This is "Part 3" in a three-part post. The other parts can be found here:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

More Power To The People
I have asked my best friend, Mark Jefferson, to be a guest writer for this third part of the missional leadership series. I have known Mark for 12 years now. He is one of the best leaders I know. Here's what he has to say:

For those of you who don't know me too well, I am another one of the leaders at The Freeway.

As you may have been made aware, the structure of our little community is, well... unstructured. Because, up until recently we have been a fairly small community, this has worked for us. It has allowed us to stay away from the establishment of formal church structures, allowing us to continue to grow and change as we feel Jesus leads us.

As Pernell said: "All along we have tried to organize ourselves as best we could without too much formalization (or unneccessary hierarchy, structure, etc.) in order to stay true to who we felt Jesus wanted us to be as a unique community in a unique context."

This has meant many different things for our leadership (un)structure. It has meant that over time the structure has both evolved and devolved (if that's a word). We have had structures that have involved 2 people and structures that have involved 12 people. We currently have a leadership cohort which includes 6 individuals.

The cohort is made up of a group of people who, through sharing our faith and a desire to follow Jesus, have become friends. As one of the elements of leadership at The Freeway the cohort dreams, plans, prays, and grows together as we try to figure out what it is we think God wants us to be doing in the time and place where we find ourselves.

The cohort is "one of the elements of leadership at The Freeway"... what does that mean?

It means that while the church is led by the cohort there are a numerous other people who lead in a variety of ways. There is no simple definition of leadership at The Freeway. For some it may mean cleaning toilets; for others teaching. For some it may mean working behind the coffee bar; for others leading a group. For some it may mean mentoring; for others it's working with our children. For all of us it means listening for the voice of Jesus and responding. And as we do this, hopefully we can encourage, care for, and inspire each other. In this, we all have a part to play.

"More power to the people!"

All in all I hope these three posts on leadership at The Freeway will be useful to... whoever.

Labels: leadership, the freeway, writing