The Blog of Gordon Pruitt the Pastor of St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Richmond Virginia

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Intuitive leadership 1

Started reading Tim Keel's book today, Intuitive Leadership and thought i would try and blog through it. I am 0 for 1 in doing this so wish me better luck this time!
Keel is pastor of Jacob's Well, a church in Kansas City Missouri. I heard Keel speak at an Emergent Conference many years ago in Nashville and also some where else, can't remember where but he left a good impression.
The back cover says, "churches need to dicover new ways of leading that embrace intuition, creativity, narrative, and the chaos and tension of our time."

Chapter 1 is about rediscovering the power of story. Keel is big into narrative and believes that churches don't focus enough on the narrative of scripture.
Keel writes on p 36, "The Bible as encyclopedia of topical religious information? Check. The Bible as blueprint hor how ti make life work? Check. The Bible as a book of answers, especially for refuting those with whom we disagree? Check. The Bible as supporting material for systematic theology? Check. The Bible as the story about the confusing presence of personal deity engaging bizarrely unpredictable people in astounding and mundane ways over long period of time? can i Get back to you on that?"

This was convicting to me. I rotate in and out of preaching on narrative but lately i have not done much of that. Keel also makes a great point about how the words "remember! Don't forget" and found again and again in the Old testament. One of the great gifts I've been given is the fact that i was taught the stories of the Bible as a child, and i have not forgotten them.

Bringing this to the my church, what is our churches story. What are the stories we should not forget in our 150 year history? Who are the characters? What are my stories that i should not forget?
Keel says "we are called to story. To remember. To live. To tell."

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