This phrase set me off over at my poor friends’ Aaron’s (Monts) blog. I hope that you will look at the conversation there and the one in the in the last post here. By the way, I certainly do not disagree with everything he says in this conversation and have learned to value his thoughts.

Here are some excerpts of our comments from Aaron’s blog. I would love to have you join in on this vital conversation about church leadership.

AM: high caliber leaders are those that “get it” about leadership and have an amazing capacity to lead others towards the vision and get people on board towards helping people find their way back to God. “how does that not fit into God’s kingdom?” would be my question back to you…

it’s an empowering of others, while joining together with others in the pursuit of mission and God’s kingdom.

GH: Using high caliber leaders to lead the church makes perfect sense on one hand and sounds exactly like the corporate world on the other hand. That is not a bad thing by itself, except I don’t see that the corporate/high caliber leadership model has produced many truly missional churches. I understand that those with the leadership gift often get an unfair bum rap and that it is an important gift, but I have seen it used in ways that were self-serving (for the local church) and subtly codependent and ego gratifying for the leader.

AM: i think we have to get away from seeing the corporate world and their ideas as the enemy and rather look for the truths that may lie within. the one thing that i find interesting about the emerging/missional movement is that we believe that truth lay everywhere (i.e. other religions, culture, philosophies, etc)–except where we don’t want to find it (traditional church, corporate america, conservative politics, etc.) we seem to be creating a double standard in this approach and rather than embracing truth we pick and choose the truths that we want.

GH: The corporate world is not the enemy. The corporate model of church management, on the other hand, has not produced much of anything that resembles Jesus. Granted, there are a few notable exceptions. Your statement about the emerging/missional movement was sweeping, with a grain of truth, but generally, little more than a caricature.

I was just trying to find some high caliber leadership adjectives in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. There is mostly an emphasis on character and maturity, with a secondary emphasis on abilities, and no emphasis on high caliber-ness, unless, one couples character with the ability to influence, which would be a correct association.

AM: Thinking that I’m only making sweeping generalities that caricature the emerging church is not correct, because those statements are more pointed and true than they are general. The emerging church has serious issues with leadership and authority—I could elaborate, but it would take an entire blog series (which probably should be forthcoming)—which is because the emerging church is still caught in a very adolescent phase. Fortunately it is moving forward from this adolescence into a more mature and focused group. But this is why leadership (specifically the term “high-caliber” leadership) is so distasteful.

GH: The emerging church has a problem with authority and leadership because they have seen it misused and abused to such a degree. They are re-examining how leadership and authority should work. I think that is a good thing. When someone has been repeatedly burned, they tend to become a little weary. I know that you understand exactly what I am talking about from your experiences. What is the problem with taking a fresh look at leadership?

Something that is of high caliber has great capacity that can go ether way. My problem with the term is that I can’t even imagine Jesus using it. I have seen great harm come of it (usually by well-meaning people.) I have seen it build great churches, but seldom the kingdom. I would like to see it re-defined in terms of humility, servanthood, character, compassion, and maturity. The ability to leverage those virtues would be true high caliber leadership!

AM: i agree that mclaren and gang are unconventional leaders, but that doesn’t mean they are not high-caliber leaders… i’m glad you recognize that! the baby that i think is being thrown out by the emerging church/missional church is leadership and authority (which are intertwined) and the bathwater is the different models of leadership that have been tried and failed… or just don’t work anymore. unfortunately those are both being tossed instead of looking for the redemptive sides of leadership and taking a fresh look at it.

GH: Being aware that people these days are more weary of church leaders, I see no reason to hang on to corporate style terminology, like … high caliber leader, senior pastor, senior associate pastor, executive pastor, etc. that would lead people to think that church leaders are big shots, instead of servants.