Tribe Building with Help from Seth Godin

I've been pondering the topic of pastoral leadership of late and I realized that I stand in the not-so-happy middle ground of current publishing in the area. My Lutheran synod is largely composed of two polarities: Church Growth types & the Confessional Fundamentalist crowd. The Church Growth types do not seem to be rooted very well in the scriptures, nor do they seem to appreciate their own tradition or liturgy very much, but they do long to see the church reaching people through missionional endeavors (which is good). The Confessional-Fundamentalist crowd is firmly rooted in the scriptures and tradition (which is very good, in my opinion), but they seem to lack any desire to progress or change tactics for the purpose of mission. Then there is me, who wants to do both, and to do them both well.

The church growth model tends to rely heavily upon current marketing techniques and business development structures, which in turn causes the confessionalists to whince, because they do not see the need for such dependence. I see a need for having a foot in both worlds, and learning from our surrounding culture without capitulating or idolizing it so long as the Gospel is in no way being crowded out by such techniques.

All of this prologomena to say that I purchased a book entitled, Tribes: We Need you to Lead Us, by Seth Godin. My friend Drew Goomanson intruduced me to Godin while vacationing together in Hawaii a couple years ago. Godin is a popular blogger, writer, and entrepreneur. He is also a keen sociologist that writes about cultural trends, similar to Malcolm Gladwell, but without the depth of research. This book interested me as it looks at the idea of community (hence, Tribes) and what connects and motivates them from a leadership perspective. It is here that I find a useful point of contact as a pastor. A pastor leads a tribe called the local church.

Here is Godin's definition: "A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea" (pg. 1). Thus you can say that a church is a tribe because it is connected to one another through its union with Christ (confession and baptism), connected to a leader (pastor/undershepherd of Christ), and connected to an idea (the Gospel).

He goes on to say that "all that a group of people need to be a tribe is two things: (1) a shared interest and (2) a way to communicate" (pg. 2). What I find interesting is that he acknowledges what all Christians should know. "Human beings can't help it; we need to belong" (pg. 3). From the creation account in Genesis 2 we learn that part of our inherent make-up is that it is "not good that man be alone". The perichoretic life of our Triune God in his supreme self-giving/receiving is largely that which makes us the imago Dei, and according to Trinitarian thinkers like Colin Guton, it is also part of the definition of personhood.

I'm working through how to best enable my local parish to build communities of discipleship (tribes growing on mission for Christ). In future posts I plan on using Godin, Bonhoeffer, and others as partners in dialogue. For Godin's free "Tribe Building Tactics" click, here.