pat loughery

Part of the learning model in the Doctor of Ministry program at Bakke Graduate University has us writing daily journals for each in-class day. These journals describe what we saw, how we interpreted it and what we’ll do with it.

FRIDAY 6/6

This morning’s time began with debriefing the trip visits from yesterday. It’s helpful for me to hear a variety of perspectives, and I appreciate the analytical approach that Ray has suggested to us with the handout he gave us. For all three ministries that we visited, I pray for God’s blessing and shalom.

The day’s topic switches to leadership. Ray Bakke spoke in the morning about reflective leadership. Even after a question to Ray my understanding of this concept is fairly hazy, and I need to clarify it with other students, but I believe that reflective leadership asks a leader to consider the Scripture and the leadership context carefully, and being willing to reconsider previously held positions in light of new information. During our morning time, Ray told us more of his own life’s story as a way to give us a picture of what’s important to him, and how those values developed.

Ray spent time connecting Biblical texts to his experiences as the pastor of an inner-city Chicago church. He talked about the Old Testament as a discussion of the covenant community of God, chosen for the purpose of blessing all the nations. He talked about his doctrine of the trinity, which is a core picture for Ray that shapes his understanding of calling by modeling relationships, community, mission and family. He spoke of learning to read the Pentateuch as a leadership text, and then seeing that his role as a pastor as coming alongside his church members and others, and asking them how he can help them to teach their children and build up heir relationships. He spoke of how he saw other Old Testament books, giving us handles on Jonah, Ezra and Nehemiah. He closed by talking about his support group of peer leaders who covenanted or reach other and for their city as a way to challenge each other to grow and also to remain intently focused on their calling.

It was difficult for me to follow the structure of Ray’s session since he went from story to story to story seemingly without connecting them, but now as I reexamine my notes, I see that he did an overview of the Old Testament in parallel with an overview of his pastoral ministry as a way to show us how to connect scripture and ministry, and let both parts inform each other – or, as Ray put it, to hold his church in one arm and his city in the other.

I had a nice lunch with a large group of students at a nearby Thai restaurant, and was able to talk to two students that I hadn’t spent time with before.

In the afternoon, Grace Barnes took us through a discussion of servant leadership. Servant leadership is Grace’s specialization from an impressive amount of academic work on leadership theory. Grace gave us two substantial handouts which acted as surveys of the literature on leadership, and then took us through some interactive learning experiences to help us to grasp the implications of the servant leadership model in particular. The two major takeaways I have from Grace’s session were these: First, Grace mentioned several good resources to read for further study, and Max Dupree’s book Leading Without Power and Ira Chaleff’s book The Courageous Follower are now on my Amazon wishlist. Second, I was impacted by Grace’s four step process for releasing power: Teach, train, turn over, and trust. I loved the fourth item; the first three are easier to do than the fourth in my experience. That bears some more thought and discussion.

At this point in the class, I’m extremely tired. Class has been emotionally and mentally draining, and when I get home after school I spend time with my family, then catch up with my job. I’m hoping to get a reasonable night’s sleep because Saturday will be a long day, and Sunday is booked full with issues from the church I serve. I have been taking seriously Sabbath as a spiritual discipline – at least, as a rest from work and study – but this week, I will have to forego that goal.