10 Questions for Leaders: Jonathan LeTocq

Jonathan leads Church on the Rock in Guernsey and is one of the most interesting pastors I know. A gifted musician, linguist, avid reader, politician, beautiful family - Jonathan is a talented man. And this is one of the most interesting set of answers to my 10 questions that I've had...

Who is your leadership hero? Why?
This often changes depending on what I am reading or doing at certain times in my life. When I was heavily involved with politics the determination and vision of Wilberforce was a terrific inspiration. Currently I’m reflecting on my Methodist roots somewhat so the Wesleys (both John and Charles) are great sources of encouragement; I try to read John Wesley’s journals once a year – I find John’s views and observations at the same time amazing and amusing, and his strategic, down-to-earth approach to spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom seems always fresh and applicable. Then in my personal devotions I sometimes like to use an old hymn-book for meditation and worship, often sitting at the piano, playing and singing through the old melodies and poems which tell of God’s grace through the ages. I am currently working through an ancient Primitive Methodist Hymnal which is bulging with Charles Wesley’s wonderful hymns – theology in rhyme, rhythm and song.

How long have you been in leadership?
In various forms of non-full-time leadership since teen years at school – local preacher, worship leader, student ministry leader. Full-time lead-pastor since 1989, so 20 years now. Wow! Only seems like a couple of decades ago.

What was your first leadership role?
Probably when I was asked to be responsible for leading the music and singing for assembly at primary school. I was 8 I think! We had a violin, a guitar, various percussion instruments, three vocalists and a grand piano which I played. It was cutting edge, Castel Primary School … for the 1970s!

How long have you been in your current role?
21 years leading the Guernsey church.

How long has your church been established? Did you start it?
The first ‘incarnation’ of the church was in September 1983 when the Guernsey Christian Fellowship was formed. Whilst I was effectively one of the founder members I was at the beginning of studying for my degree in London , and so did not return to the island to live permanently until 1987. In 1988 we ‘re-established’ the church as the “King’s Church Guernsey” which was when I became the lead elder, and it was renamed “Church on the Rock” in 2007.

What has been the growth curve of your church?
The original Guernsey Christian Fellowship emerged in effect out of our old Methodist Youth Group. I recently found an old phone list from back then; there were 28 members, over half of them teenage girls still at school! Like seemed to attract like and so for many years the majority of the church was in their twenties with just a few babies and a few OAPs. When we bought our current facility (a disused Methodist building) we began to grow quite rapidly from about 75 to just over 200 regularly in attendance which we are today. The average age of the church is now around 34.

What has been your biggest leadership challenge?
For several reasons my biggest leadership challenge has been living and working in a small and peculiar place! 1) I am somewhat of a ‘prophet in my own town’. My family, the Le Tocqs are an ancient Norman family who have lived in Guernsey for over 800 years. In fact the earliest recorded mention of the family name indicated they were living around 500 yards from where we live today on the west coast. So either we found paradise and decided to stay put, or we’re not that adventurous. But there are certainly disadvantages being a familiar face in a small place over a fairly long period – it seems to require extra faith and grace, for me, but also for others! 2) Guernsey is a very small rock – 25 square miles to be precise – and although we have a population of around 60,000 it can get rather claustrophobic at times. At the same time we have our own independent government (we’re not part of the UK or EU) and a large off-shore finance sector which means the island can often feel like it has all the trappings of a capital city also. The Channel Islands are not easy to move to unless you’re born here, so we have many people who come and go every 2 to 5 years depending on their licence length. This makes building church awkward as many who would like to stay end up having to depart. 3) Guernsey is quite a religious place; there are 64 churches, 61 are protestant and around 30 of them would consider themselves as evangelical. Islanders did not welcome a new one with open arms in the 1980s! We had to really fight not to be treated as a cult. Purchasing our own building in 1994 actually really helped.

What has been your greatest leadership success?
Depends how you might view success. We are still married, and very happily so – which we consider to be a great leadership success judging by any statistics you’d care to use, particularly those involved with ministry and leading churches. Any other success is certainly below this on the satisfaction scale, though there are some! .

How are you developing new leaders?
Firstly through personal discipleship – for me this means training men in prayer and the handling word of God primarily, then learning to be accountable to each other in matters of character. We meet together weekly early morning for this element in their development. Secondly I invite them alongside myself, or another existing leader, accompanying me when I minister, pray for people, preach, teach or lead worship especially in other places if possible. We then discuss what went on afterwards which is a great help to me too. Thirdly I like to expose them to responsibility early on to test their calling and gifting; this may involve leading a homegroup, a ministry team, running an event, as well as preaching, teaching, leading worship or ‘anchoring’ a church service. And last, but not least, we make as much use as we can (bearing in mind the travel costs associated with the rock we live on) of the training available through Newfrontiers training bases. For us London and Bournemouth are the key ones where we have really good relationships and most of our trainees go to either of these.

How are you continuing to develop your own leadership gifts?
I spent 8 years from 2000 as a member of Guernsey ’s parliament – the States of Guernsey. When I stood for election in 2000 I did so knowing that was what God wanted of me, but had no idea how much of a learning experience it would be when I was elected! In the following years I realised just how out of touch I had become with the culture around us – in fact it dawned on me that I had spent the previous few years not only primarily amongst Christians but also amongst Christian leaders as I was heavily involved with establishing Newfrontiers churches in France as well as with churches, conferences and pastors in the UK and the Channel Islands as I was heading up the Guernsey Evangelical Alliance, and joint president of Churches Together in Guernsey, running Bible Weekends and leading worship at various events. This was all good stuff but I was not being stretched and developed in helping build people for mission in the world because I was largely out of touch with it myself! When I became a politician (which took up on average two days of my week for 8 years) I was suddenly thrust into an environment where the language was different (cursing and blasphemy was rife), I had to work hard to win respect, in fact I was somewhat distrusted as an evangelical Christian and minister (“…either a Paisley” commented one MP who became a friend later “or a check-your-brains-out-by-the-door-happy-clappy freak”) and I learnt fast – and enjoyed it. Pretty soon I realised that contrary to what I had believed God did not essentially put me there to win debates but rather to win hearts and minds. By 2007 trust had grown to such a degree that I was appointed Deputy Finance Minister and narrowly missed out on being elected Guernsey ’s Chief Minister. Although I chose not to stand in our General Election of 2008 I still continue to lead Guernsey’s Parliamentary Prayer breakfast which meets monthly with about a quarter of MPs attending, and have now many friends in government whom I continue to meet with socially. Entering politics has been by far the best tutor for me in the area of leadership gift development in recent years.