Review of Personality isn't Permanent by Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Personality isn’t Permanent: Break Free from Self-Limiting Beliefs and Rewrite Your Story. Benjamin Hardy, Ph.D. (Portfolio/Penguin, 2020)

This is an important book. Benjamin Hardy takes us on a rich exploration into personality and challenges the dangerous assumption that we are fixed types. This book argues powerfully that we are never merely the sum of our past. 

Hardy’s key argument is this: “[Successful people] become who they want to be by orienting their life toward their goals, not as a repeat of the past; by active bravely as their future selves, not by perpetuating who they formerly were.” (p. 9)

I’m a coach and I have used DISC, Enneagram, and Myers-Briggs assessment to help clients grow themselves and their teams. I’ve seen myself grow so I’ve always been careful not to coach people as though they are “stuck” wherever they find themselves. 

This is where Hardy’s work is so important because he writes as an expert in organizational psychology. His work provides compelling teaching on the limitations and dangers of using assessments to categorize people in ways that limit them.

There is always a fear that each of us is merely whatever our “type” is as though we are limited and defined by a self-reported score at a given moment in our history. I had a friend who was denied a promotion in a company simply because he didn’t have the DISC profile of a leader. 

Hardy helpfully dispels the myth of innate or determined personality. These tests may give us insights into our preferences or even provide a snapshot of where we are in a given moment, but it is a grave error to believe that any person is limited because they score X on a personality assessment.

Moreover Hardy presents research that demonstrates that our present and future self is not caused by our past. Or as he says in opposition to Shakespeare: the past is not prologue or at least it doesn’t have to be. Hardy writes for a reader who desires to make changes to her or his life. The good news according to Hardy’s research is that we are not limited by our past experiences. In fact, the key to a new future is our ability as humans to choose a new future and make decisions about what our past means.

Here are the the promises that Hardy makes to his reader (p. 10):

-Discover the myths of personality that limit most people’s potential

-Decide for yourself the life you want to live, regardless of how different it is from your past or present

-Become emotionally flexible so your past no longer defines you

-Reframe your trauma to believe and live like everything in your life has happened for you and not to you

-Become confident enough to define your own life’s purpose

-Create a network of “empathetic witnesses” who actively encourage your to continue moving forward through your highs and lows

-Enhance your subconscious to overcome addictions and limiting pattters

-Redesign your environment to pull you toward your future rather than keep you stuck in the past

Readers of leadership and self-improvement books will detect some of the standard coaching ingredients in the above list. But Hardy adds a key element lacking in much of the literature–his work is research based. Hardy is a recent Ph.D. graduate from a major research university (Clemson). He understands rigorous research. 

He is in a unique space because in addition to his academic credentials, he has worked hard at the craft of writing. His prose style is easy to read and substantive. Moreover he is an entrepreneur with a successful seven figure business. 

But it wasn’t always this way for Benjamin Hardy. He had a traumatizing upbringing. But he found a way forward. He has “skin in the game.” His book is a roadmap to his own journey from humble beginnings to a successful marriage, family, and business.

In other words, Dr. Hardy is a voice worth investing the time required to give Personality isn’t Permanent a careful read.

The chapters build slowly and methodically. I appreciated the illustrations of persons who moved from positions of struggle to success. As Hardy guides us, he includes questions that help us apply the lessons immediately and directly to our life so that we can move forward.

Dr. Hardy delivers on his promises. 

Key takeaways for me:

(1) We need to create labels for ourselves in light of our goals and not limit our goals to a label given us on an assessment

(2) Our personality is dependent on the environment in which we find ourselves. This book challenges us to put ourselves in environments that enhance and support our goals and not merely one’s that reinforce limiting and fixed beliefs.

(3) Personality tests “are fast food for the soul” (55). They give easy answers to explain why a person is or isn’t successful. In other words, they can serve as an excuse for taking true growth, assuming responsibility, and taking action to achieve one’s deep goals.

(4) I’m challenged anew to ask: “What do I really want? What is my highest purpose? Have I found a massive goal that will pull me out of bed everyday with purpose and passion?

(5) Need to focus on one massive goal rather than on a collection of smaller goals. Play big.

(6) Reinforced the essential role that journaling plays in growth by keeping our goals on the front burner and creating intentional space daily for deep reflection and visualization of our preferred future. Hardy provides a map for deep journaling by filling each chapter with questions for reflection.

(7) Critical role that associations play in life. Refuse to be the “smartest guy in the room” and put self in an environment for growth. Build a team of “empathetic” witnesses and encouragers around myself and be that person for others. This is what I’d call “being known by love and serving as a voice of hope for others.”

(8) Be aware of the danger of initial success and achieving a certain level of status. These can kill off future growth. WE move from goal achievement to status/income/image management/protection.

(9) When pondering the meaning of our past experience (good and bad), remember Sean Stephenson’s final words: “This happened for me, not to me.” (146)

(10) Recognize the physiological effects of suppressing emotions and painful experiences.

(11) Absolute necessity of new challenges, meeting new people, and learning to thrive in new environments. Refuse to be stale.

Who do you desire to be and become? What is preventing you right now from moving toward a bigger, richer, better, and more profound future? If this question raises doubts in your heart, perhaps Personality isn’t Permanent may be just what you need today to forward.

I recommend Personality isn’t Permanent with enthusiasm. 

Courage, Fear, and God's Future (Walking and Talking Spirituality #13)

Feeling anxious and fearful? Are you worried about what the future holds?
Courage is the key that unlocks the door to the future of God’s dreams for you.
Aristotle wrote, “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others."
Mark Twain added, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear–not absence of fear.”
God encouraged Joshua three times in Josh 1:1–9 “Be strong and courageous.”
Remember the courage won’t “feel good” in the moment. But it is the key to opening the door to the future of God’s dreams for us. It is the antidote to the constricting power of fear.
Commit to God’s future. Imagine a bigger and brighter future.
Cultivate habits, skills, and practices in anticipation of God’s future. Who do you need to become? What do you need to learn?
Practice consistency. Take action daily toward God’s future.
Create. Craft new ideas, content, models, and visions for your bigger and brighter future.
Connect. Joshua led God’s people to the promised land. Who are you leading? Who is looking to you for leadership in this moment? Find ways to connect with them and bolster their faith. Share your courage with them.
Courage is the key that opens the door to the future of God’s dreams!
What does courage look like for you today?

Book Review of Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

 
I regularly read leadership and personal development literature as a means of increasing my capacity in my current role as Dean and Associate provost as well as for my coaching business. I consider Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (St. Martin's Press, 2016) to be one of the Top ten books on leading well that I've read. I recommend it to administrators, business leaders, coaches, pastors, and anyone who desires to lead a team more effectively and productively.

Willink and Babin are retired U.S. Navy Seals who served multiple tours during the Iraqi conflict. They now serve as consultants to businesses and leaders. Extreme Ownership focuses on lessons that they learned while leading combat units in Task Unit Bruiser in the difficult and dangerous fight against insurgents in Ramadi. Extreme Ownership is a compelling read because it illustrates critical leadership principles by showing how they were learned (often the hard way) on the battlefield. 

In each chapter, Willink and Babin narrate personal incidents from their combat experiences in Iraq. They then break down the lesson into an easy to understand and apply principle. Last they illustrate how the principle can be applied in today's business environments.

This is not a book on warfare. Their battle stories are not gory and have been sanitized for a non-military audience without losing the seriousness of the situation described. This raised the poignancy of the teaching offered by Willink and Babin. They are not theorists but practitioners of the art of leading and they did it when their lives as well as those of their men were at stake.

Extreme Ownership unfolds in three movements: 

Part One: Winning the War Within

The title Extreme Ownership comes from the main principle advocated in the book of the absolute necessity of the leader taking 100% responsibility for what happens under his or her watch. They mean 100%. No excuses. No blaming. Ever. 

In their view, there are no bad teams but only bad leaders (chapter two). The leader is responsible for setting the tone for the team and explaining the mission to each member.

This begins with the leader's belief (chapter three). We are not ready to lead until we have focused on the "why" of the mission. If we are taking orders from someone above us, we must own the why so that we can pass it on to those whom we lead. As I leader, I must be "all in" if I expect my team to follow me.

Leaders must also check their egos (chapter four).

Part Two: Laws of Combat
In chapter five, the authors teach the principle of "cover and move." To be effective, teams must work together. This includes how one team within an organization relates to other teams. Conflict often occurs because teams within the same company compete against one another instead of focusing attention on winning.


Warfare is chaotic. So is life and business.  We cannot plan for every contingency. The key is to create actionable and simple plans and strategies that the entire organization can understand and implement (chapter six).

When under pressure, leaders must learn to prioritize and execute (chapter seven). Focus the team on one key activity at a time.


Empower others to lead smaller groups through decentralized leadership (chapter eight). No one can effectively lead more than 10 people. Communicate down the organization using simple plans and communicate clearly and concisely so that all are on the same page.

Part Three: Sustaining Victory 

Planning is critical to achieving victory (chapter 9). All organizations need to create a template for creating clear, compelling, and effective plans to advance the mission.

In the most efficient organizations, leadership flows up and down the chain of command (chapter 10). Each member of the team learns to lead up and down the flow chart by practicing extreme ownership at each level.

In warfare, uncertainty is a given. On the battlefield, there is never enough information. There is a balance between decisiveness and uncertainty (chapter 11). Knowing when to act and when to wait can be a matter of life and death.

Last, discipline equals freedom (chapter 12). Success in mission is not easy. It takes discipline to grow into the leaders that our world needs. It is often a dance between extremes (pp. 277-78): 

"confident but not cocky; courageous but not foolhardy; competitive but a gracious loser; attentive to details but not obsessed by them; strong but have endurance; a leader and a follower; humble not passive; aggressive not overbearing; quiet not silent; calm but not robotic...; close with the troops but not so close that one becomes more important than another or more important than the good of the team...;able to execute extreme ownership, while exercising decentralized command."

Great book. Inspiring. Insightful. I'll read it again. Consider picking up a copy. You'll be glad you did. So will your team!




To learn more about Jocko Willink check out his interview with Tim Ferris.

Interview with Alex McManus, Author of Makers of Fire: The Spirituality of Leading from the Future

I've known Alex McManus since January 2005. We became friends after I heard him speak at a Origins Conference in Orlando FL. Everytime that we've talked Alex has stretched my thinking and inspired my missional imagination. I'm grateful for the opportunity to offer my friends and readers an interview with Alex regarding his recent book Makers of Fire: The Spirituality of Leading from the Future.

What is the inspiration for the title, Makers of Fire?

Over the course of my life, I've had several enduring interests. The first of these is an interest in the future. As a young boy of five or six years old, I remember speaking with my grandfather about Thomas Malthus' predictions that the world would have a global water crisis. He also once said to me that he wanted to live until the year 2000 because there would be dancing in the streets. Ever since then, I’ve enjoyed thinking about the things to come.

A second enduring interest is reading history, especially deep history. When it comes to our species, I’ve enjoyed readings in paleoanthropology and thinking about what life must have been like for the first humans. Brian, have you ever tried to start a fire sans the aid of modern technologies like matches and such?  Can you imagine our existence in the world before we domesticated fire? As I say in the book, In the beginning, the world was dark.

Then came the change.

Somewhere in the prehistorical mist of our ancient past, the first humans unlocked the mystery of fire. What a creative leap it must have been to first imagine making fire. The power of the human imagination coupled with urgent need pushed the limits of human capacity. Rather than waiting for lightning to start a fire, some ancient person stood in lightning's place and provided the heat of ignition. They harnessed that which was once wild and domesticated it. And they made the world better for themselves and for others. This was our breakthrough technology. Everything we enjoy today, was built on this discovery. To me this becomes a symbol, a representation, of human ingenuity, creativity, and innovation. I chose the image of making fire for the book in hopes of burning into our minds the fact that the human imagination is our infinite resource.

So, by Makers of Fire, I mean the entire human enterprise of seeing a need and filling it, the insatiable hunger of human curiosity, the human drive to engage the world and rule it. The human imagination is the well from which we will make the world better for ourselves and for others. So, by Makers of Fire, I hope to point to the human capacity to shape the world for generations to come.

Makers of Fire is also primal. When I speak of making fire, I imagine bleeding fingers and broken fingernails, sweat dripping from the brow, a simple stick of wood spinning into a nest of dry material, a flow of nurturing oxygen, a sense of urgent need. Making Fire is about dreaming --an act of the imagination -- and doing --the primal act of trying and trying again. Makers of Fire is a calling to all of us. How can each of us act, individually and together, to make the world better for others?

Who is the ideal reader of Makers of Fire? I wrote makers of fire as a companion text for the IMN’s certificate course in Strategic and Ideational Leadership. The kinds of people who take this certificate course are future-oriented thinkers and activists. They tend to think differently. They tend to be as engaged with the world outside the church as they are with the world inside the church.

What is the key idea in the book? The book is a calling to embrace fully the reality that we are each and all creators of the future. The first section of the book touches on some of the changes we are experiencing in our present day world. The second section touches on how these changes are creating a hunger for meaning. The third section touches on how we are beginning to explore anew what it means to be a people on a mission to create the future.

How will Makers of Fire help 21st-century leaders? I think the book offers some useful devices to help 21st-century leaders organize their thinking. For example, I describe the task of leadership as comprising of three elements that correspond to the triangle of combustion. In order to make fire, you need three things; fuel, oxygen, and the heat of ignition. In order to Make Fire and “lead from the future”, a leader must be able to do three things: fearlessly describe the present, discern the search for meaning in the moment, and discover pathways forward. Another tool I touch on is the plausibility cone, which describes how the futures are created. The feedback I get, when I share this tool in our certificate course, is that it really helps leaders understand how their work and efforts help shape the future.

Why is it important for Christ-following leaders to be interested in the ideas of futurists? In a professional sense, not everyone works in the strategic foresight industry. But in the personal sense, every human being is a futurist. The emergence of the multi-chambered brain which gave rise to the human imagination. Our imagination gave humans a capacity to imagine worlds that could be. In that sense, every man, woman, and child thinks about the future. In the same way, that we humans are taught to think historically, we can be taught to think “futuristically”.

Related specifically to the Christ following faith, the scriptures themselves seem to be, in my reading, future-oriented. Just to be clear, when I speak about the future I don't mean the eschatological future, I don't mean the end of all things. When I think about the future I'm talking about futurity: that which may  happen among us and become history. In that sense thinking about the future is not about predicting the future but about understanding our place and role in the present.

So even though the church is a conserving institution, and even though we dedicate ourselves to reading ancient texts and reciting ancient creeds and participating in ancient practices, something is missing if our minds and hearts are not also oriented towards the future.

Where can people find a copy of my book? You can find Makers of Fire: The Spirituality of Leading from the Future on Amazon. And your readers can connect with me online through my website: theimn.com. They can find a link to the certificate courses we offer and a link for our newsletter, dispatches from the future of faith.

Thank you Alex. 

Jesus Rebukes Peter: Matt 16:22-23

 Let’s continue with our reading of Matthew 16:21-28. As discussed in yesterday's blog, this passage marks the beginning of Jesus’ movement toward Jerusalem where he would suffer, be killed, and be raised on the third day.

Vv. 22-23 describe Peter’s attempted rebuke of Jesus, and Jesus’ response to Peter:

NIV Matthew 16:22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Peter’s response to Jesus’ mission is stunning. He rejects Jesus’ words about his suffering, death, and resurrection with some of the strongest wording possible in Greek - “may this never be!” This response is particularly stunning in light of Peter’s confession just a few verses earlier - “You are the Messiah, Son of the Living God!” (16:16). Peter goes from heroic (and correct) confessor of Jesus’ true identity to goat in the face of Jesus’ revelation about the true meaning of his Messiahship.

Why does Peter do this? How is it possible for Peter to be dead-on right in his identification of Jesus and so wrong about the meaning of Jesus’ identity?

Jesus’ response to Peter helps to answer these questions. Jesus responds to Peter in a manner reminiscent of his rebuke of Satan during Jesus’ wilderness temptation in 4:1-11. In 4:10, Jesus orders Satan away from him in a similar fashion (this is somewhat obscured in English translation of both verses but is very close in the original Greek). By calling Peter “Satan”, Jesus implies that by his words Peter is aligning himself with the forces of evil who desire to thwart Jesus’ mission. Furthermore, Peter functions as a stumbling block. In Matthew’s Gospel, this term describes those persons/things that have the potential to cause others to sin (see 13:41 and 18:7).

Why is Peter a stumbling block? Jesus focuses on Peter’s motivation or intentions. Peter’s motivation arises from his focus on the things of humanity rather than on the things of God. In other words, Peter is living his life from a human perspective rather than a divine perspective. Peter wants to follow Jesus, but he wants to do it on his own terms rather than on God’s. In God’s economy which Jesus courageously and steadfastly embodies, Jesus must go to Jerusalem. Peter cannot accept this.

What does It mean to live life from a human perspective? In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches on a variety of topics that challenge our all too human inclination toward self:

Reputation versus Character

We have a tendency to go to great links to protect our reputation. Yet when we read Matthew, Jesus does not seem a bit worried about his reputation. In fact, Jesus is reviled. The Pharisees are scandalized by Jesus’ dining with “tax collectors and sinners” (9:11). He is accused of casting out devils by the power of the “prince of demons” (9:34). We could go on, but this serves to illustrate the point that if Jesus were to have worried about his public reputation, it is unlikely that he would have had the impact that he did.

Jesus fulfilled the mission that God gave to him without worrying about his reputation. What does this mean for us? We need to worry less about what others say about our actions and worry more about whether or not we are living faithfully and obediently for God. God will not be able to use us to our full potential if we are afraid to risk our reputations. We will not be able to interact with and reach those who desperately need the Gospel if we are afraid to lose our reputation by associating with those on the margins of society.

Instead, we need to focus on allowing God to shape our character after the image of Jesus Christ and then obediently following Jesus into the world to reach those who need God. Those who focus on the things of God understand the difference between godly character and public reputation.

Security

Peter was no fool. He understood that a trip to Jerusalem would end in Jesus’ death and perhaps his own in the process. In his three-fold denial of Jesus later in the Gospel, it is clear that Peter is committed most profoundly to saving his own skin. Those who live life by the “things of men” rather than the “things of God” privilege their own security over the completion of God’s will in the world. Ultimate security is found in God alone (see Matt 16:27-28). The future of the disciple is secure. This doesn’t mean that we are guaranteed security and safety in this present age - rather it suggests that claims of security in this age are an illusion and ultimately a hindrance to living the unbelievable life that God calls us to live on behalf of God’s kingdom.

Wealth/Possessions

Jesus teaches extensively on the dangers of wealth (Matt 6:20-34; 13:22; 19:16-30). I think that it is incorrect to read these texts as suggesting that we should not work and provide for our loved ones, but we do need to hear the warning: wealth and possessions can lure us away from living whole heartedly for God. Those who focus on the things of God place God’s mission above the personal accumulation of wealth and possessions. Furthermore, when resources are acquired, they are good stewards of these and use them primarily to fuel the advancement of the Kingdom rather than the satisfaction of their own comfort.

Reflection:

1) How are we like Peter?

2) In what areas of our lives do we need to turn away from a human focus to a focus on God’s mission?

3) If Jesus were on earth today, what would hinder us from following him to Jerusalem?

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

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From Maintenance to Missional: Transitioning Established Churches into Kingdom Outposts

 Pastors often ask me, “I am not planting a new church. God has called me to serve in an established congregation. How can I lead my church to transition from a maintenance mindset to a missional culture?”

I believe that this is the key question for existing communities of faith in the Western world. Every day in the Western world there are 5000 less Christians. This means that the West needs to be re-won for Jesus Christ. But there is good news. Footholds and resources are already in place from which to begin. Transitioning established congregations is not an easy task—but it is an essential one as we seek to be faithful stewards of all that God has given. 

Here are some thoughts:

The key is to create a new culture. I have written elsewhere about viewing leadership in the 21^st century in terms of shaping ethos. The following are key transitional points that push this along:

1) Reintroduce the Apostolic story of Acts. At the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), a small group of persons whom God filled with the Holy Spirit began to turn the world upside down. The Church launched that day in fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy was a movement of dreamers and visionaries empowered by the promised Holy Spirit from God.

Don’t pass over the phrase dreamers and visionaries too quickly. In many struggling churches, the people of God have lost the capacity to dream of what God might do in and through the community. One of the first steps in transitioning to a missional model is to help followers of Jesus Christ to begin to dream again dreams shaped by the Scriptures.

2) Move from Surviving to Living.

Struggling churches are merely seeking to survive. When followers of Jesus Christ under the guidance of the Spirit begin to dream again, they slowly begin to realize that survival isn’t a goal. Survival is a prison that keeps a group from living. The goal of the Church of Jesus Christ is life in relationship to God. Living may sometimes means dying. Following Jesus Christ involves living as though you have already died (Matt 16:24). A vital relationship with Jesus moves us beyond fear to follow Jesus into the world on mission. This is the source of life.  Apostolic dreams lead to apostolic action.

3) Move God’s people from consumers of religious services to becoming collaborative influences for the Kingdom of God.

Missional churches are not about providing programs/resources to meet “felt needs” as ends in themselves. Missional churches call people to convert to the Gospel. This involves a reorientation from a life focused on self to a life centered on following Jesus Christ. The people of God shift from consuming to becoming Kingdom-rooted entrepreneurs who seek to extend the influence and reign of God to the ends of the earth. Congregations shift from inviting people to have their needs met to unleashing people to change the world.

4) Shift from Attractional Methods to Interactive Engagement.

Too many churches wait for people to show up at the door.  Missional churches are not opposed to advertising or raising awareness of the community of faith, but they do not sit round waiting for the World to show up. Instead, missional churches collaborate and envision ways to engage new Social networks. This is a key shift. The World no longer serves as a threat from which followers of Christ flee. Instead, the World becomes the venue for life and service in God’s mission. By engaging the world, we recapture the biblical vision of reaching the ends of the earth with the good news.

What are your thoughts?

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

Need a curriculum that helps trains disciples for mission rather than maintenance. Check out Invitation. Invitation introduces the narrative framework of Scripture through the lens of mission, character and community. Participants in the study will discover the missional DNA of the Christ following movement and learn to find themselves in the story of God's mission for humanity and all creation.

Missional Leader as Sculptor of Ethos

 For the last decade, I have done much thinking about the essence of leadership—particularly missional leadership. What is it?   What does a missional leader do?

John Maxwell defines leadership this way: “Leadership is influence.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.”  Influence is a potent term.  It captures the essence of leadership. Influence is the ability to persuade or move people or institutions to adopt a certain course of action or to believe certain things to be true.  It is also, as Erwin McManus suggests, the ability to change the things that a person cares about.

In our context as followers of Jesus, missional relates to those things that resonate with the mission of God.  It involves participation in God’s actions in creation.  To be missional is to be in tune with and acting upon God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven.”  Thus, missional leadership is influence that unleashes others to participate in God’s overarching mission for His Creation.

Men and women who serve as missional leaders work to shape and create a mission-centered ethos within their communities. Such an ethos is shaped through language, environment, and actions.  We will now explore these three elements.

LANGUAGE

Secular leaders have long recognized the power of language. Bart Nanus in Visionary Leadership , wrote, "There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, and achievable vision of the future, widely shared."

Missional leaders deploy the power of language to invite people to live in a new land—a land that evokes God-sized dreams and is permeated with the love and hope that God unleashed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and through the subsequent outpouring of the Spirit on Jesus’ followers.  We, of course, are not describing mere rhetoric—as if human language alone has intrinsic power apart from God.  The Bible as the Word of God invites us into this new world as the Scriptures announce to us God’s mission.

I am convinced that as interpreters of Scripture we need to think about the overarching story of the Bible. Too often we have a tendency to read the Bible as a collection of fragments whose imagery we can capture for a sermon or time of teaching. Yet, the Scriptures focus on the mission of God (missio dei). 

Humanity plays a vital role in God’s mission.  In God’s original plan, humanity was created to serve as a missional community to reflect God’s character to all creation. Human rebellion (described most poignantly in the narratives of Genesis 3-11 and in Paul’s letter to Rom (Romans 1-3) created the need for God to work profoundly for the reconciliation of humanity.  This involved the creation of a new people—Israel through whom God would work to bring salvation to the end of the earth.  God’s plan of salvation for humanity reached its climax in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.  Jesus fulfilled all that Israel was to be and unleashed his followers to into the world to share the good news of God’s salvation through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Scriptural story ends where it began—New Creation.  Ostensibly, life in the New Creation will be a renewal of the original purposes for humanity—living as a missional community for all Creation by reflecting God’s character to it.

Thus we may outline the Bible as a whole in this manner:

Creation -- Fall -- Israel -- Jesus Christ -- Church -- New Creation

The missional leader understands, breathes, and lives for this narrative. She or he uses the power of language to help others to catch a glimpse of what God is doing. The goal of this deployment of language is simple: conversion. The missional leader seeks to establish a missional ethos through language so that followers of Jesus the Messiah may be (re)converted and (re)ignited to God’s mission and so that those non-Christ followers may be invited to live for God’s mission receiving the gift of life that God offers through trusting Jesus Christ.

ENVIRONMENT

Designers of missional worship services need to maneuver skillfully between two false temptations. The first temptation is a stodgy allegiance to a traditional liturgical service.  Traditionalists tend to forget that every tradition began as a contemporary and fresh expression of worship in some context. It is simply wrong-headed to think that an orthodox theology will translate only into one type of worship. The second temptation is to overemphasize “edginess” as evidence of missional zeal. It is a fine line between seeking to speak clearly and relevantly to a target audience (or as I like to say “to speak human”) and losing the essence of the Gospel.

Here are a couple of thoughts about shaping environment.

1) Prayer—Never underestimate the importance and power of prayer.  Missional communities resonate with God through prayer.  Leaders must lead from their knees.  The creation of environments must be birth in prayer and sustained by the prayers of the missional leaders and their communities of faith.  There is no substitute for this step. 

2) Scripture—The Bible offers to its readers a new world.  It is an invitation to experience a new life and to live the reality of New Creation in the present.  Missional leaders understand that communities of faith need to be saturated with Scripture.  The Bible is the most profound book that humanity possesses.  Missional communites need to rediscover its power and its ability to shape and create ethos.

3) Deploy Gifts Openly—Missional leaders push their communities to grow in grace and Christlikeness by celebrating and deploying the gifts of the body.  Many emerging Churches have rediscovered the power of art in worship. Dance, music, painting, video, and drama are becoming increasingly common in worship gatherings in missional communities in the Western world.  These features push followers of Christ to use their own gifts. For too long, Christian artists have been held at arm’s length by the Church. This has harmed the Christ following movement because it has stifled the creativity of community as the whole.  Any time that a person’s gifts and talents are squelched the body of Christ is harmed. Missional communities need every single Christ follower functioning fully. Deploying gifts in the context of worship encourages others to use their own gifts for the good of the whole.

ACTIONS

Missional leaders must learn to sculpt the ethos of their communities of faith.  We have already looked at the potential of deploying language and creating environments that reflect a biblical ethos.  The missional leader can also shape ethos through his or her actions.  This may ultimately be the greatest shaper of ethos. 

There are at least four areas in which our actions can model a biblical ethos for our communities to embrace and embody:

1) The missional leader can shape ethos through a commitment to a missional lifestyle.  Mission must be modeled from the top down. Our communities will only be missional to the extent that the community’s leaders embrace mission as a core value and live their lives in light of God’s mission. Our modus operandi must resonate with Paul’s poignant declaration in 1 Corinthians 9:22—“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”  

2) The missional leader can shape ethos through the practice of a radically inclusive ministry.  All people on earth regardless of race, sex, color, nationality, religion, or socio-economic class have been forged in the image of God. This is the message of Genesis 1:26-31.  All oppression and divisions among these groups is traceable to the pervasive and persistent presence of sin in every individual, group, and culture (Genesis 3-11). Sadly, the Church has for too long perpetuated these divisions even within the community of faith. Yet, in Jesus Christ, there is a radical newness. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the possibility of living the life that God created us to live is a reality. The old divisions are gone.  There is new creation (2 Corinthians 5). Paul words in Galatians 3:26-28 are profound—“for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

What does a radically inclusive ministry look like?

a) It empowers women for leadership roles. I fully understand that the evangelical world is divided over this issue, but I am convinced that the biblical witness supports the full inclusion of women in leadership roles within the Christ-following movement. This is not the place for a full defense of this position, but I am convinced that this needs to be part of our witness to the culture.

b) It rejects divisions along socio-economic lines. Missional leaders are willing to pay the price to allow the active participation of poor and rich alike within their communities.  James 2 gives stern warnings about acting otherwise. As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, we will continue to witness extreme poverty. If the Christ-following movement is to ever have a global impact, it needs to begin serving the poor in their own geographic locales. 

c) It develops cross cultural and interracial friendships as the presupposition for the creation of multi-cultural communities that give the world a taste of the diversity of Kingdom of God. Too many leaders lament the segregation of communities of faith, but miss the irony that the basis for desegration is not lament but the active embrace of persons different from ourselves. We need to cultivate friendships and relationships with persons from backgrounds unfamiliar to us.

An inclusive ministry is the pathway to unleashing followers of Christ to deploy fully their giftedness.

3) The missional leader can shape ethos by empowering others to serve according to their giftedness.  The biblical portraits of gifts (e.g., Romans 12 or 1 Corinthians 12-14) suggest that the body of Christ is a living organism in which each member has a crucial role to play.  The people of God need one another.  Biblical community occurs when each believer deploys his or her gifts, talents, and passions within the community.  The missional leader will work to shape the ethos of the community by (re)implementing a biblical vision of the God’s people by empowering followers of Christ to unleash the full range of their giftedness and the natural result of their relationship with Jesus Christ.  Missional leaders rather than being the driving force of every discrete ministry within a community will serve as coaches who train, empower, and encourage followers of Christ in their Kingdom work.   

4) The missional leader can shape ethos by a commitment to living a whole and balanced life as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Human beings were created to live in authentic community in which they reflect God’s character to the world.  Community, holiness, and mission are the essence of the imago dei in humanity. Missional leaders need to reflect these aspects in their own lives. The persons who listen to us and watch us will be persuaded most readily by a life that they would want to live. Following Jesus Christ is not about prosperity or material happiness, but it comes with a joy and fulfillment that cannot be attained by any other means. If we are to shape a biblical ethos for our communities, we ourselves as missional leaders must live whole and balanced lives before our communities.

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If you are looking for a resource to create a missional DNA in your community of faith through the study of Scripture, check out Invitation.

© 2006 Brian D. Russell, revised significantly June 2012 and March 2015