The Golden Nugget

Last night we hosted our first ever online seminar. We're pretty sure that one of the things we can do that will be the most helpful to our friends, partners, and clients is to figure out how to deliver online training. This will allow people to participate with us in the work of renewal in a way that is cost and time effective. Anyone, anywhere, can have access! But this is a whole new thing for us. And so we were really thankful to the 40+ people who volunteered to be our guinea pigs last night. Their feedback is going to be invaluable as we figure out how to work this new tool.

At the end of the session, we had about a dozen questions that we didn't have time to answer, and we promised that we would address them here in this space. The first unanswered question was this one: What's the golden nugget in Lutheran theology that is the most underutilized?

Now, the question sounds like it would only apply to church leaders and, then, only to Lutheran church leaders. But I think the answer goes way beyond both groups.

Getting right to it: I think the most underutilized nugget in Lutheran theology today is a priesthood of all believers. (Nevermind the argument some theologians make that this isn't really of Martin Luther; I'll have that conversation off line with you, if you like.) The idea of a priesthood of all believers is that every single person, once baptized, is given the freedom and the responsibility of ministry. We are all "priests," in other words, called to share the good news of God with others in word and deed. And each one is given gifts with which to do that job. Everyone has something to offer.

Embedded deep within the Lutheran soul is this golden nugget that provides all the inspiration we need to embrace what is quickly becoming a best practice in the most innovative and exciting organizations across the globe.

In his book, The Future of Work, MIT professor Tom Malone describes the four guiding principles of AES Corp (one of the world's largest supplier of electric power): fairness, integrity, social responsibility, and fun. They put special emphasis on that last one and, knowing that "one of the best ways for people to have fun is to have responsibility for things that truly matter in the world," they have worked to create a culture in which everyone truly has something to offer:

"AES has been built on the idea that every employee should be a businessperson - a well-rounded generalist, a mini-CEO - responsible for important decisions in the company."

Now, I can't report on how successful AES has been at accomplishing this goal. But, to be honest, I have seen more examples of people trying to create cultures that really and truly look like a "priesthood of all believers" (i.e., that take seriously the gifts each one has to offer and seeks to share responsibility for their common purpose) in secular organizations than I have in the church! But we have found that helping people learn to use participative processes is one of the fastest ways to begin turning that around.

Thanks for the question! We'll take up others that were asked at the end of last night's webinar in days to come.

Comments

[Sparkster]

Thanks for the great work and word last night. I am so excited to see the fresh imagination and catalyst that will come from our work together!

I appreciate your golden nugget; we do minimize that "essential" Lutheran point. Participative prcoesses pick this up. It takes a bit of adaptive change (DNA) to release people, but I think that comes in process. Can this only really happen though in mission development situations where new DNA is introduced?

David Coverdale of Whitesnake says hi.

[Tim Thompson]

Well, I agree that the P of AB is the motherlode of underused gold, but I think it's a lot more explosive than most people think! (Sorry for mixing metaphors there.) The idea that all believers are capable and authorized for all "priestly" ministry - including sacraments - has always been in our theology but only rarely apparent in our practice. Instead, we've reserved vast swaths of ministry to professional clergy (like me) "for the sake of good order." Well, I've finally begun to ask "How's that working out for us?" Put another way, since we don't seem to be doing well at all in either making disciples or growing them, then what exactly is good about our order?

Thinking about those answers led me finally to look at the house church movement, an expression of the Priesthood of All if ever there was one. Plenty of room for unhelpful order there, too, I'm sure! But I have a lot of hope that the results will be better. And truthfully, I think that Lutheranism at its core is built for both house church and the postmodern world. But that's another topic. ;)

[Don McClure]

At the nuts and bolts level, I have seen this practiced best by the pastor of my former church who freely, deliberately, and consistently gives permission (and provides support) for lay people to do ministry, so long as it is aligned with the mission of the church. The BEST staff are grown from volunteers with a passion for delivering on their personal mission. Many of our evangelical friends are quite deliberate about building staff from volunteers who grow their personal ministries into part time or full time jobs. We Lutherans can (and should) learn from them.

[edwardswolff]

You are probably correct in identifying "the priesthood" as the "golden nuggest." I responded Tuesday evening with "Theology of the Cross." Without getting into Luther's Heidelburg Disposition, I think it could be said that through the cross we "get real." Being in transition ministry, I see that as a real challenge and a necessity for congregations if they want to participate in the reign of God. The dynamics of the pastor in control keeps all of us from being real. More could be said.

[Kelly Fryer]

Ed - Nice choice. Wish I would have thought of it.

Don - Agreed. My best staff members always came from within. This approach assumes, of course, that discipling is going on in the congregation and that leaders are intentional about growing leaders. This isn't something many mainline churches are good at but, you're right, it's standard operating procedure in lots of Evangelical churches.

Tim - Explosive is right! When I teach on the "5 guiding principles" (from my book the L Word) it's always #4 that gives clergy the biggest shock - Everybody Has Something To Offer. Lay folks, of course, love it. And speaking of Luther and housechurches, check out my post on the 3 types of worship services Luther said we ought to offer. The ideal form, he said, is the housechurch.

http://reclaimingthefword.typepad.com/reclaiming_the_f_word/getting_worship_right.html

Kevin - Well, it's probably easiest in mission development...except that most of those are being led by pastors, who often have the hardest time of all getting their heads around this idea! My hunch: It's something we're all going to have to learn together.

[Tim Thompson]

I'm delighted to see you're spreading the word about Luther's preference for house church as an ideal form! I first encountered that and was appropriately stunned back in about 2000 when my wife Kisten picked it up at a small groups conference. Since then I've brought it up and shared the reference to a lot of people and have yet to meet one who had learned of it in seminary.

I also like to note for people the reasons Luther gave for not implementing it at the time: he didn't see anyone who wanted it, and he didn't have people ready to lead it. Seems to me that both of those pieces are now in place big time, so I for one and going to see what I can do to fire it up. (I also think that Lutheranism is built to fly in the postmodern world, once you scrape off it's Modernity-linked encrustations. Link that with a house church form and it sure feels explosive to me!)

If you find anyone else who's feeling drawn (or shoved)in this direction, please send them my way for conversation suport!