I would say that CCC has dominated at skills and training BECAUSE we are a apostolic leadership enterprise--at our heart we are called to give leaders what they need to accomplish the mission.
In the modern era, that was skill-based training. In the postmodern era, I believe it's going to be capacity-driven training.
An expectation that I have rarely seen realized is that I will be 'discipled' or that I will be able to 'disciple others' This may happen on occasion, but has not been part of the CCC culture.
When I think of my 'discipleship' as leadership training, and discipling others as 'training leaders,' all of a sudden everything falls into place. I no longer expect pastoral-type experiences from my leaders and seek those from pastorally-gifted people (some in CCC, most outside), and no longer try to function pastorally with those I lead, and encourage them to pursue other people in the body for shepherding.
It's not a cop-out for me at all or justifying my experience; it's more of a coming to grips with the reality of one part of our organization.
I agree that pragmatism proves to be a continual internal hindrance to CCC ministering out of the Spirit. I'm sure Brian Virtue could flush this out much better than me, but I can see how pragmatism negatively impacts our effectiveness. Brian said this:
"A lot of the discipleship and spiritual leadership I've seen in CCC has been pragmatism and programs "in the power of the Spirit."
Brian is a great friend and has been the most influential spiritual leader in my life; he 'discipled' me during my freshmen year at UCLA, and then worked hard to get me on a summer project that he was staffing where I ended up meeting my wife! Read his blog or follow him on Twitter!
