leadership

I am a ligament, what are you?

January 31, 2011 By Daniel Im

The image of a bridge, or a ligament (Eph 4:16) seems to be a good way of describing my past and the direction I sense God is leading me. Being Korean Canadian, I was born in Canada, but grew up as a Korean – eating Korean food, going to a Korean church, speaking Korean, visiting Korea – basically breathing Korean all throughout my life. In high school, God used me to be a bridge between the English and Korean speaking youth groups – I was involved with both and knew individuals in both groups. I was also involved in a city wide joint worship team, which had the purpose of uniting or bridging all the Korean speaking youth groups. I co-created a Christian club in my high school to unify all the Christians together. I also organized and ran a city-wide youth worship service when I was pastoring in Montreal. While pastoring in Korea, I co-created a network for English speaking youth pastors, where we would put on events together, pray together, plan together, and strategize together.

As the groups pastor at Beulah Alliance Church, I was part of a team that conducted a survey, which revealed the current and proposed areas of integration amongst the differing areas of ministry. I was also leading a team that consists of several pastors, in order to bring greater unity to the group life in the church. There is now one front, instead of divided fronts.

When examining my future, I believe that there are three areas that God has ingrained on my heart: church planting, pastors, and multicultural ministry.

Egypt, Tunisia, and Wikileaks – A Vote of No Confidence

January 31, 2011 By Daniel Im

My wife and I just finished re-watching Bourne Ultimatum (the third Bourne movie) and it’s ironic to actually see the fictional movie elements play out in real life. This movie, along with many others, actually echo the realities of our day. If you take a look at CBC.ca, CNN.com, or any other news station, the stories of Tunisia and Egypt will be splattered across all the headlines:

Egypt ‘cannot go back’ -Egyptian activist Mohamed ElBaradei has joined anti-government protesters at Cairo’s Tahrir Square as they defy a military-ordered…

Egyptian government orders Al Jazeera shutdown

Protesters defy curfew in Egypt

The Tunisia effect

At the bottom of these stories is really a vote of no confidence in the government. Just consider Wikileaks and Julian Assange – probably one of the greatest catalysts to this vote of no confidence in the government.

One of the central tenets of postmodernism is a lack of confidence in authority and authority structures. As a result, in our increasingly postmodern world, all these current events aren’t really that surprising.

There’s a lot to say regarding this, but let me just make two points:

The Ambitious Spiritual Leader – A Paradox?

January 29, 2011 By Daniel Im

I’ve been reflecting on the idea of ambition and if its okay for a spiritual leader to be ambitious. After all, in the secular world, ambition and leadership seem to be synonymous with success. However, if God is the one who truly chooses leaders, is ambition really that important for spiritual leadership? Is ambition even okay for the spiritual leader?

1 Timothy 3:1 – Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.

Jeremiah 45:5 – Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.

When contrasting 1 Timothy 3:1 with Jeremiah 45:5, one is presented with an interesting conundrum: It is an honorable ambition to aspire to leadership, but one should not seek great things for oneself. This seems to be a contradiction, but in light of the fact that God sees our hearts and our motives, it is not (Psalm 139:1-4). In spiritual leadership, one’s ambition needs to be for the glory of God, rather than the glory of oneself; for the Kingdom of God, rather than the Kingdom of Self. As a result, ambition can be redefined as humility within the context of spiritual leadership, since all of one’s success is credited to God, rather than to one’s self. For a spiritual leader, ambition is about striving to become the best servant, rather than striving to get the highest number of servants (Mark 10:42-45). Consequently, here is a great question to help discern one’s motives in desiring leadership: Is there any sense of prestige or privilege by having a leadership position in the church? If so, proceed with caution; if not, continue onward.

These reflections are based on my reading of Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders.

The Best Way to Empower Leaders

January 24, 2011 By Daniel Im

While I was reading, Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders (click on the link to read my book review), one of the questions I wanted answered through the book was this one, “What is the best way to empower volunteer leaders?” After all, volunteer leaders are critical to the health of a church and really, any organization that is dependent on volunteers. Personally, instead of merely delegating tasks, I have found that volunteer retention and satisfaction is higher when they are empowered to a role with responsibilities.

Missional and Organic Leadership

October 30, 2009 By Daniel Im

I’ve been interested in the issue of leadership and how we can contextualize biblical and secular leadership principles to our churches so that more people can come to know the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

I loved reading Neil Cole’s Organic Church a few years back as it transformed the way that I view the church. I recently picked up his book, Organic Leadership, and can’t wait to dive into it!

Ed Stetzer’s books have always been good as he is very much of an intellectual like myself, but he uses his intellectual gifts and talents for the church and for practical purposes and means. I love that and that’s what I am striving to do, as that is where I’m discovering my talents and giftings lie. One book he co-authored with David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code, is a must-read for church leaders as it practically describes how to contextualize the gospel to your immediate situation.

On his website, he recently posted a seminar he did for church leaders on missional leadership. I saw it once, and i’m definitely going to be revisiting it again and again until I can truly understand and apply the biblical principles he outlines.

Here it is,

leadership

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