Salem Mennonite Church

Written by Pastor Bruce Eglinton-Woods

At Salem we believe pastors should prioritize their time around the teaching of Acts 6, prayer and ministry of the word, and Ephesians 4, preparing Gods people for works of service. I have 1 day a week set aside for prayer. I put in 20 to 25 hours a week on sermon and teaching preparation and I also prioritize developing leaders. We do not have programs we have developed to intentionally develop leaders instead God has created a culture at Salem which allows for leadership development. I believe the culture God has developed is characterized by the following values.

Creativity

Placing a high value on creativity helps us to develop leaders at Salem. Back in the 90’s we got down to a low of 65 on a Sunday morning. We badly needed to do new things but we just did not know what to do because creativity was not valued. In fact just the opposite, we were familiar with the saying, “That is not the way we do things around here.” We began to encourage new creative ideas. For example, Jane and Linda ran VBS. The first year they asked me for permission to implement many great ideas they had. I think I encouraged them to do them all. In the past these were things that would have caused the leader to say, “That’s not the way we do things around here.” The next year they asked me one question. The third year they filled me in on what they were doing. Jane and Linda were not just doing new things but they were doing new things that fit with our vision. They were also doing an outstanding job of leading the ministry.

Trust

Placing a high value on trust helps us to develop leaders. In the example above the leaders have to trust the people doing the ministry and the people doing the ministry have to trust the leaders. Trust is obviously an important idea in scripture. There was a time when there was a low level of trust in the congregation. There had been untrustworthy decisions made by the leadership, we were fairly legalistic, we only trusted people when they were like us, and our theology supported the lack of trust (people are sinners after all). As God developed trust in the congregation we cooperated by being trustworthy, making trustworthy decisions, preaching about a trustworthy God, and dealing with distrust when it emerged.

In our leadership model authority comes from God to the spiritual leaders who keep some of it for themselves and pass on as much as possible to members of the congregation. The spiritual leaders push authority out away from themselves to the leaders of the various ministries. The basic idea is the person running VBS knows more about it then we do so we would rather have them doing it and making the decisions.

Transformation

Another value that helps us develop leaders at Salem is transformation. When we receive Jesus as our savior and Lord we begin a journey through the rest of our lives to become like Christ. As we compare ourselves to Jesus we come up short. We will spend the rest of our lives becoming like him. In other words we will spend the rest of our lives changing. There are two constants in the Christian life, Jesus and change. 2 Corinthians 3: 18 says, “we….are being transformed into his likeness”. God is the active agent in the transformation process. Our job is to submit ourselves to the transforming power of God and to make decisions, which reflect the transformation God has brought into our lives. In Philippians 3: 16 Paul says, “Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” This is in the context of choosing God’s grace through faith over following the law. Transformation is a key part of the Christian life as we journey toward God. I think this very different from the old language of, “What is our stand on…”

If growth in Christ is going to happen there needs to be high levels of trust. If confession of sin is going to happen there needs to be an atmosphere of trust. In the congregation, where is there a safe place for people to confess sin and experience the transforming power of God? At Salem one such place is the pastor’s office.

Vision

The last value we have is that we are vision driven. Proverbs 29: 18 says, “Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint.” Revelation or vision from God is necessary for the community to move forward in the same direction. Our responsibility as leaders is to go to God and get revelation. The revelation is not our idea it comes from God. Once we get an idea of what God wants we take it to the congregation. We present it and look for input from the congregation. Revelation or vision is often consistent with what God has been doing in the congregation in other words it reflects the history of God’s working in the congregation. Vision also reflects the historical tradition of the church we are a part of, in our case Anabaptist. So vision is from God, it reflects our historical tradition and our local setting. When people buy into the vision we can all move in the same direction. We do not have to all think alike to head in the same direction, rather the vision tells us where to go.

Schedule I Models of Leadership Development I Questions for Presenters I Questions for Written Desciptions