Alan Hirsch – Apostolic Leadership
Recently discovered Alan Hirsch's blog, and finding his posts on Apostolic leadership really interesting. Been reflecting a lot recently on what/who I should be as a leader and struggling against the tension between being visionary and trying to inspire people to follow in a really active, upfront way, and my own way of leading by consensus and being much quieter. Hirsch presents a model of leadership which feels much more natural than the box I tend to feel myself being pushed into, but at the same time is visionary and inspirational.
I particularly like where he speaks about the Apostolic Leader being one who rather than attempting to motivate the community by using incentives or offering a "what you can get out of this", instead motivates by appealing to a higher sense of morality. I seem to have spent so much time trying to motivate people by whatever method might work (one of the burdens of leadership I am told ;-) – I think it's time for a different approach. This seems to be a much more visionary, "charismatic" way of leading. I feel liberated in an awesome way to just communicate our shared vision for the Lab and to really challenge and say "Guys, this is what we've signed up to together, this is how Jesus did it, so come on, let's do it."
Seriously recommend looking through his blog if you are thinking about leadership, especially in a missional context. Really need to get hold of a copy of The Forgotten Ways for my summer reading.
At the moment am feeling really excited about the summer as a chance to relax and re-group for next September AND moving into the house in Alway in a week's(ish) time (if all goes to plan) AND what the Lab will look like and grow into over the Autumn term once September comes around.
Just have to get through a couple more essays and one more week of College.
