QUOTE
Principle #6: The Leadership Principle: spiritual
entrepreneurship.
Slaughter notes that every historical renewal involves a leader functioning as a catalyst for change. God has always used a human instrument as the agent for change (SE: 101). He then repeats of common understanding of the need for leaders rather than managers; leaders have a vision that drives the people forward toward change; managers excel at efficiently repeating the familiar. The manager=s tendency to function as a facilitator of group process fails to take into account one very critical problem: It is in the nature of people to want to go back to Egypt. It doesn=t matter that Egypt represents slavery. Egypt is all we have ever known. Here, Egypt represents the way we have always done it in the past. There is no freedom or opportunity in Egypt, but life there carries minimal risk and is predictable… If you put it up for a vote, you will go back to Egypt! Or you will bring Egypt to you by building a golden calf in the wilderness (SE: 105). This is an excellent summary of the problem of resistance to change; the diffusion of innovations suggests that 84% of a congregation is uninterested in change.Slaughter states: It is my goal to keep as few key leaders as possible in meetings and place the majority of them in the direct front-line of mission, reaching the lost and setting the oppressed free (SE: 112).
NOTE (my response)
DISCERNMENT QUESTIONS
RESOURCES
SE: Michael Slaughter, Spiritual Entrepreneurs: Six Principles for Risking Renewal (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994). Quotes from the book are in italics.
“First Love: A Christ Centered Environment for Church Renewal” by Michael Slaughter. Dayton, OH: Whaleprints at United Theological Seminary, 1990. (video; currently unavailable.)
Footnotes:
The quote is from Major League Disciple Making: An Overview of the Best Research on the Cell Church, an online course developed for the Institute for Discipleship at www.BeADisciple.com in 2009. Course materials, including these lectures, can be downloaded here: http://www.disciplewalk.com/IFD_MLD_Class_Links.html
All Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please review the page How and Why We Use Quotes.