Several years ago, while living and pastoring in Oregon (which I still do), I was invited to speak at a leadership conference hosted at a large church in Washington State.<\/p>\n
O.K. Now, let me tell you the expanded and more truthful version of that last sentence because I just glossed over the truth to make myself sound impressive.<\/p>\n
Honestly, my youth pastor was the one invited to speak at the conference as the plenary (main stage) speaker, and I asked him if I could be his “plus-one.”<\/p>\n
When I heard he got invited, I was slightly jealous because I had been known as the consummate youth pastor and “father” of summer camping in that region. And, to kick it up a notch, I was secretly pining away, wanting to be asked to be the next senior pastor of that particular large church in Washington after the departure of their senior leader for another assignment.<\/p>\n
Are you still tracking with me?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n O.K….so I asked to be my youth pastor’s “wing-man” and even proposed that he mention to the conference leadership that I would be coming along, should there be a speaking slot that may just happen to be available, preferably on the main stage.<\/p>\n Are my motives and actions making you feel disgusted yet? They should. I was NOT on my best behavior at that point in my life.<\/p>\n Eventually, I was asked to share at a “breakout workshop” about “What Every Senior Pastor Wished Their Youth Pastor Knew.” I now had a role. I now had a stage, even if it were in a kid’s classroom, with a flannel graph behind me (remember those?).<\/p>\n During the workshop, I made my way through my material, and I felt good about the content and the overall engagement within the room. Nearing the end of the session, I opened it up for the obligatory Q&A. I distinctly remember one of the questions and my response like it was yesterday. A youth pastor asked, “In your experience, what is the next big thing in youth ministry?” Before I tell you my answer, here’s some context.<\/p>\n At this time in church ministry history, the big thing was conferences<\/strong><\/span>. It still is. Many of the notable pastoral leaders that we’ve seen and emulated, sadly referred to as “celebrity pastors,” were putting on massive conferences, inviting all their buddies, paying them huge honorariums, gifting them extravagant gifts, and then, with a wink and a nod, reciprocating with their own conference. Rinse and Repeat. By now, you’ve seen the take-down documentaries and read the news reports on these lavish conferences and ministerial lifestyles. That was the predominant culture of the day (think @preachersandsneakers Instagram account), and almost every youth pastor wanted to be on that fast-moving train.*<\/strong><\/p>\n After I was asked the question regarding the “next big thing,” I paused, quieted my heart, silently prayed, and then spoke succinctly: “I believe the next big thing in youth ministry, actually pastoring in general, is…humility<\/strong>.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I then proceeded to address the room with quiet passion yet red-hot prophetic unction. You could hear a pin drop. More importantly, I was addressing my own heart<\/strong>. I was preaching to my proverbial choir, which threw a fit when it didn’t get the solo on the big stage. That was me. I needed to be humbled.<\/p>\n Throughout the entire reading of Humble Leadership<\/em> by Edgar and Peter Schein, I could not help but read it through the lens of that conference, that workshop, that question, the impromptu response, and my heart. Even the four levels of relationships (-1, 1, 2, 3) took on profound meaning to me, with a realization that during that season of my life, I had been viewing churches, congregants, speaking opportunities, and even pastoral peers as “transactional” (Level 1), rather than “whole-person” (Level 2) or “intimate” (Level 3). The missing ingredient was (and is) humility<\/strong>. When I pridefully consider myself as the best (i.e., only) person for a stage, a ministry, a decision, or an assignment, I widen the gap in relationships. Schein draws from Daniel Kahneman on this point: “Older ‘experts’ tend to become overconfident in what they think they know and believe they have learned, and they are less likely to admit to their own ignorance and acknowledge what they have yet to learn” (Schein, 115).<\/p>\n In a word: humility<\/strong>.<\/p>\n To build Level 2 relationships, one must have “effective humble leadership,” and that “will often identify that the most important ‘new and better’ will require evolving some of the existing cultural conventions into new kinds of intentional<\/em> socio-technical responses and adaptations” (Schein, 135). This is saying that tried-and-true behaviors can be integrated into our modern paradigms, such as focused reflection and deepening relationships. Sometimes, the future way forward is actually the ancient way. Humility is one of those ancient ways whose time has come…again<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You see, humility was and is the way of Jesus. Philippians 2:3-8 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves,<\/span> not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. <\/span>In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:\u00a0<\/span>Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death\u2014even death on a cross!”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Humility is the next big thing in humanity.<\/p>\n Today, by God’s grace, I will gladly and sincerely be any youth pastor’s “wing-man, plus-one,” and I have no need to speak. Oh, sure, I still enjoy it, but now I am way more content just listening.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n * NOTE:<\/strong> One of the original “PreachersandSneakers” IG takedowns (ala highlights) was my friend Chad Veach, pastor of Zoe Church in LA. He has been known as one of the OG Celebrity Pastors that has run in the pastoral posse of Wilkerson, Smith, Lentz, etc. etc. I know him personally (not saying this to brag). He is a wonderful human and submitted servant of God. He is a humble leader. Check out his latest book about pride and humilty, entitled: I’ll Bet You Think This Book is About<\/em> You.\u00a0<\/em>Not only is it the best book title of all time, and I’m jealous I didn’t think of it first, but it is a master class on the biblical value of humility. Highly recommend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Several years ago, while living and pastoring in Oregon (which I still do), I was invited to speak at a leadership conference hosted at a large church in Washington State. 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