The way we lead can be powerfully influenced by the metaphors that shape how we understand the communities that we lead. These metaphors are usually shared by whole generations of leaders who seldom, if ever, pause to think about them.

For most of its history church leaders viewed the church through the metaphor of the supernatural. Everything observed was seen as evidence of the actions of invisible, intentional beings. That is how people could be more afraid of witches and demons than they were of germs. That is why healers tried to solve people’s problems by dealing with witches instead of germs. It is why John could write to the angels of the seven churches and it is why healing was treated as primarily a matter of casting out demons. It matters what our metaphors are.

     April 8, the John Day United Methodist Church planted two peace poles.  Each pole has the message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” written in English and three other languages. 

     I don’t think anyone at Nampa First United Methodist Church receives this newsletter. That’s good, because I want to test some ideas here in this column that I hope I’ll have the courage to try there in that church. They may even be ideas you’ll be brave enough to try in your church. Just three.

The Bishop’s Initiative to Eliminate Hunger