Tag Archives: Leadership

Dear David

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Dear David,

Thanks so much for getting back in touch with me today. I must say it has been a while, about five years I think. I was so pleased to have a personal letter through my door from you because there is so much I would like to talk with you about and so much that you have a duty as leader to address. However….

I was a bit disappointed that you spent most (97%) of your letter talking about your “dreadful” colleagues and “awful” possible future colleagues. In fact it was as if you did not have anything of any substance to say at all! At one point you made what sounded like a promise, I was listening… “that one of the other parties would bankrupt the country.” How do you know this with such certainty, please write back and let me know? Otherwise it just sounds like you are in a bit of a panic. 
Then after a whole side of a4 you signed off. You had said nothing about what you would do. You made no apology for deep and wounding cuts in local government funding. You just wasted an entire letter putting everyone else down. Do you talk about everyone like this? If you do I don’t expect anyone will want to work with you again. Maybe you are just feeling a bit cross, try talking to someone, it might help. 
But then at the end of your letter a PS. Great I thought, maybe an invitation for feedback or a real promise. But no, you’re just asking me to vote for you by saying something trite about job creation…. On this occasion I think I will pass. Perhaps if you write back with some substance rather than just slagging, then I might change my mind. Do write again, just try not to leave it so long next time. 
By the way, thanks for running the country for the last few years. I am not joking, it’s a really tough job and someone has to do it. I don’t agree with large chunks of what you have done, but I am still grateful that you have taken the time to be a leader. Whatever happens this week please do one thing for me…. Remember to keep on taking holidays and time off, it is so key as a leader to get proper rest and don’t listen to the press or anyone else who tells you otherwise. Enough for now and hope to see you at the beach more often.
yours sincerely
Mark 

 

Policeman or Explorer?

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Each day I find a choice is placed in front of me. I can either be a policeman or an explorer. It seams as if there is no area of my life that is unaffected. Being a husband, dad, son, leader and friend, every place comes with an option.

Somehow being the policemen seems easier, especially when I am tired. My younger children need a clear set of boundaries and I can provide them. The box has been ticked, they have been parented. I get what feels like an easier life. But on other days the explorer takes over. Those days are filled with the unknown. Bears live under the stairs, experiments testing the laws of physics and fresh territory is taken as the outer reaches of space are conquered. Exploring is more costly, but way more fun.

As a leader there are rules, some of them are even quite important. But I do not lead for rules. When I choose to be a law enforcer, I crush people while demanding success. But stepping in to the unknown beyond the bounded safety net of legislation means that the land expands before my feet. Oh for the thrill of uncharted lands.

Policeman know and enforce the law.

Explorers know how to read the map and are willing to walk beyond the edge.

As a church leader, the safety net is to enforce the law, to protect the interests of the land owner. But this is death to me. I prefer the live in the uncharted world beyond the maps in the places where the lands are mapped beneath my feet. Exploring is better.

Social Volume

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There is so much noise.

Facebook, twitter, pinterest, bbc and then the latest youtube share. If you and a million others like it then it could change the world!

The social noise is loud and literally mind numbing. I am not wanting to socially disconnect, I just wonder how much of it I can really connect with authentically. Just because I don’t click “like” does not be I don’t care.

In leadership there is also a lot of noise. Everyone has an opinion and their is a need for their position to be “liked”. But what does the leader do when presented with a range of opinions?

Jesus somehow managed to cut through the noise and speak what’s needed. When the voices shouted loudly about the women caught in adultery, Jesus’ insight is, “he who is without sin should cast the first stone”.

Silence.

Then the thud of stones dropping to the ground and the pad of religious feet.

Jesus cuts through the noise and highlights her accusers sin but also challenges here to “go and sin no more”.

In all that is shared, knowing what’s important is the challenge. The same is true in leadership, the challenge is to know what’s really important in the midst of a lot of noise.

Change is here to stay

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Often people fear change. The familiarity of an event or place provide comfort and security. But change is constant.

If you don’t believe it try holding your breath.

Yes as some point you had to breath. New air into you body, cell dying and growing. You can help but change because you are alive.

In the local church the prevailing culture is often that of maintaining things as they are. Keeping the worship as it alway has been, whatever that was. Making sure the building is preserved for future generations. Even sitting in the same places each week.

The problem with this as in any organisation is that things are suppose to grow. This is especially true of the church which is not about about a building but a living body of people. Living things grow or they die. That mean change for the church is here to stay.

Lets be practical for a moment about how this change occurs and the routes a leader takes in bringing change.

Route one. Consult, and plan for gradual change.

The danger here is that by the time it has been implemented the church will have died and society moved on.

Route two. See a different future (vision) and start to walk towards it right now.

The danger is that some people will not like it and will leave. This has to be OK otherwise we would never get much done. The fruit is often that the people who did not want the change in the first place will come round it time. Great news because now you have moved things on and some of those who where slow on the take up have come with you rather than died.

Lastly and most importantly, follow the Holy Spirit and his timing. If he is in it then change will be fruitful.

The Focus of Leadership

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Leadership in the local church is often problematic. You are largely working with a volunteer organisation, often with little resource and in the current climate are not much valued by society. To make matters worse, leadership in the local church is often lonely. So what are the key things that can make a leader effective even in difficult circumstances?

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. John 13:3 NLT

Know the focus of your leadership

What is it that you have been asked to lead and what are the boundaries? Seek to work within those limits rather that fight against things that you have not been charged with. Frustrations over things that are beyond your control will not make for fruitfulness. Jesus understood that he had been given authority, clearly our patch is smaller, but he also chose to exercise this authority inline with identity and vision.

Know the focus of your identity

If our identity is bound up with other people we will quickly become people pleasers. However if the root of our being is found in God the Father we will seek to please him rather than being overwhelmed with the fear of people. In the local church there will always be pressure groups and centres of power who are attempting to hold back the life of God’s kingdom. Jesus knew his Father from whom he had come. To keep us from fear we should know him who has adopted us into his family with amazing grace.

Know the focus of the vision

The danger in the local church is to focus on something that is far too small. Things that are important to the people, pastoral care, comforting words and worship. The local church desires chaplains to walk each step with them. But the calling is to be leaders in mission. The anglican priests charge is for the “cure of souls for the parish”. The vision has to focus on those who are not yet following Jesus. To see and reach into all that the church is becoming with the people who have not yet come. Jesus knew where he was going and that it would not be popular. He had his heart set on the unpopular because his focus was on the bigger vision. The Kingdom of God is huge and expanding our vision should be nothing less.