choice. They will either hold on to that responsibilty or they will pass it off to someone else. To hold on to responsibility is be a disciple, to be human to be how we were created. To give away the power and responsibility to someone else is the act of a consumer. The parent who drops their teenager off at your activities but never talks about God might be an example of this. They have give you the power and responsibility to spiritual form their child. They have become a consumer. But before you go off on a “How consumeristic people are…” rant, it should be noted that it takes two people to make a transaction like this and that the more you talk about it, the more you sound like the victim listed about in scenario 1 above. I guess I’m just saying that you freely encourage their action by your action, and probably by your church’s action.
That said. You’re probably asking the how question by now right? How do we change this pattern? How do we make parent’s more responsible? How do we stop enabling them? How do we make people commit or be more accountable.
Friends, How is the wrong question. At least at this point in the game.
How only leads to more of the same. Why? Read the questions I just listed. They are all victim or visionary oriented. They are about people out there, people who must be manipulated or persuaded to fall in line with what I think. More of the same. If you like where you are now, keep asking how. You will never see change, other than superficially.
It begs the question: What is the role of leadership in the church? What does engagement look like in the church?
There are certain ways that societies organise and arrange themselves .. in facing my recent changes in work and life.. one of the most significant passages of time was sitting with Renier Greef, co-author of this book and psychologist.
He told me the story of Medicine Man Chief, the ancient themes that echo in today’s world just as strongly.
Tribes arrange themselves around chiefs. The stronger the chief, the bigger the tribe. Chiefs have mini-chiefs. They are found at the centre of the tribe – the Chieftains house is always in the centre – the focal point of the tribe’s direction and leadership. Tribespeople need a chief, and chiefs need tribespeople in order to be a chief at all. The loyalty is chief to tribe, tribe to chief. They are dependant on one another for security.
Chiefs are good or bad, sometimes good and bad. They have a job to do – which is leading people, leading the tribe.
But there is another crucial and necessary person in the life of any people group – the Medicine Man. The medicine man never lives within the tribe. He lives on the outskirts, outside the city gates or simply travels in a nomadic fashion between tribes that require his services.
The medicine man isn’t loyal to the tribe or to the chief. He’s loyal to the Higher Truth. His is the business of healing. Of bringing truth to the tribe. As such, he has great influence and power. He can be magnetic and charismatic, just like a chief, but his loyalty to truth (which is ultimately for the sake and care of the tribespeople) will always be his highest priority.
But tell a story… where a chief, with a big tribe and lots of mini-chiefs all of a sudden discovers an illness within the tribe. A sickness that needs the services of a medicine man. An inground misbelief that needs truth spoken to it. He puts out the call to the medicine man, who comes, with all his knowledge and healing ability, all his concern for the tribespeople.
He sets to work bringing truth and light. Healing returns to the tribe, health comes forth in new and powerful ways. The medicine man operates outside of the usual systems. At first the chief is grateful for the good work of the medicine man. But eventually, the people come to recognize the skill of the medicine man. They begin to trust his ability to bring healing and wisdom to the way of the tribe.
Now the chief has a choice. A good chief will recognise the value of having a good medicine man in the tribe. He’ll work with him, forging trust. See, the medicine man doesn’t want to be the chief – he’s firstly loyal to the Higher Truth, then the people. The chief is loyal to the cause of the tribe, it’s strength and health. That’s where his prowess and manna as a chief comes from.
A good chief will work in healthy tension and trust with the medicine man, allowing him to do his work. The medicine man most wants recognition of his particular skill, the chief wants recognition as leader of the tribe, he wants loyalty.
A moderate chief will send the medicine man on his way, ensuring that his position of leadership within the tribe remains unthreatened, only to call on the medicine man again in the future.
A bad chief, simply sees the threat to his leadership and kills the medicine man.
When the chief kills the medicine man, everyone loses. At least when the medicine man is sent on his way, the knowledge of the medicine man remains accessible when it’s next needed. But when you kill the medicine man, the relationship is severed, there is significant loss to the tribe.
So… what am I? Where do I fit in? Where do any of us fit?
I’m a medicine man. Simple. But I’m also a medicine man who understands and appreciates the complexity of the chief’s role. I respect the chief’s job. But I don’t necessarily want it. In fact, my preference is much more as chief of the medicine men, schooling up a tribe of folks bred to bring healing and truth and light into many more tribes.
Sidenote: When a medicine man becomes chief.. they really become a benevolent dictator according to Greef. In other words, their way really is the only way, but because their way is primarily directed towards the health of the tribe, there is a healthy amount of trust and freedom available. In fact, some believe that Jesus, who came first as a medicine man when they were expecting a chief, will come again as a benevolent dictator… a dictator because his ways are right, but loved because of the rightness of his ways.
So I’m a medicine man that got killed…. because my ways were so different, but there is a huge strength within me to say .. they were the right ways. And I could never offer my loyalty to anything other than the Truth, the highest Truth.
Youthwork & The Medicine Man
So I wonder .. as youthworkers.. are we more likely to be chiefs or medicine men? Is there some clarity offered to the ages-old tension between seniors and youth pastors in the distinctions here? It’s true – some youth pastors are chiefs, but they are more likely to be grafted in as mini-chiefs, whereas the medicine men youthworkers who threaten the stability of loyalty and leadership within the tribe are the ones most likely to find themselves in conflict within a hierarchal structure.
What can be done? Well, for starters, understanding who you are is always going to be helpful… and then understanding certain circumstances that help or conversely hinder your ability to function within the organisations you find yourself.
Long-term pastors? Chiefs, who hopefully have learnt the value of their role and the role of medicine men within the life and vibrancy of the tribe. Short-termers? Medicine men who are there for a season.. I can think of a number of interim pastors who bring healing and hope to fragile commmunities for a season before moving on.
Lots of key ministry leaders are mini chiefs, who can align effectively with pastoral staff because they understand the structure of loyalty and respect they operate on. Medicine men struggle because they operate in different ways.
A bad chief often will think they can apply the same ‘medicine’ as the medicine man, hence repeating someone else’s good idea without the same healthy impact or effect. They, no longer ‘needing’ the medicine man, can send him on his way and thus maintain the security of their position within the tribe..
There are so many ways to think about this, apply it, unpack it and understand it. It may not all be right, but for now this is an important application for me as itinerant speaker, leader, creative pastor… i can bring my gifts and healing to multiple locations, whilst understanding now how to derail the fear of many chiefs.. “do they want my job?”.
Tash McGill is a broadcaster, writer and strategist who works with people and organisations to solve problems and create transformation. She believes people are the most important thing and that stories are powerful ways of changing the world. You can find out more at tashmcgill.com or by visiting her LinkedIn profile.
