Faith Change Agent: The New Paradigm For Transformational Pastoral Leadership

Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader

What got us here won’t get us there, unless there is exactly like here.

Those pastors who are called to lead churches in this 21st century context are looking for guiding metaphors and analogies, ways to visualize their roles which empower and equip them for effective leadership. They readily recognize their seminary training from 2010 and before provided little help, given the swiftly changing cultural conditions swirling around our churches. They also recognize there are numerous coaches, consultants, trainers, and denominations who are still working from outdated pastoral leadership paradigms. Evidently it takes a while for leadership paradigms to catch up with current leadership realities. It takes some time to recognize that what got us here won’t get us there, unless there is exactly like here.

Here’s what we mean. Read over the following statement plus two questions. Each flows into the next, leading to the driving question motivated and insightful pastoral leaders are pursuing.

Church Aspiration = To pursue God’s mission through our church and in the world, living into our best expression of church yet.

Congregational Driving Question =  What can we do with this church, with this mission, led by these leaders, in this community, at this time?

Driving Question of Leadership = What is the role of our leadership toward adaptation and transformation, living into our best expression of ourselves (being church) in this community at this time?

When we believe God’s mission is to reconcile, renew, and transform the world as we know it, ultimately bringing the kingdom to earth as it is in heaven….

Then what are our church’s best next moves toward participating with God’s mission? After pursuing guidance harvested from this first question, we are positioned to look to the ways we currently are church together; visualizing how we will be church given the “givens” in our faith community. Then, our leadership is positioned to answer their driving question. What is the role of our leadership toward adaptation and transformation, living into our best expression of ourselves (being church) in this community at this time?

Remember the Statesman Pastoral Leadership Paradigm? Many “first church” pastors functioned this way during the age of Christendom, serving as community leaders as well as church leaders when communities considered Christianity central to their communal lives. How about the Shepherd Pastoral Leader? Or the Entrepreneur Pastoral Leader? Each of these pastoral leadership paradigms of the 20th century were effective in their own ways, rising and taking shape due to the cultural conditions of their times and places.

Yet, what does effective pastoral leadership look like in this Postmodern era? Clearly, what got us here won’t get us there, unless there is exactly like here.

Over the last four to five years, a new paradigm for pastoral leadership has been rising: Faith Change Agent. After writing Shift: Three Big Moves For The 21st Century Church in 2015, I grew keenly aware that pastoral leadership paradigms must change in order for the Church to make the shifts needed in this Postmodern context. This launched a journey of exploration and discovery, drawing together insights from so many sources. Theoretical models like Adaptive Change Theory, Family Systems Theory, Solution-Focused Therapy, Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Leadership provided clues toward something new. The old church-based organizational development concepts and practices like Size Transitions and Life Cycle of a Congregation also provided guidance. Each of the popular pastoral leadership paradigms of the 20th century noted above are part of the unfolding story of pastoral leadership paradigms. Newer leadership paradigms like Social Entrepreneurs give insights as well.  I’ve reached out to another pilgrim who’s always learning while making solid contributions to pastoral leadership, colleague Ircel Harrison. Ultimately though, the foundation of everything in this FCA paradigm is guidance from scripture. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:16-17, NRSV)

So, here’s where we are now. Faith Change Agent: The New Paradigm For Transformational Pastoral Leadership has been tested in training events and seminars with many clergy. Currently this content is a keynote presentation, a substantive learning experience, a course being provided in several contexts this Winter/Spring, and a book in progress. We are eager to share Faith Change Agent with you through events and publications in the months ahead. Recognizing that what got us here won’t get us there, unless there is exactly like here, may we follow the Spirit’s ongoing guidance, pouring new wine into new wineskins.

NOTE: Learn more about Faith Change Agent on our website here.