I'm re-posting one of Mark Batterson's recent post, as it adds to the Missio conversation. It adds to the 3 phases in Missional [Part 2].
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Imitation is Suicide
I just read the latest issue of Outreach magazine and the feature was an interview with Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic in LA. He said something that was so profound. Really made me think. "I think a lot of pastors have a dream that matches the life of the pastor who is the living the dream they want." Man, that stopped me in my tracks.
I think there is a such a temptation to copy when it comes to ministry. I wrestle with it as much as anyone else. I think we need models. I've got my fair share, including Erwin McManus. But I remember reading something Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in Self-Reliance: "There is a time in every man's education that he arrives at the conviction that imitation is suicide. He must take himself for better or for worse."
I think there are two simple principles that ought to guide us:
1) Keep Learning.
2) Be Yourself.
At some point, most of us stop learning and start copying. It's so much easier. We stop living out of right-brain imagination and start living out of left-brain memory. And that is when we stop creating the future and start repeating the past.
Just a simple reminder. There never has been and never will be anyone like you. And that isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you.
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Your thoughts...
4 comments:
I wanted to add this to the missional conversation because I think too often we re-create church and church plants based off what 'has' worked or what worked for the pastors we idolize.
God called me and you to be real, to just be us and use us - not us pretending to be Erwin, Bell, Warren, etc, etc, etc.
I believe a big part of a more missional minded church community lies in it's leaders determined to just be themselves.
Actually, a big part for any of us to be used by God, lies in us just being us.
totally- It seems we always want to copy someone who is "cool"...i have been there and it just leads to disappointment
Great article. We do see that especially in the church and you are right; we need to be ourselves. Learn from the principles taught, but plug yourself (and your congregation or those around you) into those principles. We live in a microwave society that wants results now (and so are looking for the best microwave). Instead, we need to just pray and then work hard both in study and in reaching out as well as living for Christ and allow God to give the increase.
You nailed it, Kevin.
But what if being yourself means being gay or trans? Is there room there in the big Christian tent for you, or is it time to lie and hide in the closet?
There isn't a gay or transperson out there who couldn't fake like they're straight and mix in and get lots of church kudos and be considered the best Christian on the block, fully involved with all the church ministries and even acting as pastors. (See Haggard, Ted.)
And there are a lots of them who refuse to live in the closet without integrity, and are banned from serving in ministries, from membership, from music/choir, from helping with kids - even from church itself.
How important to the church is it really to be yourself?
How important is it to fit in?
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