Something worth listening to

Phil Kniss, pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, spoke at EMU's chapel last week. In my opinion it's worth listening to. EMU podcast Friday 21, 2011

I have to write a paper

So, I've been asked to write a paper 3-5 pages in length about "Church Leadership from a Mennonite Perspective." It's for a scholarship and doesn't need to be done until April 1. While in college that meant I'd start thinking about it around March 29th. But, since this scholarship is important to me I figured I'd start writing in the beginning of February and try to be done before March began. Sometimes though, God puts random thoughts in my head. In this case, they fit the topic. I spit them out onto my computer and now it appears I'm posting them on my blog. Yep, that's what happened. Here's a potential start to my paper if I'm bold enough to keep it.

"Church Leadership from a Mennonite Perspective"

Mennonite leadership must be honest. Honestly, I don’t want to write this paper. I understand the importance of practicing the art of communication through written word. In fact, I practice it at length every day. But, I’d rather sit and talk with you than write to you. Writing is one way communication. It allows for a patient transfer of information from one party to another. The writer can safely squirm as they select each word to create a beautifully crafted and delicately precise argument. In face to face verbal communication that selectivity is no longer safe. You make mistakes in verbal communication. You slip, stutter, searching for the specific word to convey your thoughts. Your thought process is exposed, laid bare before the hearer. It’s humble, potentially humiliating, yet authentic, real, true. Take away the computer I type on and you can hear me instead of a cautious, calculated, controlled display of myself.

Face to face communication is humble in another way too. If I talk with you, I can hear from you. I confirm that my thoughts are not the only ones on the issue. I affirm your voice, your opinion, and admit that mine is not absolutely authoritative. If I talk with you, then you can teach me what I don’t know. Again, that’s not safe. I may use faulty logic and you are there to call me out on it. I hope you wouldn't be concerned with hurting my feelings by countering my thoughts. I hope you'd speak up to help us both learn and improve, reaching higher truths than we can attain by ourselves. Together we're better than I'll ever be alone.

That’s why I’d rather not write this paper. Sure, I have thoughts and opinions, ideas that might actually be worth sharing, but you have some too. And I want to know what you think. So I’ll go ahead and write this paper to satisfy the requirement and help me verbalize what rattles around in my head for later communitcation, but what I write is not definitive by any stretch of the imagination. After talking with you for a few minutes I’d want to revisit my paper, altering the phrases to display how new thoughts have entered the dance. My writing would change and would be better for it.

I like to write. I do practice it daily. But my writing doesn’t follow any prescribed linear path. I write a conversation, not with people, but with a living God. I journal to God and God isn’t silent. We talk. We chat every day. God knows me and, to some slight degree, I know God too. It’s good. No, it’s better than good. And it’s essential. What does Christian leadership from a Mennonite perspective look like? It looks like a person gifted at leadership who honestly searches after the heart and will of God, and upon finding nuggets in that search binds them to their own heart and shares them with others through word and deed. It looks like someone passionately striving after Christ Jesus until all is known and all know.