More Pearls of Wisdom from our District

On Partnership (October 7, 2008):

"Stephen Ministries cites the quiet yet significant shift in leadership - from the star leader to the builder leader. They point out that successful, enduring organizations have leaders who empower people to share ownership of a dynamic mission and work synergistically to succeed. So do not try to do it alone! Develop partnerships and teams at the local level! Ministries strive when people are more devoted to the mission than to the leader of the organization."

I believe this paragraph is illustrative that there is an "ecclesiology gap" between the dominant culture of the LCMS and the traditional worldview of the Church Catholic.

The Christian Church is, by definition, the most "enduring organization" in history. She has survived persecution, political turmoil, heavy-handed leadership, infighting, schism, heresy, cultural shifts, liturgical butchery, musical inanity, and even the Ablaze!(tm) program. Not even the gates of hell will prevail against her. She is eternal. And yet her survival is not "synergistic" (nor based on "shared ownership"), but monergistic (rooted in divine grace).

And this most enduring organization of all thrives best when people are more devoted to the Leader of the organization, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, than they are to some bureaucratic organizational mission.