Leadership @ Freakstock

One of the main topics @ Freakstock were the outcomes of the leadership crisis. There were a few meetings about the topic which I followed and I would like to give a (imperfect, since it is my interpretation) impression of the situation.

JesusFreaks has always been a chaordic organisation, but a certain part of the German JesusFreaks wanted a strong leadership. This has led to a leadership crisis withing JesusFreaks and a council was formed to address the issue. 100 leaders were asked about their opinions and to pray for God's guidance while addressing the topic. In the end the following decisions have been made:

#1: The structure of Jesusfreaks
JesusFreaks is to some respect a family, denomination, movement and a network. Officialy JesusFreaks will not be a denomination because it would mean defining much more than they want to define.
Officially JesusFreaks will not be a movement since a movement is temporarily and with a focused goal. JesusFreaks wants to be eternally focused and not striving a singular goal since following Christ can mean different things for different people. Officially JesusFreaks will not be a family allthough they want to be a family in the sense of being brothers and sisters in Christ. But to call the complete organisation one family is not a adequate term that addresses the relevant issues.
Officially JesusFreaks will be a network of independant churches which are cooperating together under Jesus Freaks International.

I was personally very glad with this decision because I think this line of thought serves the heart of JesusFreaks and emphasises the things that make JesusFreaks relevant in today's society. This basically comes down to seeing diversity as a blessing instead of focusing on singularity. I am glad that the chaordic nature of JesusFreaks will be preserved by the network structure. I think the network structure has a kind, supportive nature which encourages instead of controls.

#2 Leadership of JesusFreaks
The question of leadership follows out of structure. The chosen network structure allows no strong directive leadership, but asks for more subtile forms. Since churches are independent they will define their own leadership in their own way. The basis will be that the best way to define leaders is to let informal leaders (by personality or age for example) become formal leaders. But if churches want to formalise their leadership on their own way they can do so. JFI will accept by the group appointed leaders. Leadership of JFI will be supportive to the individual groups instead of controlling.

I am very glad with the decisions on both issues. Unfortunately the group wanting strong leadership left JesusFreaks because of it, but I think this has been unavoidable. Of course it is sad that this makes you realise JesusFreaks suffers from the same human diseases that are in all organisations. On the other hand I think it is very special to see to what answers JesusFreaks have hold on. I think it is rare that organisations stay true to their basics in this way in face of such great earthly temptations of becoming this big festival and stock market company. Allthough there is no crime in being a big festival or stock market company I do think that in the case of JesusFreaks it would have drifted them away from their basics in being a meeting and sharing point for followers of Christ finding ways to live out faith in a new century.