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Posts Tagged: leadership
October 1, 2009
Leaders Must Be Willing To Take The Wheel
Leadership
Leadership is not an option! Some say it is, but they are seriously, seriously wrong. No, that’s not a typo! I said “THEY ARE WRONG!” Some may even try to advance the great-sounding idea that everyone in the organization is a leader! That’s wrong too! I’ll repeat it, with feeling: “THAT’S WRONG TOO!” Sure, there could be multiple leaders within a group, community, or organization, but is every single person within the organization capable of being or even becoming an organizational leader? No, of course not! Organization requires defined and capable leadership to function properly. Influential community will not develop within a leaderless vacuum. A leaderless vacuum could spawn some sort of limited group, but influential it will not be! So, the question is not “Why leadership?” We all know why we need leaders, and our need for leaders is so obvious, as are the many, many reasons for this need. So, the big, big question is not “Why,” but rather “How … to do leadership!” Read more…
September 22, 2009
Church Unity and Transformation in Five Easy Steps
The Liberation of Detrimental Systems of Belief
Churches are constantly faced with ethical or moral issues that seem to require total consensus. These issues and the sort of conversations and decisions that usually follow should not be taken lightly. More often than not they require an “official declaration” of position or stance that is delivered by the pastor or leadership. “What is our policy on this issue?” is the inevitable question that reverberates throughout the community and seems to demand an answer. Unfortunately, many members of the community think the answer or answers to such questions can only be found in unanimity; fortunately, the Kingdom of God thrives neither on static uniformity, nor exhaustive unanimity. Therefore, the role of any leader(s) within the community revolves around the need to raze the dividing walls of existing concepts of “like-mindedness” and then help community members see that like-mindedness can, does, and should include a divergence of opinions, convictions, and positions. Said differently, a Gospel-centered community can in fact be in agreement – or like-minded – as concerns the potential of divergent positions on any number of issues within the community. A community that embraces divergent opinions, stances, and positions is a “like-minded” community! We can agree to disagree on any number of issues and still be a unified community! Read more…
May 30, 2009
Finding Your Preaching Voice
Preaching is a craft. It is art. Preaching is also something that is learned. Communicating truth in a relevant, persuasive and engaging way is something we all must learn how to do. Most of us are not very good at it at first. Truth be told, most of us are absolutely horrible at preaching straight out of the gate. It doesn’t matter how many theology, bible, or homiletics classes we have logged in school; preaching well every Sunday morning is only learned by preaching every Sunday morning. It takes practice. Great communicators became great communicators by letting last Sunday’s flop of a sermon die and totally focusing their attention on next Sunday’s. Great communicators admit failure, then pick themselves up off the floor, and find the resolve to give it one more shot. It’s a lot like a shampoo: “Wash, rinse, repeat,” and one day you will suddenly discover that your hair looks full-of-body awesome and that you aren’t really that bad at preaching either. Read more…
April 20, 2009
Life and Leadership Lesson Number 2: Don’t Go Shopping for Figs at Best Buy!
Some places don’t have what you are looking for; some people don’t have what you need. We would save ourselves much time, energy and personal frustration if we only would acknowledge and act decisively upon this everyday truth. And the everyday truth of the matter is this: You know what you want, and you know if it is really being offered or not, and you have to start making decisions accordingly! That’s it! Why would you waste your time going to Best Buy if you are looking for fresh figs? You wouldn’t, right? Why then do you waste so much of your time looking for other important life-things in all of the wrong places? Why? Read more…
March 10, 2009
Challenge for Today’s Church Leaders
“America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found,” according to a new survey published by CNN.
The above statement is exactly why I’m not afraid of leading our church community towards the really, really tough questions on Sunday mornings. We need to seriously wrestle with our faith, and to do so we need to lean hard into the really big questions with honesty and transparency. The decline of Christianity in this country is in fact directly related to (though not limited to) church leadership’s petrifying fear of honest and real-time wrestling with very, very difficult questions. This decline also has something to do with church leadership’s penchant for silly, hackneyed, and sometimes completely ridiculous answers for the careful handful of semi-difficult questions towards which it only tosses partial answers in the misused name of belief. Instead of playing it so detrimentally safe, and looking like complete tools to sensible onlookers everywhere, we should just toss the trite image of church we have in our piously-fragile little minds and start to focus all of our energies upon the immediate and two-fold task at hand: Honesty and Authentic Relevancy (not to be confused with the buzz-word relevancy). Read more…
February 14, 2009
Life and Leadership Lesson Number 1: Learn How to Relax and Enjoy the Ride!
So much of life is lived in the future or past tense. In other words, the vast majority of us spend nearly all of our time regretting past decisions or thinking about what we hope to accomplish at some point in the distant future. Few of us live long enough in the present – the here and now – to actually appreciate and enjoy what is going on within us and all round us. We miss so much of life because we are either looking back, or looking far ahead. It’s tough – if not impossible – to actually relax when you are so preoccupied with rubbernecking the swinging pendulum that is yesterday and tomorrow. Read more…
January 30, 2009
7 Truths Leading to Solid Organization
An organization has one immediate goal: To communicate the message to the target audience! That is the number one organizational goal. All organizational investments and actions should be directed towards the fulfillment of that goal. Everything in the organization – from the top down and from the bottom up – revolves around the successful execution of this goal. That said, it should be noted that this goal is actually founded upon organizational presuppositions that assume 1.) An Organizational Message and 2.) An Audience. If an organization has neither, then the very idea of organization is a contextual oxymoron and the following will be totally inapplicable if not completely useless. You need a message and you need an audience. If you have neither, then stop reading now and hit reset. Read more…
January 7, 2009
Effective Leaders Bend But Do Not Break
Leadership styles vary. This is a good thing because situations requiring leadership are as varied, if not more so. Effective leaders are quick on their feet. They must be able to bob n’ weave in and out and around a number of different leadership styles if the big vision is going to be fulfilled in real time. In addition to the varied situations leaders confront regularly, there is also the incurably diverse group of people to whom the leader’s call to follow is announced. Leaders obviously can’t fulfill the big vision all by themselves; they need people to follow them if the vision is going to be realized. Effective leaders must be able to connect with each diverse member of the team in a way that not only articulates vision, but also empowers. This sort of connection requires flexibility and style. Read more…
December 3, 2008
The Catalyst, The Champion, and The CEO
Are you a CEO, Catalyst, or Champion? “There is a difference?” you ask. Yes there is! Each one of these terms represents a specific leadership style or organizational approach. You may in fact be one of them; you may not be any of them! Knowing what you are and/or are not is half the battle in leadership, of course. So, let’s dive headlong into it and explore some specific characteristics inherent to each of these titles and, of course, the people who happily sport them. Read more…