The Catalyst Church Leadership Creed, pt.2

The Catalyst Church Leadership Creed is this:
    As many people on the mission with Jesus as humanly possible.

What does this mean, exactly? For me it means that our leaders leverage their resources (time, talent, & treasures) toward encouraging people to join with Jesus on His self-proclaimed mission to "seek and save the lost" (Luke 19.10).  Let me briefly unpack the component pieces.

"As many people" refers to the necessity of helping people engage in a meaningful, practical way with the mission we are called to.  From a management standpoint, leading as few people as possible for any given task or project is the typically preferred norm.  Oftentimes a management-oriented leader will essentially ask, "What is the bare minimum of people I need for this task?"  They will then attempt to recruit that many individuals to be a part (minus several if they have the tendency to "do-it-all" themselves).  Catalyst Church leaders don't see it this way.  Instead, they recognize that we all grow the most when we are actively involved in things that challenge and stretch us to attempt and accomplish more than we thought we could. We all derive a sense of ownership and vital belonging when we invest of ourselves into something larger than ourselves.  Personal spiritual growth and fulfillment is not a spectator-sport - it requires an active engagement.  Catalyst Church leaders seek to get people out of the stands, off the sidelines, and into the game.  The question isn't "How few must I involve?"  Rather it is, "How many people can I possibly get involved in this endeavor?"


"On the mission with Jesus" identifies what we are really all about.  Our Leadership Creed could have stated "As many people involved in the church...," but then it would have meant an entirely different set of priorities. As Reggie McNeal puts it in his book, Missional Renaissance,

"…the target of God's redemptive love is the world, not the church ('For God so loved the world,' Jesus said; not 'for God so loved the church'). This means that God is always at work in the world, not just in the church…. His efforts are not shrink-wrapped down to church activity, nor is he hamstrung in his progress by waiting for the church to join him in what he is doing" (44). 

This isn't the time or space to go very far down this path, suffice it to say that being involved in the activities of a local church and being actively engaged in the missional pursuit of Jesus are not always the same thing.  If they were, then Jesus neglected to mention such a seemingly-important aspect in His Great Commission ("Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…" Matthew 28.19-20 NASB).  Catalyst Church leaders coach others to discover their own unique, gifted, God-planned contribution to the mission.  In a practical sense then, it is the task of Catalyst Church leaders to help eliminate the roadblocks to fruitful, fulfilling involvement in what God is already doing and desires to do further. 

"As humanly possible" reminds us of the simple truth that we are leading people - flawed, weak, beautiful, capable, flighty, creative, resourceful, sometimes-idiotic-but-always-loved-by-God people.  Oh, and leaders are people, too.  Put us all together and it's amazing we get anything done at all!  Levity aside, however, there is a truth in here that Catalyst Church leaders recognize: we have been tasked with a role and a responsibility to lead others using all the personal resources we have at our disposal. It may sound like something of a clichéd add-on, tacked to the end of our creed without much significance – but that isn't how I see it. I believe it to be vitally important that Catalyst Church leaders recognize the inherent limitations in what we are about – we cannot do more than what we can do. In all that we do and lead others into we must remember that it is the Holy Spirit of God that leads individuals further into relationship with Christ and it is the Holy Spirit who desires to provide the primary leadership in their every day. We are called to partner and participate in this Spirit-led process.

So there it is, the Catalyst Church Leadership Creed. Is it a secret-formula to true effective leadership? Probably not, but at the very least it will serve to unify our leaders – no matter what area they lead in – onto the same task and with the same goal in mind.