An interesting model for Christian Leadership

Yesterday, Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's live version of "The Ship Song" came to the top of my MP3 playing list (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFUikybw7DA), and I listened to it as I drove around town. As the song played out I thought of just how appropriate a model this is for Christian leadership, even if the artist involved is one who enters some dark territory in his anthology (there isn't a lot of grey in Cave's work with both extreme violence and glimpses of delicate beauty appearing).

The piece starts with Cave on the piano, playing the melody. The band work off the melody and the groove is established, this takes almost a minute in some versions.

Then Cave begins to sing beginning with the chorus, the band begin to take on more of the role of carrying the melody, until by the time the first verse is completed, the piano still carrying the melody almost cannot be heard above the sound of the other instruments.

From the second chorus, the band join in singing the chorus, inviting the audience to join in.

The final stages of the song are the band exuberantly playing their adaption of the melody and the piano appears again, playing a new melody as the counterpoint, and the song does not sound complete without it.

I find this an intriguing model for the way the interplay between lived life, articulation and new ideas with a joyful and free expression of community.

First of all, we in Christian leadership need to realise that our witness begins with our lives. As Paul puts it in the introduction to the first letter to the Thessalonians "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear for us. (2:9, NIV)" Our proclamation of the Good News of God incarnated through Jesus Christ (both as individuals and communities) begins with the vulnerable ministry of hands and feet and heart.

Only once the vision is starting to be lived that discussion is fruitful, the discussion needs to have room for both input from the leader and the community as a whole. This then, in grace, can lead to a fruitful loop as mutual discovery and articulation of mission comes, then the stage where the words are no longer needed - it is unsaid and the music says it all.

The gardener in me would love things to stop there, it is fruitful, it is happy, it is going well. But then we need to remember that we are pilgrim people following God, who moves us to new places and expressions. Here is where the art and the inspiration of God is needed - the leader starts living something new that both fits with and challenges what is already happening. Cave's song needs to end, but in the life of the church this just marks the start of the next cycle.

So, I need to pray for God to keep renewing and transforming my life in the hope that I may be a leader who builds community and change in the communities I serve as we seek to follow God's call onwards together.