Like many, I love Monty Python’s creative, irreverent humor that thinly veils a biting social critique. I think the lads are not nutcases but, instead, brilliantly creative and insightful minds. And they seem to have a creative life outside Monty Python world, too. For instance, Michael Palin has produced some very interesting travel documentaries (find keep reading
After posting my commentary on the film “True Grit” yesterday, I found what I think might be a positive and appropriate follow-up while doing some late night reading. I’ve been reading a recent book edited by Dallas Willard, A Place for Truth: Leading Thinkers Explore Life’s Hardest Questions. Last night I was reading the chapter keep reading
I just watched the movie “The Lives of Others”, once again. It’s a great movie centered on a little gray man, in the gray world that East Germany once was, who works for the government as an agent who spies on citizens, in this case a famous playwright. Through this assignment, as he listen in keep reading
Over the holidays, I found myself watching a re-run of an old, popular movie. Although “An Officer and a Gentleman” has never really been a film for which I cared a great deal, there is one scene that I have always found memorable. It contains a principle of leadership that is both important, and, it seems to me, also Biblical.
As much as we try, the NT refuses to let us discern a clearly laid out “pattern” of leadership, with carefully defined positions and titles that have accompanying job descriptions. In truth, the evolution of roles found in the NT into authoritative positions and titles appears to be something that developed (rather quickly) in the 2nd and 3rd century Church. Still, in the NT we do find references to specific roles, such as elders, evangelists, and teachers. These are best thought of, however, as functions given by Christ to serve his body and assure its spiritual health, rather than titles or positions that govern the Church.
Whether it be Western jurisprudence, post-industrial revolution management “science”, the therapeutic culture, the lingering legacy of the Enlightenment (Modern or Post-modern), or the age of entertainment, there are powerful influences that continually shape our understanding, providing inadequate and limited models for thinking about leadership.
God’s word seems so plain and clear when it comes to describing the spiritual aspects of the Christian life, yet becomes like the famed Rorschach inkblot test when it comes to matters of organization and structure. Each reader, with great sincerity and often certitude, tends to “project” onto the scriptures all his needs, longings, aspirations, biases, fantasies, opinions, experiences, fears, and maybe a few personal demons too!
Dr. David McAnulty is Associate Professor of Psychology at Abilene Christian University.
Twitter @davidmcanulty
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