Leadership Conflict Resolution: Prophet | Priest | King

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 12, 2006 in Church, Culture, Triperspectivalism | 2 comments

Each of us has an area of strength that most greatly influences how we make decisions. Earlier, we said these three modes are Prophet, Priest or King. [read How Mutliperspectivalism shapes Church Leadership and how you staff a church]

When we get into arguments, often, our inclination is to emphasis our area of strength at the expense of the others. It is valuable to understand this as you work with diverse teams of people in leading. If conflict arises:

A PROPHET will point out the authority of the situation to make their case. This authority could be their take on what the Bible says or other source. The danger is when a Prophet is more concerned with ‘being right’ than applying the authority properly. By this I mean that often a Prophet can be right, dead right. Being dead right is when there is no grace or thought of how it effects people impacted by the conflict.

A KING can tend to emphasize what they think is most pragmatic or what is the ‘most fair’ way to deal with the matter? This pragmatism avoids the cost of wrestling through what is the ‘authority’ that determines what should be done particularly if it is the hardest road to take. Secondly, the decision often trumps how it effects people because feelings and grace may not be accounted for in the resolution.

A PRIEST will emphasis the impact on people. Their concern is who (including themselves) is being hurt by the circumstance. Often they will avoid the ‘authority’ or ‘the way it is should be implemented’ if it causes too much emotional damage.

As with the other posts, most people will be a combination of two of the above. I’ve found knowing the people I am working with and where we tend to react toward does a great deal of preventative maintenance in our relationships. Before conflict arises [particularly if I am instigating it] I need to be in prayer that I would not run towards my common idols [KINGly systems] but think through God’s Word [PROPHET] and how grace [PRIEST] needs to be brought in the situation.

Marketing Resources

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 10, 2006 in Culture | 1 comment

Lately, I’ve been reading a bunch from Seth Godin. Some of this thoughts are a bit unconventional, but I’ve enjoyed the contrast between (old method) interruption marketing vs. permission based marketing. That and his emphasis on creating a story around a product/company. If you haven’t read much in the way of marketing and you want to get an idea out there, here are a couple resources I’d suggest:

All Marketers Are Liars : The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World

Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers

The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth

This has circulated the web, but also check out Godin’s presentation at Google.

Church Plant Media

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 10, 2006 in Church, General Technology | 0 comments

Church Plant Media signed up with Ekklesia 360 in the Fall last year. They now are landing 2 new clients a week for our combined companies. Pretty sweet. I’m going to fly to Orlando to the 2006 National New Church Conference to support their booth. (I also get to hang-out with all my friends from Acts 29, so I’m jazzed about the trip.)

What type of churches NOT to plant

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 6, 2006 in Church, Church Planting, Triperspectivalism | 1 comment

To contrast what type of a church we should plant, here is the contrast of what not to plant….hmmm…more tri-perspectivalism. Most churches error toward one of the perspectives; Normative, Situation or Existential. Normative relates to authority and concern with ‘right thinking’ about doctrine. Situational is concerned with the world and culture around you. Existential is concerned with the person and their feelings/experiences. Here is what an error would look like in EXTREME cases:

Normative Church - Typically these are going to be hyper-orthodox churches who are heavy on doctrine and systematics. The pastor will be a PROPHET and the messages will have great information about the Bible. Typically people are more inclined to attend a debate about paedobaptism then evangelize [cause hey, they are hyper-calvinists].

Situational Church- Either this church has become so absorbed in the culture around them that in order to be ‘relevant’ they have lost any claim to Biblical authority. Or because they don’t like the culture around them, they have created their own subculture with it’s own language, mega-campus so you never have to leave the church because heaven forbid you talk to a ‘sinner’ and catch sin like a virus. The pastor will be a KING.

Existential Church- An existential church is willing to let go of God’s authority (the Bible) in order to offer cheap grace. This church never talks about repentance, hard doctrine but would rather talk about faith, forgiveness and unfortunately this all come without a Jesus as God or the cross. The pastor will be a PRIEST.

Now, the above are extreme cases, I’d say few churches fall into these. Most often a church will get two out of the three. Here are a couple examples of TYPICAL errors a church would fall into.

Normative/Situational- The church preaches messages that are ‘here’s God’s word, now go do it!’ Often a more guilt-centered. Service is joy-less and done from duty. People will have to put on a mask because they know they are not living the way that they are told they should. The preacher is the taskmaster. The preacher must remove themselves from too much interaction with the congregation, or they would discover he is a fraud.

Existential/Normative- My guess is that this is the least common combination. The pastor loves his people, teaches from the Bible but rarely helps the congregation apply it to their life. “They need to figure out how to apply these things themselves!” Right? When difficult teachings come, they are ‘tough love’ at this church. The preacher is the loving professor.

Situational/Existential- The ‘seeker sensitive church’ that preaches ten tips to being a better father. Little feel good messages that people can put in their back pocket and go try at home. Difficult teachings and doctrine is avoided at all costs. Program-driven to create a better experience for people. The preacher is a motivational speaker.

Not How or Why but WHAT type of church should you plant

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 5, 2006 in Church, Church Planting, Triperspectivalism | 0 comments

As I posted earlier, the influence of Keller/Harbor/Frame and tri-perspectivalism is far reaching. It should be the very worldview that we filter everything through, we looked at its influence in church leadership development and preaching. Now, here is a take on how it influences WHAT type of churches you should plant.

First the NORMATIVE is that the church must view the whole Bible as the gospel. This means it is the gospel that is not just the entry into the Kingdom, but is the very way a Christian will grow in grace. Second, the SITUATIONAL impact is the gospel calls us to mission. We must plant churches that are on mission. We are a church 'for' the city/culture/people where God places us. We must learn the context, speak the stories, understand the myths, heroes and struggles around us. Mostly we must not be of, against or above but for the culture we live in. Lastly, our EXISTENTIAL stance is one of constant grace renewal through faith in Jesus Christ. We are motivated by grace (not guilt) and understand all challenges, problems and answers need the Gospel. I have 50 pages of notes from lectures Harbor (Doug Swagerty) and John Frame gave that go over these in much more depth. They go into the theology of ministry, including leadership development, preaching/teaching, administrating, counseling all through this framework….I'll ask Doug if it's ok if I post more about this stuff….