{"id":23825,"date":"2019-09-04T18:47:36","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=23825"},"modified":"2019-09-04T18:48:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:48:17","slug":"lets-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/lets-blaze\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Blaze!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBLAZE!\u201d<\/p>\n

I hear my children scream in delight as we hike along the Leatherstocking Trail in Southern Westchester County.\u00a0 We are hiking a stretch of the trail that is new to us, so we are keeping an eye out for a blaze \u2013 the trail markers that indicate that we are on the right path \u2013 and both children seem to spot one at the same time.\u00a0 The Leatherstocking Trail has a very distinct trail blaze, and the imagery is one that my children remember from previous outings on the trail, even though we are in unfamiliar terrain.<\/p>\n

Unfamiliar terrain is the landscape many church leaders often find themselves in as they navigate parish, denominational and community ministry.\u00a0 Though there are many models of leadership, the theology of leadership “still needs to be developed\u201d[1]<\/a> Russel Huizing writes in the introduction to the inaugural edition of the Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em>.\u00a0 And though many of the submissions in the first issue support the \u201cdevelopment still needs to happen\u201d motif, one in particular demonstrated a pedagogically sound model of training leaders with a theological worldview, this being the article written by Stephen Woodworth.<\/p>\n

Woodworth delves into the concept and \u201cuse of metaphors in leadership training for its ability to bridge gaps in contextualization and establish global leaders for the Church who are strengthened by foundational theology that grants them a core identity from which to lead.\u201d[2]<\/a> In particular Woodworth aims at utilizing this strategy for pastors that will work in the area he deems the \u201cMajority World\u201d which he defines as \u201cregions of the world which have historically been referred to as developing countries, third-world, or the global south. Current shifts to the term Majority World demonstrate a more accurate perspective on these regions as many reside in the north and exist along a continuum of varying stages of development.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Woodworth argues that this strategy will work best in these regions mainly because of a lack of two key resources \u2013 funds that can be spent training these church workers and the time spent to train, and maintain them.<\/p>\n

The use of symbol and metaphor will ideally help pastors not only teach, preach, care, and \u201cpastor\u201d, but will also help aide in their own discovery process of finding their pastoral identity.\u00a0 The interpretative work of symbol and metaphor is found throughout the hiking world in unique trail blazes, those trail markers that help make sure each hiker is headed on a similar path.\u00a0 A few are listed below:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> This is the blaze of the Leatherstocking Trail, located in Southern Westchester County, New York.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Internationally known, this is the blaze for the Appalachian Trail.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Running through my home state of Michigan, this is the Blaze for the North Country National Scen<\/span>ic Trail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> And since we all attend Portland Seminary . . . here is the blaze for the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail.<\/p>\n

No matter where you are on the trail, the image of the blaze is the constant, but the terrain (the \u201cterroir\u201d as Percy calls it) always changes.\u00a0 The North County Trail blaze is the same no matter where you are on the trail, however the trail terroir is much different near Youngstown, Ohio, than it is near Boundary Waters National Park in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiblical writers clearly understood this same principle and went to great lengths to portray leaders through a myriad of metaphors including shepherd, ambassadors, witness, athlete, architect, father and mother.\u201d Using my children as an example again, we were blessed enough to explore the Biblical leader metaphor of \u201cathlete\u201d many ways this year.\u00a0 We were able to see my son\u2019s favorite basketball player, Miles Bridges, play a game against the Brooklyn Nets.\u00a0 My family was also blessed enough to see the Women\u2019s World Cup victory parade in Manhattan.\u00a0 My daughter is a fan of Megan Rapinoe, while my son\u2019s favorite player is Alex Morgan.\u00a0 All three of these athletes are incredibly gifted, hardworking, skilled, and inspirational.\u00a0 And each of them has abilities the other athlete\u2019s merely do not have.\u00a0 One could say they each have a unique athletic terroir.<\/p>\n

So too is the case with many images and symbols in the life of the church.\u00a0 The cross as a symbol of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection; a shell as a symbol of baptism; loaves and fishes as symbols of communion and mealtime gatherings.\u00a0 I wonder what new symbols and metaphors the church can implement while she continues to develop the theology of leadership?\u00a0 Perhaps these will include metaphors and symbols that honor the voices of people not often heard in church history.\u00a0 Perhaps these will include metaphors and symbols of an \u201cecozoic\u201d worldview. Perhaps these will include metaphors that lift up mercy, forgiveness and charity.\u00a0 What are the metaphors or symbols you would like to see utilized as the church blazes a new path in the field of the theology of leadership?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Huizing, L. Russel, \u201cDo We Really Need Another Academic Journal,\u201d in Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em> ed. Russel Huizing, Volume 1, (Issue 1), 2018, pg 4.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Woodworth, Stephen, \u201cProphets, Priests and Kings: The Use of Metaphors in Training Global Leaders Toward Pastoral Identity,\u201d in Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em> ed. Russel Huizing, Volume 1, (Issue 1), 2018, pg 79.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Woodworth, Stephen, \u201cProphets, Priests and Kings: The Use of Metaphors in Training Global Leaders Toward Pastoral Identity,\u201d in Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em> ed. Russel Huizing, Volume 1, (Issue 1), 2018, pg 80.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBLAZE!\u201d I hear my children scream in delight as we hike along the Leatherstocking Trail in Southern Westchester County.\u00a0 We are hiking a stretch of the trail that is new to us, so we are keeping an eye out for a blaze \u2013 the trail markers that indicate that we are on the right path […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1321,1322,1324,1327],"class_list":["post-23825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp9","tag-lgp9","tag-theology-of-leadership","tag-theology-of-leadership-journal","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23833,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825\/revisions\/23833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}