Faith-Support

Leadership Letter #8 Leadership and Vision

I am asked quite regularly, What is YWAM Canada’s vision, or more broadly What is YWAM’s vision?  Frankly, this is a question I cringe to hear.  I usually answer the question fairly broadly with the hope there is enough substance in the answer that it satisfies the inquirer’s question.  I cringe because the question seems to me to come loaded with Christian presuppositions.  After all, people without a vision tend to perish.  (Proverbs 28:19a)  And after all God tends to speak to leaders.  So, iff he has not spoken to me convincingly about broad geographic vision, or national vision, or international vision then perhaps I am  not really a leader.  Or, if I answer with what I believe God has shown us about Canadian national leadership, perhaps it lacks the pizzazz of prophetic fervor, or enough current buzz words of the unending flux of current theological fads.   How could a “Meat and Potatoes” vision be authentic?  This seems to be the unasked question.

I guess I am at a point in life where I have heard so much visionary talk over the years that I am reticent to go down the road of grand pronouncements that massage my ego.  My conclusion is that kingdom vision, what Jesus alluded to in His parables, is not a linear command to do one specific thing all together at the same time.  Rather kingdom vision is the wildly colorful result of believers “working out their salvation with fear and trembling” in the context of their obedience to God’s word to them individually with occasional collaborative interfaces.  Out of this rich tapestry of interwoven vision there may very well arise a larger vision, but this is really a case where the process itself is visionary, not the end results.  The Kingdom by the very nature as being from God is profoundly radical and extraordinarily visionary.   Church or missions expression of kingdom may get stuck in the debris of institutional rigidity, praying for revival, and when it comes resisting the inevitable change it ushers in its wake.

Which means that, if I take seriously that we (and the “we” could be any YWAM grouping) are a kingdom of priests and a royal nation, then implication-ally all of us doing what the Lord has called us to do is a kingdom vision.  A kingdom vision could occupy our thinking, our praying, our planning, our strategizing, our daily conversation.  What we talk about together, what we dream about, what we envision is, when grounded in a revelation of the kingdom, opportunity to co-create with the Spirit a field where kingdom things happen.  A kingdom field has an odorless but delightful aroma, a tasteless but savory flavor, invisibility to most but polychromatic reality in the domain of the Holy Spirit.  Such a field is richly infused with Grace, the powerful light, energy, and life that emanates from the Trinity to us.  While there is always need for us to read more about this other worldly kingdom, to hear messages about this upside down kingdom, to pray this kingdom would come, ultimately we must do it.   All of us have a contribution to this becoming reality.  Thankfully, Kingdom is not wholly dependent on some grouping of leaders getting it right.  Kingdom could happen if enough believers from the grassroots reach a tipping point where there was the will to live in this world differently.  This is a vision worth stirring-up.

Of course there are times when leadership needs to act decisively, especially in a crisis.  However, it seems that looking at leadership through a kingdom lens means that the overall creation of an environment of kingdom possibilities is great long-term stewardship of one’s leadership influence.  A place where all can thrive in the Spirit, doing what is on their heart to do as a calling from God, would ultimately be the kind of ecosystem where all are empowered in a rich interconnection of relationships.  So when we reflect that YWAM leadership has to do with Elders learning to elder, all of us having freedom to do what God has said in the Spirit to do, and the context of positive relational connections, we could say we are experimenting with kingdom living.  Then when we gather together we are not waiting for pronouncements from the mountain top, rather there are the steady murmurs of what the Spirit is saying to all of us in the valley.

So, is that the Canadian YWAM vision?  Yes, I think it is! 

Are there more specifics to that vision?  Yes, but I can only answer for myself, yet when I do so, it is my contribution to the Canadian leadership conversation. 

So, Paul, what is your contribution of a visionary thought to the Canadian leadership conversation? 

The following is a brief foray into a huge topic.  I want to only sketch the parameters of this thought, because it is not about arriving with a Word for all, rather it is my contribution to the whole.  If we truly enter into a dialogue together the conclusions may be beyond what we think, perhaps in the realm of the Spirit.

 Last year I read John Ralston Saul’s book, A Fair Country.  His basic observation could be summarized as Canada’s identity, historically, was a Metis nation founded on the interdependence of First Nations, British, French and Hudson Bay relationships and alliances.  While this generous view of early settlement was not without its problems, it did create a place geographically where the stranger was welcome and could succeed.  Much of this original mutuality of peoples shifted during Confederation to a more colonizing mindset, most dramatically in the alienation of First Peoples and attempts to assimilate them into mainstream Canadian (White) culture.   Saul’s thoughts suggested that for Canada to achieve the dreams of truly being a multicultural nation there was a necessity to recapture the essence of what Canada once was as a Metis culture.  If you want a thoughtful and stimulating historical and relevant social commentary, I recommend the book.  Interestingly, this was also Grand Chief Shawn Atleo’s premise as he addressed Prime Minister Harper at the recent meetings attempting to redress the divide between First Nations and the Canadian Government.

How do we redefine ourselves as a Metis nation?  How could we redefine ourselves as YWAM, a Metis culture in Canada?  The only way these questions would have any relevance for me in our Canadian context is for us as be open to and listening to the voice of the people of the land and letting that affect our identity as a mission.  Wow, this is tall order and not something to be entered into lightly.  The recent Native Ministry Roundtable, part of our CLT meeting in Vancouver, was one way for us to hear more from native ministry grassroots.  There is still a long way to go as we do need to have more First Nations input into YWAM.  Several years ago, when Rod Wilson was still alive, the WCLT gathering in Winnipeg had some great teaching and counsel from a native perspective.  Added to this there are about 10 YWAM ministries across the country that engage with First Nation peoples on a regular basis.  If we could harness the energy of these cross cultural encounters, may it enrich us as a kingdom people?

Like a good cup of coffee percolating on the campfire, these thoughts are fusing together as the neurons in the brain fire and the heart warms to what the Spirit is whispering.  I welcome your thoughts, as well as, your vision for who we might be in Christ, in YWAM as a sodality community, and in Canada.