Should Christians be ambitious?
Emma Ineson was Chaplain at the Lee Abbey Customs in Devon, and so Principal of Trinity Higher Bristol. She is now suffragan bishop of Penrith in Carlisle Diocese, and has just published a bookAmbition: what Jesus said virtually power, success and counting stuff exploring the issues effectually faith, vocation and the question of ambition. She kindly agreed to be interviewed about the book.
IP: You notice that in that location is some irony that you were writing a volume on appetite whilst being considered for appointment every bit a bishop in the Church building of England! What difference did that make to your writing and thinking?
EI: I set out to write the book in response to what I was hearing and seeing in church leaders nearly the pressure level that can frequently back-trail an expectation of church growth. I was noticing that many of the ordinands and church building leaders that I know are passionate, committed, and gifted people who don't sit around with their anxiety up, but who actually want to make a difference for the gospel. And all the same I also saw what some of this constant pressure to abound and improve can have on the souls of leaders. I likewise wanted to write following several years thinking and processing 'leadership stuff', and engaging with the debates we seem to have a lot on the church about how and whether secular leadership theory has anything to do with Christian ministry building. I was besides noticing in myself, as primary of the growing theological college, how I responded to some of the pressures to achieve and meet the graphs going in the correct direction.
And then I set up out to address some of these issues head-on, and possibly also to proper name things that nosotros don't often talk most openly very much, around comparison, jealousy, talent, careers, promotion, how nosotros count 'success' as Christians, and and then on. In the midst of it all I was appointed Bishop of Penrith and some of the reactions to that move (people speaking about information technology equally 'promotion', the story in the book about my hairdresser asking me if I'd always wanted to be a bishop) set me thinking even more about how we see status, and what Christians are supposed to think almost 'ambition'. So writing the volume was quite cathartic in 1 respect, and has really fabricated me examine what we're about as Christian leaders, peculiarly in the light of Jesus' educational activity in Beatitudes.
IP: Why do y'all think the question of ambition is such a pressing one in our culture and in the church at the present time?
EI: I am not certain that it is such a pressing issue in the church. At least I don't think we easily use the word 'ambition' in church circles. It feels a bit 'sweary'! One of the things I do in the book is to expect at the roots of the word 'ambition' and the concept of appetite in the Bible, and to see whether it is something that can be redeemed for Christians (spoiler: I recall information technology tin). Notwithstanding, in some senses the church building has entered quite an 'ambitious' phase—and rightly so. The emphasis is very much on growth (SDF funding, Renewal and Reform etc) and that is good—if it means an increased missionary zeal to see more and more people come to know Christ and follow him more closely.
Simply I argue that alongside that nosotros demand a keen sense of theological reflection on what kind of growth nosotros are aiming for, what to do when expected results aren't achieved (or at least not visibly) and how to stay focussed on the values of the kingdom of God rather than empire edifice. These are bug both for the individual leader and for the church. And I didn't want to write only for church building leaders. In many spheres of work—media, arts, teaching, healthcare, business concern—there is smashing pressure to constantly grow and amend. Equally young Christian leaders are setting out on their careers, I wanted the book to assistance them to ask questions virtually what kind of growth they are encouraged to attain, and how to reflect biblically on their work.
IP: It is interesting that, in contrast to some Christian traditions, you are not wholly negative nigh the idea of ambition. In what ways do y'all recall Christians should be ambitious?
EI: There are dissimilar kinds of ambition, or at least different foci for ambition. 'What is the telos [terminate, goal] of your particular ambition?' is the question I am wanting to ask. Where the Christian tradition has been dismissive, it is largely negative about appetite that exists to fulfil personal aims or further personal status, as in 'Exercise nothing out of selfish appetite' (Phil ii.3). Rightly, most Christian thinkers have advocated humility over this kind of ambition. Only there is a different kind of ambition that we might instead term zeal or passion for changing the world for Godly ends and with Godly ways. In that sense, Christians should be the most ambitious people in the earth!
Still, we practice need to keep our wits about us when we speak about ambition. I wanted to explore the interface between vocation and ambition, and too specially to examine the frequently complicated human relationship women leaders have with ambition. Only I besides make the point that the more than ambitious you are, the more you need to pay attending to the internal character work, to stay accountable to others, and to make sure your ambition is Godly ambition.
IP: In your chapter on 'Counting', you comment that 'numbers count because people count'. Practise you call up that our obsession with measuring things, both in the church building and in wider culture, tin be redeemed?
EI: Yep, simply not easily. I am not trying to say in the book that we should never count anything. In fact I make the point that the Bible is fairly obsessed with numbers and counting, but that (as with ambition) it should be done for the correct reasons and with the right aims. In the volume I identify iv adept reasons for counting things and four bad reasons for counting things, and I encourage united states to reflect theologically on the reasons for our counting. I as well say that there are two particular theological themes that make counting things challenging from a human perspective: eschatology, the conventionalities that we prepare for eternity and accept a far horizon as our promise; and grace, the fact that we never get what nosotros deserve. Uncomplicated economics therefore don't fit when nosotros are talking about the things of faith.
But that'due south not to say nosotros should cease counting at all. In the church we need to brand certain we are counting and measuring (two unlike things) in line with God's values and perspectives. What nosotros count and mensurate exposes conspicuously what we value. I slightly cheekily paraphrase: 'Where your graphs are, there your heart will be also'.
IP: I was delighted to see that, in your give-and-take of the Trinity and leadership, yous avoided mentioning the 'social Trinity' but instead reflected on leadership from the perspectives of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Practise we exercise plenty theological reflection on leadership? Why do we find it so hard?
EI: Yes, thank you. I've been around theological college colleagues for long enough to know to steer well clear of social Trinitarianism, and now whatever talk of 'perichoresis' is likely to bring me out in a cold sweat! However, whatever we do in ministry building we surely aim to do in the lite of the God nosotros know every bit Three and yet One. Some years ago I played around with matching Max Weber's categorisations of types of authority (traditional, rational-legal and charismatic) with the three persons of the Trinity, Begetter, Son and Holy Spirit, and it seems to work, equally long as you don't endeavor to tie things in besides closely.
That's the problem with the Trinity—it's notoriously hard to comprehend and analyse as an idea. In that chapter I was simply trying to reflect on what we call leadership in the light of some the themes connected with Father (Creator), Son (Redeemer whose 'success' came through apparent failure), and Holy Spirit (who enlivens and inspires our visions of eternity). I'll leave it my readers to say if it works or not!
IP: You offer some quite trenchant criticism of some of the current approaches of the C of E to mission and growth, including the Senior Leadership ('Light-green') report, Renewal and Reform, and Strategic Development Funding. How important exercise y'all think these are in the life of the church? Should they be dispensed with?
EI: I hope it is friendly, effective criticism. I actually back up much of the impetus behind such things as Renewal and Reform and the Strategic Evolution Fund (SDF), which is largely about helping the church to grow (with all the caveats about counting things above). My own Diocese has just received a large sum of money from the SDF to help grow the church across Cumbria. Merely the issues come when we try to apply models and structures from the world of business and economic science to the things of faith uncritically. Everything must exist passed through the crucible of the cross of Jesus. Nosotros demand theologians to be thinking about these things, also as managers.
That kind of rigorous theological and biblical thinking has non ever been in place when some of the reports and strategies of the past few years have been devised. What I worry nearly is the issue that misguided pressure and ambition in these spheres can have on ordinary ministers, ordinary churches, ordinary communities who maybe don't fit the large shiny paradigm of many of the earlier initiatives. I do think the church and particularly the central church institutions are learning as we go along, and there is a lot that is coming out more recently that is more nuanced and reflective, simply we need to keep request the questions.
IP: You don't shy away from the personal issues involved in ambition and leadership; alongside some delightful touches of humour, y'all share your personal experiences and challenges. How has writing this book affected and inverse you?
EI: I realise I've been quite open about some of my own story and ruminations in the book, merely I reckon that modelling appropriate vulnerability is important in leadership. Information technology's unsafe to pretend that 'senior' ( I have issue with that word in the book, only it's hard to discover a better ane) leaders are allowed from issues continued with ambition, comparing, disappointment, failure, ego, and and then on, and so I wanted to be honest about these things in myself.
I accept had to learn and re-learn that lesson almost living for an audition of I, and not comparing myself (for good or ill) with others unhelpfully. One of the aims of the volume is to name some of these often hidden and unspoken challenges that leaders face, so I wanted to include myself in that honesty.
And if people savour the humour —bang-up! Life is pretty funny well-nigh of the time later on all, isn't it?
IP: It is! Thanks very much for giving your time to answering these questions.
Ambition: what Jesus said well-nigh power, success and counting stuff was published by SPCK in Nov 2019.
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