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Andrew C. Thompson

Category Archives: Leadership

Wesleyan Accent: The Virtue of Pastoral Leadership

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by admin in Leadership, Wesleyan Accent, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

≈ 2 Comments

I returned recently from a trip to the beautiful hill country of north Alabama. While there I spent a day in conversation with Methodist clergy from there about leadership in the church.

The questions we were grappling with are important for the future of any church in the Methodist family: What does Wesleyan Pastoral Leadership look like? Is there even such a thing? I think we can identify a leadership approach that is distinctively Wesleyan, even if not uniquely so. Click here to continue reading…

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Wesleyan AccentWesleyan Accent provides free and subscription resources for Christian spiritual formation, catechesis, and discipleship in the Wesleyan way. By clearly articulating the Wesleyan understanding of Christian faith, WA seeks to strengthen discipleship, empower mission and evangelism, cultivate ministry gifts of young leaders, and nurture the professional and service life of young theologians.

Andrew C. Thompson joined the writing team of WA upon its launch in the Fall of 2013. For the full catalog of his articles on the WA site, click here.

Pastoral leadership in a Wesleyan framework

16 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by admin in Christianity & Culture, John Wesley, Leadership, Local Church Ministry, Wesleyan Theology

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How should we think about leadership in a Christian context? Given the popularity of leadership as a topic in print and online media, it is something work thinking about. Is Christian leadership any different than leadership in general? For those of us in the Wesleyan tradition, is there a particularly Wesleyan form of leadership?

Here are four approaches to leadership that are common in our culture:

1. Natural genius — the “born leader”
2. Bureaucratic manager — the “cog in the wheel”
3. Master of effective techniques — the “guru”
4. Leader of noble character — the “master craftsman”

No approach to leadership is perfect, but some can be viewed as better than others in a given context. The first approach — which is a charismatic leadership model — is great if you were born with natural charisma. The problem is that such a thing can really be taught. The second model worked well in the mid-twentieth century (the heyday of big institutions) but is seen as distasteful by most people today.

Probably the most common leadership approach is the third one — which we might call the entrepreneurial model. You see this a lot in the realm of business and finance. It is concerned with a leader having the right kind of skill set to apply to a given task (and by extension to the persons the leader is leading).

The only problem with the third model is that a leader can be talented without being good. You could be the CEO of a multinational corporation, the head coach of an NFL football team, or the mayor of a large city and have a fantastic skill set for the job in each instance. Yet you could also be positively wicked, carrying out your job in Machiavellian and fashion. It might work in business or politics (although even there people can get fed up with it) but it isn’t going to work in a Christian setting where the heart of a person is seen as truly important (and often a marker of the authenticity of that person’s faith).

I think the best conception of pastoral leadership in a Wesleyan framework is the fourth model: the approach to leadership that is grounded in the right kind of character. This is a virtue-based approach to leadership, where the leader is seen as needing to have the right sort of formation in order to lead well. In fact, I think this kind of approach fits best with any conception of Christian leadership — in the church, business, education, politics, or non-profit work.

If you read the New Testament epistles that are focused on pastoral leadership — e.g., 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, 1 and 2 Peter — you find that they are very concerned with qualities of character in church leaders such as faith, humility, and gentleness. John Wesley embraced this biblical concept of good leadership, both in his own person and in every level of Methodist leadership under him. He believed that the fruits of the Spirit would be borne out in persons whose lives were being transformed by grace and that these were the same persons who could be entrusted to guide others.

In the sermon, “The Circumcision of the Heart” (1733), Wesley focuses on the formation of the virtues of humility, faith, hope, and love as markers of a Christian’s growth in grace. He sees these virtues in progressive fashion, as building upon one another as the believer is transformed by grace. It is a wonderful example of a particularly Wesleyan appropriation of the virtue tradition. And while that particular sermon is a meditation on sanctification in general, I think it can be read with profit for those who want to think about the intersection of faith and leadership.

The cultivation of the virtues is never easy, but neither is leadership itself. For those who want to respond to the call to serve as Christian leaders, dedicating themselves to formation in virtue is an absolute necessity. There are no shortcuts to mature, authentic discipleship.



UMCNA
Note:
Part of this post is drawn from a presentation I did at a Residency-in-Ministry retreat in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church earlier this week. My thanks to the Board of Ordained Ministry in that annual conference for the invitation and the opportunity to work with the conference’s provisional elders & deacons. We had a great day together at Camp Sumatanga near Gallant, AL.

We need a 'culture of call' in the church

10 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by admin in Arkansas Conference, Evangelism & Mission, Leadership, United Methodist Church

≈ 2 Comments

Our recent annual conference in Rogers, AR, featured a persistent theme that needs to be transmitted to every congregation in Arkansas.

The call. Specifically, God’s call upon the lives of women and men into ministry.

We’re all called, of course. Every one of us. Every baptized Christian is meant to be a minister of the gospel in one way or another.

I’m mostly interested in talking about the call into ordained ministry here, though.

That was the theme I kept hearing in Rogers.

Bishop Gary Mueller emphasized it many times. It was there in the great preaching we experienced. The Rev. Adam Hamilton spoke at length about its prominence in the way his church teaches confirmation. And it popped up in video after video of our retiring clergy.

Each time, the speaker in question would comment about how important it is to recognize the call—either in yourself or in someone you know. Oftentimes a call into ministry is persistent-yet-subtle. The right kind of environment is needed so the person called can really sense what is happening. Mentors and friends are crucial in helping those who are called to discern the nature of their calling.

Opening worship service at the 2014 Arkansas Annual Conference in Rogers, AR

Opening worship service at the 2014 Arkansas Annual Conference in Rogers, AR

I don’t think the frequency of people speaking about the importance of the call into ministry at our annual conference was any accident. I believe there is a Spirit-led energy in the church in Arkansas to focus on this work. For revival to happen, raising up the best leadership will be essential.

We need strong clergy leadership for the church to thrive in any age.

The Apostle Paul teaches us that “the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him.”

Yet in order for anybody to call on Christ Jesus, we have to know him first. So Paul goes on: “But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14, RSV).

The church must have preachers to proclaim the word of God, priests to celebrate the sacraments, and pastors to care for God’s flock. For those people to get where they need to be, they’ve got to hear God’s call and respond to it.

The Rev. Cornelia DeLee gave a humorous slant on God’s call when she shared her own attempts to avoid it during her retirement video: “You can run like Jonah,” she said. “But eventually you’re gonna come out dripping and puking seaweed to preach a 7-word sermon.”

Better not to run at all, of course! (If only it were that simple.)

Actually, Jonah’s story is a pretty good window into how difficult responding to a call from God can be. Because God’s call often interrupts our lives—and sometimes directs us to go places we’d never have dreamed about otherwise—it can be intimidating to say the least.

So many of those called in the Bible didn’t think they had the stuff to serve. Many of them saw themselves as people “with unclean lips,” in the words of the prophet Isaiah.

Sometimes it isn’t that responding to the call is the most difficult part. It may be hearing the call in the first place that is the challenge. This was my story, in some ways. I had many people urging me toward ministry from an early age. They saw what I could not. I also received some direct signs from the Holy Spirit, but for a long time I misinterpreted or just plain disregarded them.

The difficulty in hearing or responding to God’s call (or sometimes, both!) means that young men and women need a church around them that can support and nurture them. The right type of youth ministry is crucial. But youth group alone is not enough. The church has got to be invested in youth at every level.

Of course, some people get called at a later point in their lives. So the culture of call in the church needs to be present everywhere: in worship, in small groups, even in church administration.

We also have to do what people in our day sometimes tend to shy away from: direct engagement and prompting. If you know someone in your congregation that you believe is called into ministry—whether it’s a youth or someone older—you should start praying for that person daily. Then you should start figuring out a way to engage that person in conversation to let him or her know what you’ve seen.

Think about it: The Holy Spirit could be trying to use you to convey Jesus’ deep desire to bring another servant of the gospel into ministry. If you suspect that may be the case, then don’t delay.

The Spirit and the church are counting on you.

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This article originally appeared in the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper’s July 4, 2014 edition. Reprinted with permission. You can read the article in its original form at this link.

Discipleship with a Wesleyan Accent

29 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by admin in Charles Wesley, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, Leadership, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Tradition

≈ 1 Comment

Here’s a development I’m excited about.

Early in October a new website will launch called “A Wesleyan Accent.” The purpose of the overall project represented by the Wesleyan Accent website is laid out on its Facebook page:

“A Wesleyan Accent is a web-based ministry that will launch in October, 2013 and provide free and subscription resources for Christian spiritual formation, catechesis, and discipleship in the Wesleyan way.”

The page goes on to give descriptions about the Wesleyan Accent project related to its mission and the content that it will offer:

Mission

By clearly articulating the Wesleyan understanding of Christian faith, A Wesleyan Accent seeks to strengthen Wesleyan Accentdiscipleship, empower mission and evangelism, cultivate ministry gifts of young leaders, and nurture the professional and service life of young theologians.

Description

A Wesleyan Accent is a web-based ministry providing free & subscription resources for Christian spiritual formation, catechesis, and discipleship in the Wesleyan way. Free resources include blogs, sermons, articles, book reviews, and videos from leading voices in the Wesleyan family. “Discipleship in the Wesleyan Way” (or DWW) is the subscription portion of the site. Individuals and churches can purchase annual subscriptions, which provide access to an extensive library of small group lessons on all aspects of Christian theology. Additionally, DWW supports discipleship and small group development by providing resources for both leaders and participants through its platform of customizable curriculum planning and private group portals for ongoing communication and additional resourcing.

One of the reasons the Wesleyan Accent project is exciting to me personally is that I’m going to be a part of it. My writing will be featured on the free portion of the website and will appear monthly. The potential for Wesleyan Accent seems sky-high to me. Along with the development of Ministry Matters and Seedbed, this is a sign that Wesleyan theologians and pastors are taking cyberspace seriously as a place to engage in ministry from a Wesleyan perspective at a high level. This move is crucial to the intellectual development of our tradition and the engagement of our tradition with other religious perspectives and the culture at large.

Check the Facebook page for further updates leading up to the October launch of the website. I will also notify my readers on this site of Wesleyan Accent developments, including when my own articles appear on the site.

2012 South Central Jurisdiction

19 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by admin in Arkansas Conference, Leadership, South Central Jurisdiction, United Methodist Church

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I am currently at the 2012 session of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Oklahoma City, OK. In the United Methodist Church in America, a jurisdiction is a collection of annual conferences tied together by geography, by common missional ties, and by governance through a college of bishops. (The whole body of bishops in the UMC is known as the “Council of Bishops,” whereas the bishops in a particular jurisdiction is known as a “college.”)

Jurisdictions meet together once every four years. A four year period of time is significant in the United Methodist Church because our General Conference meets on that schedule. Thus, we call a four year period a “quadrennium.” Thus we say that both General and Jurisdictional Conferences meet “quadrennially.”

The purpose of a jurisdictional conference is to elect bishops to replace those who have retired, and then to assign them to episcopal areas that they will oversee. The jurisdictional conference (through its episcopacy committee) also moves bishops after they have served an appointed amount of time in a given place (usually 8 years, although exceptions are made to allow bishops to serve 12 years in an episcopal area at times).

There are some shared ministries of jurisdictions, and thus there is other business to focus upon at the jurisdictional conference. But all the energy, and most of the work, is centered around the election and assignment of bishops.

I mention all of this because many faithful Methodist folk in our local churches really have little clue about the way the church is governed at this level. The work of jurisdictional conferences is crucial, if you consider that the leadership of our bishops is itself crucial to the work of the church in practically every way. I will try to update my blog once or twice over the next couple of days to let people know what is going on, and I will certainly post at the end of the conference to let people know who the new bishops in the South Central Jurisdiction will be.

A final note: If you do follow current issues in the UMC (or particularly in the SCJ), then you probably have heard about the controversy surrounding Bishop Earl Bledsoe. Bishop Bledsoe has overseen the North Texas Annual Conference for the past four years. He has been recommended by the episcopacy committee of the jurisdiction for involuntary retirement, and earlier this morning Chair Don House from the episcopacy committee gave the committee’s report and recommendation. We will be discussing and voting on the report this afternoon. It is an extremely difficult situation for all involved. I’ll do my best to report what happens with regards to this issue moving forward.

The word from the Connectional Table

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by admin in Leadership, United Methodist Church

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Mary Brooke Casad of the United Methodist Church’s Connectional Table has written an informative piece in the United Methodist Reporter that outlines the proposed structural changes for the church that will go before the General Conference later this spring.

Some of the components of the restructuring that she mentions will be among the most hotly debated aspects of legislation that the GC will consider: provision for a “set aside” bishop to serve as president of the Council of Bishops; effective reduction of such general church agencies as the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns; replacement of the Connectional Table itself in favor of a 45-member General Council on Strategy & Oversight.

As I read Ms. Casad’s account of the proposals, I feel much as I have when I’ve read other commentaries on the proposed changes: a mixture of positive and negative at the prospects the changes would mean for the church, together with some apprehension over the unknown of what major restructuring could or would mean.

I’m certainly not sure that I support all the proposed changes. But then again, that’s exactly what commentaries like Ms. Casad’s are for: to consider and discuss and debate the proposals themselves. So take the time to read her article — and let your own opinions be heard!

It's Tebow Time

19 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by admin in Christianity & Culture, Leadership

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Tim Tebow became something of a phenomenon this past NFL season. His fans adore him; his skeptics think all the hype around his play is unfounded. But nobody – and I mean nobody – even came close to being able to explain the remarkable number of 4th quarter comebacks that he engineered during the regular season. It was enough to get Tebow’s Denver Broncos into the playoffs at 8-8, where they stunned the Pittsburgh Steelers in yet another unlikely victory (this one in overtime).

The guy’s not magic. But he is authentic. He’s also got charisma, and he appears to be a great leader. I think it is the unapologetic way that he goes about just being Tim Tebow that makes people either love or hate him with such energy.

Will Tebow make it as a starting NFL quarterback over the long term? I think it would be great. But he’s never going to be the prototypical pocket passer that fits the standard QB model in the pro league. That means Denver would have to commit to developing a unique offense around him, which includes a new playbook, a certain kind of draft strategy, and a big gamble on something that hasn’t been proven to work yet. In other words, don’t count on it.

That doesn’t mean there’s not an awful lot to admire in Tebow. He’s the kind of Christian I’d like to be someday. For more thoughts, check out my current column in the United Methodist Reporter.

What is a 'Wesley Scholar'?

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by admin in Doctrine & Theology, Leadership, Local Church Ministry, Practical Theology, Spiritual Formation, Theological Education, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Tradition

≈ 4 Comments

In a story on January 6th, the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper announced a new role that I will be fulfilling: that of “Wesley Scholar” for my annual conference. This is an appointed position to which I’ve been assigned by my bishop, the Rev. Charles Crutchfield. It’s not a conventional appointment, though, in the sense that (according to Bishop Crutchfield) it is unique across the entire connection.

So what is a Wesley Scholar anyway, and what will the role mean for my work with the Arkansas Conference?

Amy Forbus at the Arkansas United Methodist did a nice job with the article, which includes information on Dr. Kurt Boggan as the new Director of the Center for Clergy & Laity Excellence and Ms. Sandy Watson as the lead facilitator for the Network of Discipleship & Mission. All three of these appointments are a result of the “Imagine Ministry” program which was passed by the annual conference last year and is now being implemented.

To offer a little more depth about my thoughts on the new conference position of Wesley Scholar, I’ll offer this Q&A that Ms. Forbus and I did a few weeks ago. It was way too much information to print in the Arkansas United Methodist, but I can happily offer it in this forum:

Here are some questions to be thinking about: Is this appointment effective at Annual Conference, or will you begin the work sooner?

The appointment begins on January 1, 2012.

How much time do you expect to devote to it (per week or month)?

It is difficult to put a number on the amount of work I’ll be doing. As the bishop mentioned to me when he started talking to me about the appointment, this is a unique position that has not been tried anywhere else before. That means it will necessarily evolve over time. It will involve writing, speaking, teaching, and participating in conferences & meetings of various kinds. And so I think there will be an ebb and a flow to the work that will vary depending on the time of year and the needs that arise.

Will you be available to visit local churches, and if so, what would you offer them?

I think direct engagement with local churches will be a significant part of this ministry. Sometimes that will happen in person, and sometimes it might also happen virtually through web-based media. I will also participate in meetings of the extended cabinet, as well as in gatherings around the annual conference in settings larger than local churches.

As far as what I will offer them, I think the best way I can put it is like this: I want to help connect the mission & ministry of the Arkansas Conference to the rich Wesleyan heritage out of which the people called Methodists have sprung. In one significant body of material from the early Methodist movement called the “Large Minutes,” Wesley gives a number of reasons as to why it is important for Methodist ministry to exist. He says that he, his brother Charles, and their friends were originally impelled to go out and form a holy people. He tells the junior preachers that they have nothing to do but to save souls, and that they should spend all their time in that work. And he says that the first Methodist preachers were called to reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness across the land.

When you read those kinds of passages out of the Large Minutes, a number of concepts stick out: holiness, salvation, and reform. But what do they mean, and how do they translate into our present context? I have spent the past 13 years of my life committed both to pastoral ministry and to the scholarly study of the Wesleyan tradition. The role I hope to embody in my ministry is that of a pastor-teacher for the church, and I think I can best do that by engaging in the work of making the Wesleyan tradition alive in our churches.

The Book of Discipline says that John Wesley believed that the Christian faith is “illumined by tradition.” That means that the tradition gives light to our understanding of the faith itself. The vehicles I will use to assist the annual conference in receiving the light of the Wesleyan teaching will be through eminently pastoral tasks: preaching, speaking, writing, and teaching.

Say something about how the new role relates to your own call to ministry.

I am an elder in the Arkansas Conference of the UMC. When I left the annual conference in 2006 to pursue my doctorate, I told the bishop and a number of clergy friends that I wanted to come back and figure out a way to serve the church in Arkansas through the academic study I would be doing. That commitment never wavered, and as a result, my wife and I decided that I would not apply for teaching positions far away from the state of Arkansas. We never knew that a Wesleyan Studies position would open up at Memphis Theological Seminary at just the right time (much less that I’d be hired for it!), but we did trust that something would work out that would allow me to pursue my sense of call to ministry with the church in Arkansas. So part of my sense of call is call to ministry in a particular place, with a particular people.

The other way that this new position intersects with my vocation has to do with the role of seminary education in the life of the church. I have always experienced my vocation as one that keeps me with one foot firmly planted in the church and the other foot planted in the academy. I have served an appointment as a campus minister at a United Methodist-affiliated college. I’ve served two appointments as a local church pastor. And now I’m serving an appointment as a seminary professor. Through this past and present experience, I have seen the way in which there’s often a gap between the church and the academy – a gap I think is much too wide. I want to help narrow it, and because of that I want to do the kind of teaching and writing that makes Wesleyan theology accessible for folk in the church. I can do that to an extent as a professor at Memphis Theological Seminary. But with the added duties as Wesleyan Scholar for the annual conference, I will be able to focus that much more directly on how the work of a Wesleyan theologian should serve the life of the church at the ground level.

There is a term that Catholics and Anglicans tend to use for a position like this. It is called a “canon theologian,” and it means a scholar who serves the church according to a particular rule of life. Sometimes canon theologians are attached to episcopal staffs, and sometimes they work at a particular cathedral to resource the life of the church in the area the cathedral serves. I see my position with the Arkansas Conference in those terms, where my calling to serve as Wesley Scholar to the annual conference will largely determine the kind of theological reflection (and writing, and speaking,) in which I’ll engage in my daily life.

 

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