Part 03 of our series on important new voices in global Christianity (Part 01, Part 02) brings us to Dr. MaryKate Morse, a professor at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, OR. Last December, Dr. Morse published a book which we believe is an important contribution in the gamut of books on Christian leadership. It's called Making Room for Leadership: Power, Space & Influence (IVP Books). The importance of today's powerful leaders in evangelicalism to "make room" at the table for others (women, the indigenous, other nationalities, etc) is something crucial that must happen for the greater health and well-being of the church.
Here are some notes from Dr. Morse's presentation at the recent Recalibrating Church Conference from Peter Walker's Emerging Christian blog:
Morse begins talking about her book Making Room for Leadership: Power, Space and Influence,
introducing it as a recalibration of the concept of power. She uses the
example of kids playing in a sandbox to begin: “no matter how much fun
all of the kids are having, some other kid comes in and takes it on
themselves to smash what everyone has been building. Why does that
happen? How does that happen in the church? I think it has to do with
Power.”
She continues, “the problem is, we have a hard time
getting along with each other. We can talk about theory and think about
things, but we need to get our heads around power. Make this organic
community a place where it really can thrive!”
Dr. Morse discusses some myths about power:
Leadership is embodied in a person whose words and behaviors influence others…
I
was at this board meeting, and there were all these leaders from other
churches and denominations... 16 people there… We worked two hours on
this local community problem… We got to a conclusion on how to approach
the problem, got up to break, and just then another pastor showed up. He said, “I’m so sorry I’m late!”
“And
everyone was sort of ‘buzzed’ about him being there. He said, ‘Well
catch me up, what have you talked about?” So they caught him up. And he
said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t have done it that way.’ Suddenly the whole group shifted and went his way. All of the resolve went away! Everything we’d talked about! Why would one person come in last minute and shift everything?”
Morse
went on: “When everyone finally took a break, I decided to ask him,
‘did you see what just happened here?’ No. He didn’t see. ‘Well, we
already had a decision and then you came in and you changed it.’ I
asked, ‘How do you manage that in your soul?’ He didn’t answer that.
Leadership isn’t a thing that someone brings in. It’s an energy.
Everyone in that room disregarded the group’s experience and work, and
turned on a dime toward that leader. The group was part of the power
process by allowing it. Mesmerized. They decided what he thought was
more important than anything else. We get trapped in this thinking."
"Power
is a corrupting thing," Morse said. "Jesus Christ came, embodied in the
flesh, and he was powerful. People gave power to him. Power is neither
good nor bad – it’s the ability to cause or prevent change. You have to
have power in order to influence. There is stewardship with the use of
power. That stewardship belongs to the group – to prevent the abuse of
power."
"Luke 7: Jesus, Simon and the sinner woman.
Jesus receives the woman’s love. In that experience Jesus allows her
access to his space – his power. And it becomes redemptive. "
"There’s plenty of power – enough to go around."
"We think we somehow DESERVE our 'share' of power. We have an unlimited goods economy in our culture: there’s “enough” of everything.
And we’re suffering from this perverted notion. We use power to
consume.In Biblical times, there was a LIMITED Goods culture. There
WASN’T enough to go around. It was the responsibility of those with
more to share and make sure those with less were provided for.
Hospitality was normative. This is the same notion we should bring to
power. We should cultivate and understand how to use power. The group
should talk about it because the group constituted it. But we have to
think of it in terms of hosting others. We can have a “sandbox
experience” – if you have power, make sure everyone gets to play and
have fun.”
Very nice presentation. Dr. Morse was spot on.
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