Faith Venture

Leadership in the past age.

The empty tomb. The realization slowly penetrates their confused minds. The ministry is not over. It has only just begun.

The eleven leaders and however many other disciples realized what the message was. It took a few days to digest. I don’t blame them. I like to digest new ideas for a little while until I see all the possibilities.

I wrote recently about succession planning. Sometimes people do not grow into leadership until they actually have to be leaders. Their mentors may have seen the potential. Potential cannot turn into reality until one actually goes to work on it.

Walter Russell Mead is a thinker. Mostly he writes on politics. He’s sort of conservative, but I’m not always sure. This is a good thing. But he has a Christian heritage and writes on the church. Recently, he wrote on the state of Christian leadership–pastoral education. The eleven, he writes, could not have gotten a job in most any church today. You see, they didn’t have a piece of paper telling the world that they had graduated from a seminary.

Their seminary was part from a mentor (OK, the best mentor) and part from the “school of hard knocks” as we used to say. But over the past many years, we have developed the idea that priests and pastors (and Christian educators, music directors, missionaries, and so on) must be educated. It’s like an MBA for churches.

And Christian leadership has become a salaried staff position. Salary, benefits, position in the hierarchy, perks. Once upon a time, I was on the Ohio state Board of Trustees for a Protestant denomination. While attending my first meeting with the others trying to gage who I was and being a young man, most asked me, “What church do you pastor?” None, I replied. I’m a product development manager in industry. Hmmm, they thought.

Mead writes, “It’s time for new leaders with vision and imagination to take the church beyond the blue [his term for an old way of thinking, big institutions, etc.]. Since the colonial era, the genius of American Christianity has lain in the ability of new generations of Christian leaders to reinvent institutions, find an authentic theological stance and voice that appeals to each new generation, and put Christianity in the forefront of individual lives and social challenges from age to age.

“Theology can be debated; liberal, conservative, protestant, catholic, fundamentalist, modernist. There is much to be said for each of these positions, and the debates need to continue.

“But there’s a much more critical difference: the difference between life and death. There is a lot of dead wood in American Christian institutions today, and the carters are coming to clear it away.”

Is it time for people who have talent and are nurtured to assume more leadership in the Christian movement? People like most of us who read this blog? Time for us to stand up and be the leaders we should be–and nurturing and mentoring the next generation–to proclaim the resurrected Christ to the world? Just do it.

Jesus was an enigma to his contemporaries. No one figured him out. Even today, people have a tough time figuring him out.

Sometimes he was a teacher in the Wisdom tradition. Many of the sayings he taught came straight from the book of Proverbs. Sometimes he gave sayings with a twist–as in adding “mind” to the Shema, and then adding the second commandment “like the first” to love your neighbor.

But he didn’t look like a Wisdom teacher when he acted out his inner Old Testament prophet. As in his last week. He cursed the fig tree that was barren. Like the prophets of earlier time, this was a prophetic act of pointing out the barrenness of religious life under the leaders of the day. And the symbolic act of driving out the money changers and merchants from the Temple.

Sometimes a person just has to be strong. Send a message. He was thoroughly disgusted with the state of religion in his day.

We can learn from this. Even today, we have religious leaders who are exposed as shallow chasers of power and wealth. Who bow to prevailing political winds rather than living out the Gospel of Jesus.

Worth pondering as we approach Easter. What do we place above having an intimate, passionate relationship with our God?

I will be taking a few days to hike in the hills of southern Ohio. There is no Internet at the lodge. They say mobile phones work only intermittently. I’ll take a Sabbath for reflection, if you will, before the Easter celebration.

Who knows where those thoughts emerge from? Is it just me?

Listening to the outstanding Palm Sunday cantata by our choir Sunday that traced through some of Jesus’ last week, the thought popped into my mind–succession planning.

Yes, this is an essential leadership function. None of us last forever. We need to plan for the next generation of leadership. It’s on my mind relative to the soccer referee association that I have led for many years. Now, I’m about to take on a new ministry at church and among my first planning thoughts are how to recruit a successor.

So, Jesus. After that thought (we know from the Gethsemane story) about “what did I get myself into?”, must have come the thought “did I do a good job of succession planning?”

After all, he knew they would scatter. He told Peter that he would deny knowing him three times that very night. John seemed to be more steady, but he was more the intellectual and less the blustery, forceful leader. The movement needed both.

He devoted the better part of three years in succession planning. Now he was facing death. Would they be ready?

We’re the next generation that’s preparing yet another generation. Are we ready? Will they be?

I’m sure the doubt was momentary. Of course he did a good job. And we know that people usually grow into their new leadership roles. Unsteady at first until they find their footing and voice. That first generation went from cowardice and uncertainty to be powerful. They set the pattern.

I’m encouraged by the early leadership of Pope Francis. I pray that many, many other Christian leaders emulate that leadership. Which seems to be of a piece handed down from the master leader.

Newly elected Pope Francis.

Congratulations to the Roman Catholic Church for such a quick consensus around a new leader. Such a quick consensus shows that Pope Francis is well known and highly regarded by his colleagues. He’s not a Vatican insider. Reaching out signals a willingness to try to change the Church.

I have been traveling and in meetings the past two days, so I’m a little behind in news and study. But following a page from Bill Hybels and my schedule that I wrote about recently, I put on my schedule meetings with Wyatt and Arianna (5 and 3 years old, respectively). Gotta do that once in a while. Oh, had some business meetings, too.

Most of my information comes from unreliable sources–ABC, CNN, The New York Times–but the consensus of the reports about Francis’ lifestyle and leadership are heartening to me. I have great respect for Benedict. He has a brilliant theological mind. But he also was a Vatican insider.

What I’ve read about Francis is that he exhibits a humble leadership by example and a passion for bringing the Church into the 21st Century. Certainly there is a crisis of confidence in the Catholic church as there is within all most all Christendom. Whether we are Catholic or not, the Pope is a leading spokesperson for the faith. He’s an important leader.

We read and write much about new styles of leadership, but humans being humans, we just can’t seem to bridge the gap from the old authoritarian models (“Teamwork means you all doing what I say”) with the trappings of wealth and power to a model of humble leadership. At 76 years of age, I would think that Francis should be pretty well comfortable in his style and remain uncorrupted by the pomp and circumstance foisted off on leaders by the bureaucracy.

I grew up with the mantra that if only women gained power in organizations then things would be different. I have yet to see that happen. The difference between women and men when achieving great power in large organizations seems negligible right now. Maybe a 76-yr-old celibate male priest can show the way.

I hope so.

Would you follow the leadership of someone who is consistent, has a consistent message, who keeps confidentialities? Or a micro-manager who manipulates, cannot make a decision, is emotionally volatile?

The second (and last, really) good point Simon Sinek makes in his book “Start with Why” is the value of trust.

He uses two stories from the airline industry–Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines and Gordon Bethune of Continental (now United). He also uses the examples without the irony of time.

Kelleher posited the notion “that it is the company’s responsibility to look after the employees first. Happy employees ensure happy customers, he said. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders–in that order.”

Bethune shared that notion. When he became CEO in 1994, he said, “I could see Continental’s biggest problem the second I walked in the door. It was a crummy place to work. You can’t have a good product without people who like coming to work.”

And Bethune succeeded. (Note: I fly Continental/United, in fact I’m Premier Platinum this year.) The company’s performance improved dramatically and it was a good enough place to work that a loyal passenger like me noticed.

But… The board of directors eventually decided that they needed a cost cutter CEO and moved Bethune to retirement and brought in a finance guy (I call them “bean counters”) Larry Kellner. It didn’t take an entire year for him to begin to reverse all the policies and attitudes that made Bethune successful. He was succeeded by a mergers and acquisitions attorney Jeff Smisek when the board moved toward a merger/acquisition with United–a failed airline that was as bad as Bethune’s “crummy place to work.” And Smisek drove employee attitudes further down. Although neither could succeed in making it as bad as United.

Trust takes time to build. It can be destroyed in an instant.

When you are building a team in your church, parish or organization, better to study Bethune and Kelleher (same story with Sam Walton and his successors, by the way).

And for Biblical inspiration, study Nehemiah. He was a leader.

Great leaders inspire by communicating why the organization exists. So says Simon Sinek in his book, “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action.” Actually the book is surprisingly poorly written–should have been an article, rather than a book. Or, yet, it’s better as a short talk–as his appearance at the TED Talks generated millions of views.

His idea is insightful. Why do you work in the church? In fact, why do you work anywhere? If you are a leader in your church, why does your function exist?

I was reflecting on Paul’s letters–yep, all of them. He was the consummate organizer. Think about it. He had a “why”.

Micromanaging kills enthusiasm. Just filling a spot in a program kills enthusiasm. Just heard a story about a many who was moved by guilt and other manipulative tactics to take on leadership of a children’s class at church. He really didn’t like working with kids. He really wasn’t a teacher. Although a successful businessman, he failed miserably as a children’s teacher. He didn’t have a “why”, just a “what” that was filling a spot and reading the curriculum.

This week, define your why. If it doesn’t inspire, find something that does.

You volunteer to work for an organization–say a church or charity. You work somewhere to earn money to live. If you are a leader, especially of a church or charitable organization, you find yourself constantly recruiting to fill positions.

One of the talks I listened to while working out this week was by a senior pastor of a large church. He was talking about some techniques a pastor might use to recruit people to fill positions in the church. He might use guilt, for example. Or peer pressure.

Then I had another conversation this week about church leadership. She told me that she’s discovered that church leaders must begin with a foundation in the Holy Spirit. Only then can you feel called to serve. She was on to something. Manipulation only works in the short term and eventually breeds an environment of people doing what they don’t want to do only out of a sense of being talked into it. Not much moving of the Spirit there.

I have begun reading Simon Sinek’s book, “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action.” I’ve watched his TED Talk. It’s powerful. Last night I read, “There are a few leaders who chose to inspire rather than manipulate in order to motivate people.”

His emphasis seemed to be on “a few” as in “not many” or “not nearly enough.”

Manipulation may be conscious or it may be just a person’s life orientation. Maybe the leader doesn’t know why, either. Sinek talks about What an organization does (which most people know), How an organization does What (which many people know), and Why an organization exists (which few people seem to know and can articulate).

A friend of mine recently wrote on his blog asking why people join professional associations.

I’d ask in this context, Why do you volunteer for church or charity work? When you recruit and lead, do you know Why your organization does what it does? Can you be passionate about doing what you do if you don’t know Why?

One of the twelve regular readers of this blog mentioned she liked it when I discuss leadership. I started thinking about this last night as I was refereeing a soccer (football for my international readers) match played by 16-17 year old boys.

Ever watch youth soccer–or other youth sports, for that matter? Look at the coach and look at the team. What I’ve seen countless times is that the team can take on certain personality traits from the coach. Particularly if the traits are negative. If you get a coach that whines and complains constantly, usually you’ll get a team that whines and complains constantly. If you get a coach who is more even-tempered (or knowledgeable), you get at most only one or two kids on the team who need to “act out” as psychologists love to put it these days.

What about other leadership? If the leaders are dysfunctional, don’t you usually see a dysfunctional organization? If the leaders are on a power trip, don’t you see either politics or angst among the people in the organization?

The problem with choosing Jesus as your leader is that he had no fault. He modeled his teaching. Just like Paul kept modeling what a perfect church would look like. But with Jesus, about as close as we get to seeing him acting human was when he cursed the fig tree between Bethany and Jerusalem just before he was killed. That must have been so surprising to his followers that they retold the story enough to get it written in the Gospels.

With Jesus as the leader, we have no excuses. He wasn’t dysfunctional. He didn’t whine and complain. He wasn’t on a power trip.

Now, if we could just be like him.

Sorry I missed the Tuesday installment. Only had a couple of reprimands, though. With all the travel I do, I am never able to achieve a good routine. It was a great day for my professional side, though.

I’m thinking again about the post I wrote from <a href=”http://www.northpoint.org/podcasts”>Andy Stanley’s latest leadership podcast</a>. He was talking about leadership through change in an organization. These ideas also fit us on a personal level.

Remember he talked about having a mission/vision, model and doing or outcome. In our personal life, as well as organizational leadership, we need to cultivate these things.

Do you have a personal mission? A vision of what you want to be when you grow up? As crazy as this may seem, from my youth I had a vision of myself growing old gracefully. Achieving a level of fitness. Keeping mentally sharp and perpetually curious. Add some darn good genes, and few people meet me and suspect my age (which I’m not sharing). I have others. Always wanted to write. I do that. Help others, especially young people and older people. Anyway, you get the idea. What’s yours?

I once heard a story about modeling. Just as I’ve been talking lately about how Paul describes what a good church looks like, we need to describe to ourselves what we should be like in our thoughts and actions. There is a story about a top football (American style) athelete, Herschel Walker. He was a fabulous running back in both college and in the pros. Athletes watch lots of videos. At the high levels–of themselves. Often with coaches criticizing how they performed. In Walker’s case, he watched only his good runs. They were then thoroughly embedded in his mind so that when he was called on to perform, his brain was progammed to do the right thing.

Just so, we need to program our minds and bodies to do the right thing so that when the opportunity arises for us to act, think and talk, we can do so in an appropriate way.