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Leadership & Life
The Pioneer Spirit
Mal Fletcher
The forward progress of every great human endeavour has come about through the work of pioneers.
Whatever the venture, in whatever field, great achievements have always been the result of the pioneer spirit. In the Christian church, we have much to celebrate, for our faith has inspired some of the world's greatest pioneers.
The growth of the church has always been founded on the work of pioneers. Jesus was always talking about going to the next town, and Paul was always seeking new fields to conquer.
Consider, too, John Wesley, who turned the nation of England from Revolution, sparing it the bloodshed seen in France. And George Muller, who pioneered Europe's first orphan houses and rescued thousands of children from death on Dickensian streets. And David Livingstone, who opened up the heart of Africa to civilisation and education.
A pioneer is best defined as, 'someone who creates a breakthrough for themselves and for others.' Though we celebrate certain people as pioneers of special courage, we all need the pioneer spirit in the face of the leadership challenges we face.
Our God is himself a pioneer! The very first verse of the Bible tells us this. He created the heavens and the earth, as the theologians used to put it, ex nihilo - 'from nothing'. The last chapters of the Bible reflect the same thing. This time, he is seen creating 'new heavens and a new earth.'
Jesus was most definitely a pioneer. He took one of the world's greatest symbols of hatred, injustice and shame - the cross - and turned it into a symbol of love, mercy and grace. In so doing, says Romans 8, he became the, 'first-born among many brothers.' He created a breakthrough for others.
The Holy Spirit is also, by nature, a pioneer. It was his arrival on the day of Pentecost that put the church on the map! Without his presence, there would never have been a church!
As Christians, we have the pioneer spirit within us, through the inner presence of the Holy Spirit. If we are to be truly innovative with our lives, creating breakthroughs for ourselves and for others, we need to release that pioneer spirit through our choices.
Today, Christian leaders need once again to capture this pioneer spirit. We need to have a vision that inspires pioneers, strategies that resource pioneers and a lifestyle that models the pioneer spirit.
There are two great attributes of the true pioneer spirit:
A Hunger for Influence.
When you look at the life of Paul, you begin to see a pattern emerging. He was often called away from seasons of success, to go to some new field and 'start again'. He was called from Antioch to Jerusalem; from Antioch to Asia Minor, and from there to Macedonia.
Paul was not primarily motivated by position, status or title. He did not make career moves. He was motivated by a hunger for influence.
Too many leaders are working for nothing more than that next step up the corporate, career ladder. They're striving for a bigger office, a larger car, or even a 'call' from a larger church.
They're settling for small amounts of power when they were called to have large degrees of influence!
Influence is deliberate. Real godly influence does not come to us by accident. It is the result of divine design and human strategy. As leaders, we need to be identifying & equipping individuals whom we believe God is raising up for influence.
Students of dramatic historical events have identified three types of people who are always involved whenever a small idea becomes a huge phenomenon.
Mavens: people who like to collect and share information, for the sheer pleasure of doing it.
Connectors: people who build large networks of friends and acquaintances and who love to bring people together.
Salespeople: people who like to talk up an idea, sharing its benefits with real evangelistic zeal.
These people always take the genius of a good idea and make it something that's accessible to everyone. We find people like these in the Bible.
Luke was a 'maven', a collector of facts and information that he brought together in two biblical books. Andrew was a 'connector' who brought Peter to Jesus. Philip was a 'salesman' who enthusiastically focussed on one message, whether talking to a huge crowd or to an individual by the roadside.
We must give space for each of these three groups to operate. We must give the natural mavens room to teach.
The connectors need something to draw people into. And the salespeople need a vision to own and promote.
Why has the Alpha course strategy become such a huge influence in so many parts of the world?
Partly because it builds on the strengths of all three of these groups.
Strategic Thinking.
We all recognise the importance of vision.
For a Christian leader, vision is much more than a buzz-word, something to put in the title of a seminar.
Vision keeps us alive. It also keeps us focussed, for without it we 'run amok' (Proverbs 29:18).
Sadly, vision is all too often replaced by things that seem easier to control.
For example, a reliance on phenomena. Many leaders hope that power experiences alone will build their house. Or legalism, where we rely on rules and regulations to keep us going. Or, bureaucracy, where we build on systems.
Thankfully, many leaders have thrown off this baggage and positioned themselves to hear God's vision for their situation.
Yet, many leaders who have a vision do not have a strategy. If our dreams are going to bring us influence, purposes must be married to concrete plans.
This is why the prophetic and apostolic ministries work so well together. The prophet sees what God wants to do, but it takes the apostle to bring a clear strategy to help bring this about.
There are at least four things that are true of strategic thinking:
Strategic Thinking is focussed on the Long-Term:
Real influence is not born in a week of revival meetings.
Wesley turned one third of his nation to Christ because his focus was on more than just his next sermon or book. He was focussed on achieving a long-term result.
He would preach to thousands in open fields, then form his converts into local societies (we would call them 'church plants'). Then he would take the most enthusiastic of these people and form them into weekly classes of no more than twelve people.
He worked to this strategy for many years - and look at the result!
Leader, the strategic question for you is, 'If Jesus doesn't return in next few years, what kind of city do you want people to be living in, ten years from now?'
We need a vision of a preferred future, a future in line with God's kingdom, and strategies to help promote that.
Strategic Thinking aims for a Specific Target.
In Acts 16-17, Paul obeyed a sovereign call of God and did something that was destined to change history. He took the gospel to Europe for the first time.
If Paul had not obeyed, Europe might not have the proud heritage of spiritual outreach it has had for the past two thousand years.
There were two things Paul did when he set out to reach western cultures for the first time.
First of all, Paul's strategy involved the targeting of cities. Major population centres like Philippi, Thessalonika and Athens were all in Paul's sights. His strategy recognised that God wants to speak where people are listening.
Secondly, his strategy targeted spheres of influence. The first Europeans saved under Paul were people of influence in different areas.
Lydia was a woman of commerce and trade. The Philippian jailer was a bureaucrat; a civil servant.
Dionysius was a politician; a member of the city council. And the philosophers of Mars Hill were the academics, educators, and patrons of the arts at the time.
Through Paul's strategic thinking, the Holy Spirit was able to sow seeds of the kingdom in each of the areas where Europe would thenceforth have a major influence on the world!
In our time, strategic thinking will demand that we do the same. We must position ourselves to have long-term influence in, for example, the media, the arts, education, sport, politics and the law.
Strategic Thinking always calls for Alliances.
Strategic thinkers are good at building alliances with other leaders because, for them, the goal is more important than the style.
Leaders of new churches will work with leaders of older, more established churches.
The new church strengths of vision, passion and ease of mobility will stand alongside the old church strengths of established credibility, financial resources and the like.
Strategic Thinking always involves Sacrifice.
Any new level of favour or influence is preceded by a new call to sacrifice.
The train to real influence often seems to run backwards: God first reveals what we can't do, before he shows what he can do (cf. Luke 5).
If Christians learn nothing else from the events of September 11, we should recognize that we will never bring change to people whose passion will lead them even to suicide with a 'have-more-fun', 'make-more-money' gospel.
We can only face people like that with a commitment and a passion which is at least as great as their own.
Reading Romans 15:20-21, we see Paul's motivation for ministry -- the drive to pioneer, to 'boldly go where no-one has gone before...'
In our postmodern western world, faced as we are with an growing tide of godless ideas and lifestyle options, so much of the church has sunk into a defensive mode. We need less maintenance mentality and more pioneer spirit!
One of the great characteristics of the pioneer spirit is the desire to stand on the shoulders of others.
Paul had not planted the church in Rome, but he saw that he still had a vital contribution to make to its people (cf. v22). Throughout his life, he also recognized how others, like Apollos, added to his own pioneer work.
A true pioneer spirit does not insist on being the first at everything. The pioneer spirit is not an independent spirit. Pioneers don't just start things, they keep them alive! Any good idea, without constant innovation, will wind down. True pioneers build on the legacy of others, using the past to build a platform for the future...
If we come across a strategy, activity or project that is going well and achieving results for the Kingdom -- even if it is the initiative of someone else -- we should not trash it, but build upon it...
If we discover an idea that is falling short of what it could be, because of bad leadership or compromised standards, we should not criticize it but redeem it. We should take back what we can and aim it in the right direction...
There is a generational aspect to this. A truly generational church or ministry is not simply one that has a youth department and a children's ministry. A generational ministry one where Abraham resources Isaac, who releases Jacob, who reveres Abraham.
Today's Boomers (40s-60s), GenX (20s-late 30s), Gen Next (20 under) all have unique contributions to make to the pioneering of new things for the Kingdom. However, the generations often fall over each other trying to correct each other, or ignoring what the other has already put in place.
Boomers like me, for example, occupy many of the key leadership positions in many churches and ministries today. Sadly, we have often closed the doors of influence to GenX adults. Because they look a little like us, we assume that they share our ways of thinking and our ideas -- that what benefits us will benefit them. In fact, they think quite differently on many things. Sometimes, too, their non-institutional creativity threatens us.
Yesterday's radicals so often become today's conservatives -- because they're so busy trying to protect what they've won that there's no time left for pioneering.
Boomers: If you see a GenX initiative, and you feel there could be more to it, don't condemn it; join it and help it along...
GenXers: If something good is already there, don't belittle it, don't reproduce it, just build on it, tweak it and adjust it for even greater results.
Let's release the pioneer spirit -- the spirit of breakthrough -- in our lives, ministries and callings.
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