Manifesting Faithful Influence: The Characteristics of Spiritual Leaders in the 21st Century

A New Kind of Clergy for a New Kind of Christianity, Part 5

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I remember sitting in an earlier Committee on Preparation for Ministry meeting. This committee oversees all candidates for ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA). As the candidate in the hot seat, I sat at the end of a long table surrounded by elders. Yes, it was stressful.

At one point, an elder to my left asked me an important question: “What is ‘faith’?”

I answered, “It's about trust. When we talk about faith in God, we're ultimately talking about trust in God.”

I don't know if that's a question they ask everyone who comes before them, but for me it was probably a pretty good one to ask. You see, I had emerged from a fundamentalist phase. Sometime prior to that meeting, I would have probably equated faith with belief.

By the time I entered that meeting, my understanding of faith had changed. While belief still remained a part of that trust, the sense of trust had become more important than the belief itself. I had grown into a different kind of faith.

Since then, I have grown into yet another kind of faith. Now, I see faith more as a quality of relationship with the Divine such that a Divine Vision of Possibility comes into being through me. And I believe this dynamic is what the author of Hebrews was talking about with the word “faith”.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
—Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

As Christians, our vision of Ultimate Possibility is called the “Kingdom of God”. The faith we have in God connects us to that Vision in such a way that it transforms our lives. As a result of that transformation, the vision is realized. Those around us who don’t share that vision get to experience and learn of its reality through our embodiment of it. Hence, faith is far more than simple trust (though that is a good start). It is a transformative power in itself.

That’s why I prefer not to think of “faith as trust” and instead think of “faith as manifesting”.

(If you want to know more about how I understand the transformation of “faith”, check out my free downloadable ebook, Layers of Faith: A Roadmap for Spiritual Growth and a Way to Make Sense of Conflict Among the Faithful.)

Faithful orientation

From what I gather, there are two main orientations for faith. One backward, and the other forward.

A backward-oriented faith emphasizes the past and tradition as the main source of authority and wisdom. We lean into the lived experience of those who have come before us to find and maintain our footing in today’s chaotic landscape.

Unfortunately, the nature of a backward-oriented faith is that it gets stuck looking in the rearview mirror. In the name of tradition, we get locked into ancient stories and mores, a posture that necessarily stifles creativity.

As the organ plays, our spirits waltz to the music. But, the dance seems more like just following the pattern because that’s “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

One, two, three

One, two, three

One, two, three

Again

And again

And again…

Same song, different verse.

When our faith is oriented to the past—when we gaze longingly at the brighter days of yesteryear—we find comfort in participating in the Song that Never Ends, a song that ultimately takes us nowhere.

But, I don't believe the Christian religion is meant to be lived backward through tradition. Rather, I believe Christianity is meant to be lived forward, flowing out of the tradition with our eyes fixed on the prize of Divine Possibility for the future.

Inasmuch as we do that…

We cannot help but to be overcome with hope.

We cannot help but to be vitalized amidst the darkness.

We cannot help but to become conduits of life-enriching Grace in this world.

So, two orientations are possible: one looking backward and the other looking forward. Make no mistake about it, whether one's vision is locked onto past tradition or future possibility, both are indeed powerful forms of Christian faith.

Why this matters

Here’s the reason why this distinction is important right now:

By the power of faith, you become the vision.

Or, to put it another way…

You manifest that to which you devote your attention, that to which you orient yourself.

This brings Christians to a fork in the road…

Will you choose to…

(A) reclaim the ways of the ancestors and repeat them ritualistically in the now, hoping to reclaim what they once had?

Or, will you choose to…

(B) be animated by the Spirit that moved them into the future by drawiing them into the possibility envisoned as the Kingdom of God?

Rather than answering that question directly, let’s answer it indirectly instead. Indeed, how you answer the following question reveals your orientation…

Do you see the best days for Christianity behind us or in what lies ahead?

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Onward Christian leaders

Have you ever noticed those people out there who are compelled by a vision of life-enriching possibility and who cannot resist helping others claim that possibility for themselves? Well, there’s actually a term for those people. They’re called “leaders”.

Now, think about this for a moment…

Faith and vision are necessarily entwined. That means all Christians are called to be leaders in their own way. Every single one of us is called by God to lead others into the Way of the Kingdom of God. We are called to lead the world around us from, within, and into Divine Love—a life-enriching, interpenetrating, and justice-oriented love.

Yes, all Christians are called to lead, and—by the power of faith—to manifest their vision of the Kingdom in the here and now.

Meanwhile, we also have those called to lead those leaders. And it is those “leaders of leaders” that I want to focus on today.

The question on the table right now is: What does it mean for a Digital Ecclesiastic to be a “leader”?

Can you see the way?

The vision of the Digital Ecclesiastic includes a personal vision of the Kingdom and expands it to include a wider sense of how Christianity can become a religious symbol of that Vision within the context of the emerging age.

This means that Digital Ecclesiastics are going to need certain personal characteristics and skills in order to engage their Calling.

Cultural Awareness

If you want to be a Digital Ecclesiastic, you've got to be able to do more than just read the postmodern room. You have to inhabit the worldview.

• Have you made peace with all truth being relative?

• Are you comfortable with people of other religions because you find value in religious pluralism?

• Are you used to living in a world that seems so incredibly meaningless?

In order to lead postmodern natives, you have to understand what they tend to value. You have to understand the problems and frustrations they face in life. You have to understand the things that matter most to them. You have to understand how they understand the nature of authority.

If you aren’t a postmodern native yourself, this is going to be rather difficult, but not impossible.

Overall, whether a native or not, you must have the capacity to listen deeply to the culture. Only then will you be able to interpret it theologically. This skill is what opens the door for you—as a postmodern apologist—to truly communicate the Gospel in a way that will resonate with your audience.

Unconstrained creativity

Every single day you will swim in the Sea of Chaos. You will be immersed in confusion and uncertainty. Half the time you won't be able to tell whether what you just did succeeded or failed. And somehow, in the midst of all of this, you have to not only survive, but thrive.

Here's the good news in the midst of all that…

Chaos is the condition for creativity.

Where most people would drown under the weight of it all, creatives will experience empowerment. They long for such opportunities. That’s when they get to unleash their power within to transform nothing into something, and not just any old something, but something of great significance.

Dropping a creative into chaos is like dropping a fish into their favorite water.

A Digital Ecclesiastic has to be comfortable in this setting. Remember, we have no well-trodden path forward. You will be a trailblazer. You have to be able to look at the landscape, assess what you see, and (with your vision of possibility in mind) create your own path forward on the fly.

Impassioned curiosity

Passion is about drive. Curiosity is about exploring the new. The path of the Digital Ecclesiastic is for those who cannot resist breaking out of the mold and diving into the unknown.

Make no mistake about it, this is not an easy vocation. There are going to be many days when you wonder whether it's time to throw in the towel. During those times, the fires of passion may be the only fuel that keeps you going.

You're going to run into multiple roadblocks. You are going to have setbacks. Past solutions to past problems are going to stop working. So, you have to enjoy exploring. You have to see those setbacks as an excuse to try something new. (Is this new thing going to work? Who knows? But it will be fun trying!)

I suspect those best suited for becoming a Digital Ecclesiastic will be polymaths. A “polymath” is different than a “generalist”. A generalist is someone who knows a little bit about a lot of fields. They're spread wide but thin. A polymath, on the other hand, is someone who attains a certain level of expertise in multiple fields. They go wide and deep at the same time.

If you bring 10 polymaths into a room and ask them to tell their stories, I suspect you would find they all have something in common. They probably all have two very powerful traits: Passion and curiosity. After all, these two traits feed into each other to create a virtuous cycle of personal development. Those two traits are probably the reason why they ended up becoming polymaths in the first place.

Strategic mindset

When it comes to organizations, it is said there is a difference between management and leadership. Management is about “doing things right”. Leadership is about “doing the right things”.

In other words, leaders are responsible for not only the vision but also the strategy that will take the organization into the vision. Just having a vision isn’t enough to be a leader. You also have to have a roadmap to get everyone there.

Strategic thinking is all about systemic awareness. Strategic thinkers see how things are related, can identify leverage points, and know how to use those leverage points to move forward.

Strategic thinking is also discerning. Trial and error is expected. Repeated failures are expected. But from the strategic perspective, failure isn't bad. It's just more information about the system, and any information about the system is good. The more information you have, the better able you are to make higher-quality decisions that promote the flourishing of the organization.

Strategic leaders understand the importance of goals and metrics. We know how easy it is to get caught up in our feelings. And, we know how those feelings can lie to us. We all have a tendency to rationalize doing the things we enjoy as part of the job even though they are not producing the outcomes we need. Measurable goals and metrics enable us to discern that which works from that which does not.

Communication skill sets

“Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.”
—John Maxwell

A leader’s power is the ability to move others from the inside out. They primarily do this through vision casting. That is to say, they paint a picture of a future possibility for others to see, and then they invite their audience to go there with them.

Digital Ecclesiastics will become “thought leaders” in the spiritual marketplace. Here’s how a thought leader typically works…

1. They name the ideal destination that their audience wants to reach (vision casting)

2. They identify all of the barriers that prevent the audience members from reaching their destination (problem identification)

3. They give their audience a road map so that they can bypass those problems and get to where they want to go (offer a solution).

However, just being able to cast a vision, identify roadblocks, and create a roadmap will not be enough. You also have to be able to communicate all of it to your audience in a way that resonates with them.

So, if you want to become a Digital Ecclesiastic, you need to specialize in communication skills. You need to write clearly and concisely in a way that people will be open to consuming. And, you need to know different written modes of communicating—such as copywriting, storytelling, sermon writing, and article writing—in order to take the right approach at the right time.

Beyond just the writing skills themselves, a Digital Ecclesiastic will need to be somewhat versed in the related fields of psychology and neuroscience. If you don’t know what makes your audience tick at that deeper human level, you’re less likely to be able to connect with them.

Perhaps no surprise here

If you are familiar with material in the leadership field, I probably haven't said anything new to you here. But I think it's vital to highlight the extent to which one has to have the characteristics and skills of a leader in order to lead the way for the future of Christianity in America.

As I look back at all of the qualifications I'm listing for this new office of Digital Ecclesiastic, I realize that it's overwhelming. It may even make the standards feel impossible for most.

Perhaps now is a good time to emphasize something I’ve neglected…

Characteristics and skills can be developed and learned.

If you are wondering whether you will be up for the task, hopefully you find inspiration in knowing that.

That said, there’s still more to the leadership equation than just characteristics and skills. We still have a major part of leadership yet to discuss. And that’s where experts disagree as to who can even become a leader in the first place.

So, next week, I’m going to tackle that controversy with a focus on what it takes to become a Digital Ecclesiastic. I hope you join me.

Peace, Bo
www.evolvingchristianfaith.net

PS: If you found this article valuable, please hit the "like" button and “restack”. The more likes and restacks I have, the more likely the post is to be found on Substack by others.

PPS: If you haven’t read the entire series up to this point, I recommend starting with the kickoff article, “The Death of Traditional Clergy and the Birth of Something New”

PPPS: If you want to know more about the theological context for the Digital Ecclesiastic, check out my series “A Call for a New Reformation”, which begins with “Dear Christianity, Change or Die”.

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Credits

• Thanks to DALL-E for the cover art