Their book is set up around 8 different shapes that are important for church leaders to keep in mind as they work in congregations to empower others to lead. These shapes are circle, semicircle, triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, and octagon. Each shape corresponds to some aspect of ministry - spiritual, educational, missional, etc. And each shape is easy enough to remember that they are able to be taught quickly and efficiently in small groups.
As I was reading, there were a couple of shapes that really caught my attention as being useful for thinking about parish ministry: the semicircle, triangle, and square. The others seemed redundant because I've had two years of seminary, but I see the value in working with lay leaders in these areas to round out spiritual wellness.
Before delving into the shapes, I want to stop at a point Breen and Cockram make at the beginning of the book. They spend a chapter talking about the importance of working with small groups of people at a time and letting them get to know the real you as pastor/spiritual leader. They argue that because Jesus walked with 12 and then 3 closely and intimately that we as spiritual leaders should not be afraid of letting others in to our lives and/or giving an appearance of playing favorites.
I'm not sure that I completely agree with this idea. I think there is value in letting people understand how you as a spiritual leader deal with disappointment, anger, etc. However, I do think that we need to set some boundaries for our own mental health and wellness. We have to recognize that we must create spaces that allow for healthy relationships between ourselves and those whom we are leading - spaces that require healthy boundaries to set up and maintain.
So that's something I'll continue to wrestle with and have conversations with over the next year or two (or the rest of my life...)
Moving on to some fun shapes!
The semicircle is perhaps the most important and yet most underused practice for pastors and workers in the church ever. Breen and Cockram use the semicircle to represent the pendulum between rest and work.
This pendulum is important because without rest, work becomes exhausting and meaningless and without work, rest becomes slothful and boring. (Although how often does this actually happen?) Yet, how often are we "on" constantly - rarely spending time to just be still in the presence of God and of one another? There is always something to do, soccer practice, one more meeting, gotta update the blog, laundry, cleaning, cooking, football, choir practice. Our lives are constantly on the move - we are judged harshly for being "unproductive."
Part of our job as spiritual leaders then, is to live our lives in such a way that people see the importance of taking time to rest. Even God rested (Genesis 2:2). We model the pattern for rest and work so that both of them are used to live healthier lives physically, mentally, and spiritually.
The next shape that I found helpful was the triangle. Breen and Cockram use the triangle to point out the three relationships that we have - our relationship with God (Up), our relationship with others (Out), and our relationship with ourselves (In).
They helpfully point out that we have a tendency to focus on two out of three of these relationships exclusively. We either focus on our relationships between ourselves and God, ourselves and others, or others and God - which doesn't allow all three of these relationships to impact, inform, and build up the others.
I was drawn to this shape because they drew upon Micah 6:8 to help flesh out this idea. "...but what does The Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (NRSV) Breen and Cockram argued that this passage fleshes out the three dimensions to our relationships - "do justice" as Out, "love kindness" as In, and "walk humbly with God" as Up. Now I take this direct correlation with a grain of salt, but appreciate the fact that both of these ideas remind us that our call as Children of God is multi-faceted, but is at it's core a simple calling.
The last shape that I found to be particularly helpful for thinking about working as a spiritual leader was their square. The square is designed to model a way for us to teach others to lead. Each side of the square is one stage in the "teaching to lead" journey.
To put it more simply, D1 and L1 in the step above could easily be said as "I do, you watch." D2 and L2 is "I do, you help." D3 and L3 is "You do, I help." and finally D4, L4 is "You do, I watch."
Each of these stages is really about getting those who are learning how to lead others involved in the leadership process in such a way that they are able to grow in confidence about their active role in leadership and then allows you as their teacher to slowly back off and reduce their dependency on you as a safety net.
I think there is great value in this training process because it allows your "disciples" to see your methods for ministry, but then creates space for them to explore and develop their own style of leadership - one that works with their unique ministerial gifts.
I think this book had some insightful things to say about church leadership, and I plan on continuing to wrestle with some of the models that they present as I start to take a more active role in developing lay leaders for my internship progress.
Building a Discipling Culture might be an interest book to work through with a church council (or perhaps the actual small group curriculum developed for such a purpose) because of its insights into empowering others to lead and embrace their spiritual gifts. I think it is important to work through it as a group however, because some of their ideas and concepts need to be critiqued and examined carefully.
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