Graham’s Blog

In Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” one character Jaques makes a speech describes ‘the seven ages of man’.

These are:

Infancy – being a helpless baby, feeling and feeding, dependent.
Childhood – all about playing, talking, learning and becoming independent.
Teenage – finding identity, forming views, experiencing disconcerting change, testing boundaries, being impatient
Young adult – passionate, powerful, forming depth and direction in work, love and independent home. Finding possibility in fearless ways.
Middle-age – enjoying experience and status, having a defined place in the world. Having well-formed views, expecting to be listened to, enjoying maximum resources, but still holding significant commitments.
Old age – senior in years, with great memory but less energy and drive to achieve even though this is still desired. Having less influence and being more dependent.
Dotage and death – dependence becomes the main thing alongside letting go or the senses and experience of life.

These are brief descriptions of the stages of life that just give you a flavour, or are experiences and expectations through living.
You can find the full speech here.

It strikes me that in a family, or community, we will include people at all these seven stages of life. Extended families and neighbourhoods are at their best when every stage of life is appreciated, and cared for. Back in 2011, we had a teaching series on what is means to find and follow Jesus Christ at different stages of life.

If every stage of life is natural and to be embraced it seems foolish to favour one stage of life over and other and not misunderstand people at one stage so as not allowing them to be themselves.

In society, we may be obsessed with teenagers and young adults in some arts and the media. In politics, we may neglect that same group because they lack a vote. We may also be inclined to pretend that we are at a stage of life which we haven’t yet reached or have passed long ago. It is time for some to stop wearing those tight jeans! It goes without saying that we fear and so hide the final stage of dotage / death.

It seems to me that now is the time to let people be the ages they are and to nurture them at that age. I believe that it is time to appreciate and speak well of each age and not favour one stage of life over another.

Applying this in another sphere, I think that we have individual churches at these seven stages of life. I would go further and say that it is good and natural to have churches at every age. We need child, teenage and young adult churches – but we should not obsess about such youthful churches to imply that they have everything. We need middle aged and older churches which offer so much but should not be taken for granted but nor hold onto all the strings of power and resource. We need to honour dotage churches as they let go.

I celebrate all growth and commitment to church planting and pioneer expressions of church. They are part of our tapestry and vibrancy of Christian community. But in championing them let us value the established and traditional. I hope that we can speak better and in a more informed way of the different ages of church, so that all belong and are celebrated. There is also much to be done understanding what each age of church needs and doesn’t need. For instance, let teenage and young adult churches explore and form identity but don’t burden them with too much institutional responsibility. Don’t take middle aged or older church for granted and assume they have nothing to offer – otherwise they will misuse their influence and try to hold it too tightly. Beware of the twin mistakes of neglecting or offering limitless resource to dotage church.

I have a sneaking feeling that we could understand more fully the ages of human life and church. I have a growing conviction that we need to speak better of one another at our different ages of life (human and church). I am sure that Christ holds and cares of every stage of life, even as the young shall have vision, and the old dream!

At the end of this, I realise that I have betrayed my stage of life. Who else would write 750 words and expect others to stop, read and take notice. Yes at 55 I am enjoying middle age with gusto.

Graham Brownlee, February 2017

I was thinking about leadership in two contexts:

I was meeting with other Baptists who were wondering if Baptist Churches have a clear and positive view of leadership, and whether the lack of a view is a reason why Baptist churches so often fail to follow through on growth and strategy?

Secondly, like many others I was reflecting upon the 2016 we have had; the widespread cynicism about institutions and their established leadership is one factor in the political shift which is sweeping the West.

I was musing whether if the first question can be answered it might offer something to help address the second point.

A Baptist View of Leadership

Authoritarian and hierarchical leadership is contrary to Baptist ethos. So, we cannot simply issue orders from the top. However, if we fail to offer another view we deny our history and experience as Baptists who have been served by leaders.

There is a familiar model of leadership which deploys character and charisma to develop and exercise a significant role. Baptist Churches and denominational structures have, and in many ways, continue to benefit from this way of leading. At times that can tip over in nepotism and over-reverence of the leader. In my experience, I have also observed that this form of leadership is very weak when it comes to succession. It often creates a vacuum in which weak and underdeveloped leadership follows an extended period of established leadership. We see this at play in many local churches and in our national denominational structures in recent years. (You can also see this playing out in businesses, football clubs and schools).

Now, I strongly support leadership of character and charisma and would not argue against affirming and supporting such leaders. I believe the weakness is that leaders become divorced from the communities they lead, and they lack a model which shows how strong and creative leaders can function with their communities in a Baptist way.

Here is one such model – a Baptist leader creates space in which the community can flourish. Such a leader offers the scope for people to practise and grow in their faith. The leader is the curator of the space in which we all explore understanding, express what we believe, and reach to those outside our space.

This leadership role is in an integral relationship with the people of the community. People will flourish when they are informed, challenged, cared for and listened to. Also, when they are nurtured, equipped, stretched and restored. A leader who creates space is not the only one who initiates input but is the one who takes responsibility to ensure the health of the space and the vitality of all the care, action, learning and growing that takes place in the space.

I have chosen the motif of the leader curating this space – by that I mean that such a leader will enable voices and creativity from amongst the community and from other contexts to be expressed.

The question for a leader then is not just how competent are you, or what gifts do you have? (Though these are invaluable questions) – but how healthy is the space given for the community in your care? Who is involved?

Now there are a couple of observations about this space which are helpful in defining the emphasis of the leader. I have talked about space. This is not a static space like a house, or a room. Rather it is a dynamic space a bit like a town square – always moving and developing. (I think of Millennium Square in my city of Leeds and the multiple forms and functions it takes in a year – from Christmas market to skating rink; from a viewing space for sporting events to an intimate location for rendezvous.)

Such a space has boundaries which are clear but always open. Such a space works well when it is safe and shared, but fails when it is inaccessible and fearful.

It is the responsibility of a Baptist leader to nurture boundaries of the community space. Without leadership, the boundaries of a Baptist church become too hardened and the church ossifies, or on the other extreme the boundaries disappear and the community loses any distinct identity. This takes wisdom and credibility on behalf of the leader – at times to remove barriers and at other times to retain boundaries, at times to curtail needless controversy and in other moments to open new debate.

It is the responsibility of the leader to encourage exciting and vibrant practices which always keep the community living, on the move and connected with the world around it. In this sense the community space will feel balanced, rooted in its past whilst embracing the present and future.

In looking after boundaries, leaders may foster some debates and discourage others, in encouraging practice the leader will encourage experimentation alongside the practice of old familiar ways. (Just like you see in a city square – annual remembrance alongside new celebrations.)

The question for a Baptist leader is how is the community enjoying clear but open boundaries, how is the community honouring the inherited way whilst embracing the new. How well do people interact? How is the relationship between the familiar and the new? Where you are heading?

So here is a model – a Baptist leader is a space creator, boundary nurturer and participation encourager. A model that is theologically literate, giving a clear role for the leader and thoroughly enmeshed in community.

I believe that this is a very strong and high role for a leader – a role that doesn’t dictate but shapes in crucial ways. We desperately need such leaders. Without these leaders, we will stagnate. This way of leadership demands real character and charisma. The thing is in this model that the leader is continually connected and in interrelationship with the community. In this way, it acknowledges that as Baptists we are gathered as believers in community.

This model of leadership has a strong role within the community but is also connected with the outside.

I think that the familiar motifs of deacons and elders relate well to this model. I believe that Baptists need such leadership. We should confidently encourage this leadership among us. This is not a leader who lacks a mandate and scope to lead – but one who has an exciting and challenging role. Our shared role is to trust and collaborate alongside our leaders so that together we may have direction and grow.

These are the questions I keep in mind as I serve as a minister of Moortown Baptist Church – for I am neither here to maintain an institution, nor fly solo.

This is a way to reflect on leadership in a local Baptist church. It is also a model to offer to those in training and formation as Baptist leaders. It is also a measure of healthy leadership that could be applied by those who lead our Baptist institutions.

Now here is the stretch to the second question – what has this to offer to the crisis of institutions and the politics of wider society? Well, I suggest that institutions and their leaders and gatekeepers have lost credibility in Western societies. At present, there is also such uncertainty about where those who lead in the West are taking us. So, a way of leading that creates space, nurtures boundaries and encourages participation, may be a Baptist contribution for more than just the church.

Graham Brownlee, January 2017