We continue our series on power and in this episode we have a fascinating conversation Keith Giles about his experience in breaking cultural power norms by using a house church model that allows people to “bring what they have” and challenges the normal “person in charge” mentality.
Keith Giles is a former pastor who left pulpit ministry over a decade ago to experiment with new ways to practice ministry that upended old scripts about power and control. He is co-host of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
Some links from this episode:
- Follow Keith on Twitter
- Keith’s book Jesus Unbound: Liberating the Word of God From the Bible
- Keith’s book Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb
- Read Keith’s blog
If you are interested in learning more about how to practice some of what we talk about in this episode, check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 10-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
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Ron McKenzie says
May 6, 2019 at 7:41 PMThis is a great interview.
However, I wondered if the interviewing team really received the message Keith is sharing.
You kept looking for the role of the leader, ie making space for things to happen. Putting boundaries on the sandbox etc.
The point this will not work if someone tries to be leader. The Holy Spirit is the leader. We have to trust him to do it, even if does not look like what I think it should look like.
There is a guiding role, but unless the group is all new Christians, there will be half a dozen people in the group who are capable of guiding the group. One person should not try to do it. The most they should do is encourage others to speak or act.
I found that the most effective thing that I can do in a group like this is to say nothing, but ask a few questions. I could highlight important things that other people shared, but the group missed, ie did you hear what Ruth said? What does that mean for us?
I would watch and see the people who have something from the Spirit, but are too shy to share it. Jack, do you have something to share?
Sometimes I might ask, Did you see the pattern in what these three people shared? If I do speak, it will be to point out what the Holy Spirit is doing, that others have not noticed.
Letting the Holy Spirit lead is risky. Sometimes, nothing will happen. That’s okay. We can leave the group to work our if something was wrong. They need to learn what it is like if the miss what the Holy Spirit is doing.
Ben Sternke says
May 6, 2019 at 8:34 PMHi Ron, thanks for your comment and your wisdom about leading in this way. In our questions to Keith, we were trying to capture some of the questions our audience may have had, and I do wonder if there are some semantic issues at work here (I.e. no one is the “leader” but there is a “guiding” role… which is exactly what I think of a “leader” doing 😉 This is some of what we were trying to tease out in our questions to Keith. Thanks for your interaction! 🙂