Healthy People = Healthy Leaders

Well, today I took the plunge. I stepped out and did it. I've been offering excuse after excuse after excuse as to why I didn't have time to do it. I was too busy, to tired, unwell, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But today I looked at my excuses, turned my back on them, and walked straight up to that....eliptical, got on and sweated. Yes, today I started working out again. Now this might sound silly, but the sad part is that it's rediculously true.


You see, I started thinking about my life. Here I am serving God as a pastor in a large, growing, contemporary church. I'm going to school to complete a dream I've had for sometime now. I'm training and consulting with churches around the country on what it means to be an equipping church. But I'm failing miserably. I'm failing in seeing myself and my family as vital components in making all these things a reality. First off, If "self" isn't cared for, then none of these other wonderful things can or will happen. But equally important, if the foundation of my family becomes compromised, then everything else begins to fall apart.

Now, I'm not saying my family is compromised...not yet anyway. But if I don't STOP, then yes, they will be. However, I'm saying that what I now see is that I've neglected self in an effort to serve others. I've been spending time in the office doing the "lord's business" or spending time with others in an effort to minister to them, and this has replaced the necessity to take care of myself so I can be fully healthy to reach out in ministry to others. This has got to stop...GOT TO!

Today I began to stop. I began the process of stopping by going to the gym and sweating. I cannot tell you how good I felt when I left. Almost a new man. But the true test is what happens tomorrow...well we'll just have to wait and see.

The point I'm trying to make is this. If we claim to be equipping leaders and we are so busy equipping, developing, empowering and releasing God's people, AND YET, we are not "equipping" ourselves OR our families, then what good are we? We've missed out on our first priorities. Equipping leadership is just as much about self care as it is about others care. We can try to "take care of others" all we want to, but when it comes down to it, if we're not taking care of ourselves, then we've missed the boat all together.

Well, I'm off. I still haven't taken a shower since coming back from the gym. I don't think I will just yet either. It might be good for me to sit in my sweat and get use to it. It's going to happen alot more from now on.

Some Roles of Equipping Leaders

As an equipping leader, there are times that you and I have to wear various hats. We put on the hat of trainer, or facilitator when needed. At times, we must wear the hat of coach or mentor. Other times require that we communicate or speak with authority. There are even times when we must challenge the status quo of our culture and speak with boldness as to what God has placed within us. This means that as we actively participate in the transitioning of our church culture, we must wear the hat of Challenger.

More often than I can recount for you, I have sat back during a meeting and bit my tongue as I listened to a discussion that either went against the grain of equipping leadership, or someone made a comment that did so. Too often, I have left those meetings fuming because no one in “leadership” spoke up and corrected this issue, only to find out that I was the one in leadership who should have spoken up and said, “stop!” I found my own finger pointing at myself!

As equipping leaders, there are times when we must stand up in the face of opposition or even silence and speak the truth, as we know it. No one else will speak your truth but you, and if it is never spoken, then people will never know. And if we choose to “not rock the boat” or take the “easy path”, skipping altogether the conflict that would probably occur as we hold people’s “feet to the fire”, then we need not ever complain about people not “getting it” or not living into the equipping message.

It’s up to you! We can hide all we want to behind the excuse: “if my Senior Pastor would just speak up”, and miss the opportunity God has given us to speak. We must stop waiting on others to speak the message that God has prepared us to speak. Speak up, or keep your mouth shut!

Equipping leaders must be courageous, choosing the path that few in the church world have chosen, speaking up for truth and holding our direct reports, colleagues, and yes even our Senior Leadership, accountable to the equipping leadership paradigm. As we speak the truth in love, we will be providing the necessary challenge to leaders, to become better at preparing God’s people, ultimately beginning to make the transition toward an equipping church.

One of the most effective ways to participate in the positive transitioning of culture is to act as a Trainer and Facilitator with the staff and congregants that we are serving alongside.

Have you ever been talking with someone and you are sharing some key learning that you have appropriated into your life or ministry, only to have the person that you are speaking with give you a blank stare or a very recognizable “what in the heck are you talking about” look? If you are an equipping leader, then I am sure that you have seen many of these looks. But what do you do about them?

An equipping leader must be a trainer of sorts. We must be willing and equipped ourselves, to stand in the presence of people – direct reports, colleagues or supervisors – and take every opportunity afforded us, as an opportunity to train and teach others, especially in the face of “blank stares.” There are leaders in your church right now who have no clue as to how to equip other people, how to build teams, how to delegate responsibilities or how to train non-paid people. It is our responsibility to share the practical “how to’s” of equipping with these people, regularly providing them with opportunities for discussion and practice, which leads to individual growth and development. But how you might be asking? Through training.

As an equipping leader, you are training in everything you do and say. When people observe you in leadership situations, you are training. When you are leading your team, you are training. When you are interacting with colleagues, you are training. Now, you can choose to acknowledge this opportunity or trivialize it, and either this opportunity will be turned into a learning moment, or it will be missed altogether.

As you focus on taking advantage of these opportunities, here are three ways to do so:

See every opportunity as a time to train. Do not miss or overlook the chance to train people that you are interacting with. Granted, it may not be specialized training or a dedicated training time, but learning can still occur if we take advantage of the time.

Ask the question: What can we learn (from what will or just happened)? This is a key question that every equipping leader should keep handy at all times. This question can be asked in a variety of settings: After a discussion, or meeting; before, during or after a conference, teaching session or sermon; after a conflict situation; or during or after a successful or challenged event or program, to name a few.

Repeat back, as often as necessary. Keeping with the first suggestion, to “see every opportunity as a time to train”, one way to do this is to regularly repeat back what you just heard or what you think a key learning for you or the group is. This will provide consistent refocusing as you attempt to create a “learning culture” within your church leadership.

These are just a few of the many ways that we can train the leadership within our churches. You may not have been given the designation of “staff trainer”, but this does not relinquish you from the responsibility to constantly point people toward a more thorough embodiment of Ephesians 4 and the responsibility of all leaders to equip God’s people.

As Equipping Leaders, we are consistently interacting with other highly qualified and incredibly gifted leaders. They are experts in their own specific areas of ministry service. We have the wonderful opportunity to peer into their lives and speak truth that will assist them in becoming equipping leaders, thus achieving their God call and fulfilling their biblical responsibility.

The challenge is that this can be done one of two ways: One, we could speak as “sages on the stage”. This assumes that we know more about equipping leadership than others, and therefore, they just need to sit back and listen up. The second way would be to share as “guides alongside,” where the assumption is that we are speaking to intelligent people who probably know more than we think they do, so our approach is to listen, ask lots of questions and then make simple suggestions.

3 Pillars of Building an Equipping Church

As we reflect theologically—as we tell our stories together and rehearse the “God-story,” as we communicate our vision as Equipping Leaders we must be fully conscious of laying a foundation for The Equipping Church in our contexts. As we look at a fully realized Ephesians 4 church, there are three critical pillars that support this “building,” or “structure.” As these pillars are built, the entire framework that is in place to support an equipping culture will be effectively created. Without one of these three critical pillars, the entire system becomes destabilized, and the culture cannot be fully established.

The first critical pillar is what we call Culture. For a church organism to embrace the biblical model of Ephesians 4 ministry, effectively returning to how this organism was created in the first place, then there must be some environmental and cultural changes that affect the whole organism.

The second critical pillar is what we call Systems. Therefore, the Equipping Leader must be a “systems creator.”

So very few people in our churches are focused on developing the invisible systems needed to support the infrastructure within our rapidly growing congregations. Many people, however, are consistently coming up with new and exciting ideas, with the desire to implement them “yesterday.” This is a wonderful challenge to have, and an equally incredible opportunity for us to step up and provide equipping leadership in these instances.

We must be the individuals, whether we are systems minded or not, calling others to think through the systems necessary to support all that we do in serving people. We must consistently “push the envelope” by asking the tough system questions:

- What is the system we need in place to support this new endeavor? What about the ministries we already offer, do they have support systems?
- What opportunities need to be slowed down, put on hold, or stopped altogether, in an effort to create the needed systems?
- How are we going to gather information?
- In what ways will we store and use the information gathered?
- What is the communication plan before, during and after the “event”?
- How and who does follow-up?
- What is the next step we want to take after the “event”, to support people?

As equipping leaders, when we are keenly focused on asking these hard questions – issues that most leaders will tend to overlook – we are assisting in creating the infrastructure necessary to support people. In doing so, we are helping to create a more effectively functioning and fully realized equipping church.

The final pillar that is needed to effective support an Ephesians 4 church is Team. The Equipping Leader must be a Team Builder. A key attribute that distinguishes equipping leaders from ALL other leaders is our ability to build people and focus on the development of effective teams. These teams work together to accomplish the vision of Ephesians 4. We must model for our colleagues, direct reports and supervisors what working through people really looks like, by showing the practical implications of teamwork.

For this to occur, we must first and foremost make a personal, conscious choice in our leadership paradigm to focus on developing people, pouring ourselves into them, allowing them to fulfill their calling and giftedness and working with them to accomplish great things for God. If this does not start with us, then it will never work its way down through our churches, transforming the very way we choose to “do” ministry.

Our transition also requires a “who-first” rather than a “what-first” focus. We lead against the “current” when our first priority is the care and development of people, regardless of what they can do or accomplish. Serving together ONLY comes after we are growing in deep and caring relationships. In the last 5 years that I have been working together with my team, we have truly accomplished some staggering things, but our accomplishments cannot compare to the sense that we are all connected, and beyond what we do, we are family.

We must be clear, as well, that the purpose of team-based ministry is NOT to make church governance and processes run more smoothly and efficiently—although productivity and efficiency will be by-products of team ministry. Moving toward forming teams is not done for the purpose of easing the workload on the pastor or unencumbering a committee-heavy structure. Team-based ministry is not a means to grow the church, ease workload, or solve governance problems! Team-based ministry is a Biblical approach to equipping the saints for the work of the ministry and releasing the potential within the Body of Christ. Team-based ministry says to each and every person in the church: “You are a gifted child of God, and your contribution is needed and valued in this community.” Team-based ministry takes seriously the metaphor of the Body as the image of Christ’s Church—a living organism in which each member performs his or her God-designed function.

If you have been tempted to pass over this key equipping leader focus, then let me remind you that nothing is as important as caring for, developing, and seeing people released to fulfill their God-given destiny. When this is done, then we as equipping leaders truly become “team builders” and we assist in the creation of this culture within our churches.

Equipping Leadership and Communication

What is equipping leadership? As equipping leaders, we find ourselves in a peculiar state as we attempt to bridge the gap between the curiosity and the reality of other leaders within our churches. Many people approach the equipping message with curiosity, hoping that something they see or hear will assist in their ever-growing desire to be more effective in ministry. Others have a clear picture of their current reality as they discover that equipping leadership is difficult and requires a great deal of behavioral change.

As Equipping leaders, it is critical that we take an honest look at how we currently lead others. This is not the time to create a false sense of self, but to assess our current reality, determining how things are going. As we take a very long and honest look at ourselves, we find ourselves standing in this gap pointing others toward the vision of Ephesians 4. We play this challenging role as characters in an ever-unfolding story, helping to make clear the picture of where we are going and how we are going to get there.

One of the things that I (CH) have learned as I have played this role in the last 7 years is the absolute necessity of sharing truth by painting clear the picture of what we are trying to achieve. This is best done through the sharing of stories…personal ones describing pain, successes, struggles, achievements, or challenges. As equipping leaders, we have the opportunity to point people toward truth by sharing our story and the story of others.

We must communicate this story effectively by sharing truth, using vivid, clarifying language and practical examples of failure and success. When we tell stories, we are helping to show leaders authentic and relevant ways to successfully bridge the gap between their curiosity and their reality. This storytelling provides a non-threatening and emotionally connected pathway that individuals can clearly see and optimistically approach. As we cast vision by telling stories, we become narrators in the unfolding of our shared spirit-called journey.

Jesus communicated His message largely through stories. Indeed, the Gospel takes on power and relevance in the lives of people as we explore the intersections of God’s story with our stories. The use of metaphor to describe our experience of the Gospel and of the living Christ can be quite powerful. Jesus knew the power of metaphor and used it well—the Kingdom of God is
like . . . The Apostle Paul offers an evocative metaphor for the Equipping Leader in his second letter to the Corinthians.

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart . . . But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
2 Corinthians 4:1, 7-12

Overcoming the traditional leadership approach that most church leaders embody is a challenging task – even when the knowledge of your current reality and preferred future state is clear, this transition is quite difficult. As Equipping Leaders, we have been called to clearly articulate the needed change and assist individuals in navigating this challenging pathway toward equipping leadership.

In an effort to do this, we are consistently called upon to communicate this message and vision in an easily understandable and effective way. Because most leaders find understanding and practically applying this message difficult, we must communicate in a way that removes all obstacles, so that are message is received and applied.

Dr. Albert Merabian conducted a study years ago to determine the impact that certain components had on how our message is received. His findings suggested that 55% of how our message is received is determined by the visual components of our presentation (what we are doing when we speak the message), while 37% of our message is determined by the vocal components of our presentation (how we say our words) and finally, only 8% of how our message is received is determined by the verbal components of our message (the actually words that we speak).

This study suggests a couple of key learnings for the equipping leader…

One, it is vitally important that we remove all distractions from our communication so that our message will be received by those who need to hear it. As a result, the words that we speak can be clearly heard, understood and received.

Two, if this is to occur, then we must spend considerable time practicing our communication techniques which will assist in the “hearing” of our message. How many of us spend considerable time preparing the words that we will say, but never spend time practicing what we are going to be doing when we speak these words, or even how we are going to say them?

At first glance, this may appear rather rehearsed, not relying on the power of God to work in our lives, but it is in fact, the opportunity to more effectively hone the skills that God has given to us as leaders. As equipping leaders, we must become effective communicators so that God’s message, the one He has called each of us to deliver, will be heard and received.

On the Emotional Health of a Leader...

Hmmmm....where do I begin? My boss, the senior pastor of our church...Don is his name...asked the entire senior leadership team to read the first 40 pages of a book. There are six of us, counting Don, on the team, and we are going to read it together and discuss it. I've had the book for about 6 + months now, but have yet to open the cover and peer into it's pages. I find myself buying books because someone tells me that they are really good and then I hope I'll get to them at some point. I have to admit that sometimes it feels really good to say outloud, as someone's talking about a specific book, "oh yes, I have that book." The problem is, there's too much to read already, much less a book about an emotionally healthy church. I'm emotionally healthy, at least I think I am, or all my personalities seem to agree that we're emotionally healthy. So why read a book about it? Got me. I'm just doing what I'm told.

So, here I am watching the oscars on television tonight, and I remember about this book. The "reading assignment" is due tomorrow, and I've got to read it before I walk into our meeting, otherwise, I'll be embarrassed, disrespectful, or whatever other crap we heap upon our selves when we "let someone down" by not doing what they asked us to do. I could write for hours on that last sentence, but I'll save it for another time.

OK, so a few minutes ago I picked up the book and opened the pages to the introduction, or part one. I really thought, "what's this guy got to say to me?" I don't even know his name, even now. Hold on, let me get the book and check. Peter Scazzero. Anyway, I started to read the introduction and literally began to quietly gasp for air as I was trying to pay attention to who was winning what oscar, and who I thought should have won, etc... After the first couple of pages my stomach begins to hurt, or is it my head? Something is huring on my body, and I begin to think that these first few pages of this book have something to do with it. I start thinking that it could be this crappy organic popcorn I just had. But I know it's not. It's this book. It's as if my body knows something that I don't and it is beginning to tell me "I don't like this. Stop now while you're ahead. Don't read anymore of this book. It's dangerous. It's going to uncover some things that you might not be ready for everyone to see or know." However, I can't stop. I'm not sure that I even want to stop.

So what's the big deal you might be asking? I'm not sure yet. I'm going to have to read more. I read through the first 42 pages actually, and stopped. But for right now, it has to do something with being a hypocrite, being emotionally sick, not walking the talk or living what I preach. Dang, I hate it when that happens. Here I am 37 and a pastor, a leader of God's people at a large church, I'm married to the love of my life, have two beautiful and wonderful children, working on a doctorate, traveling around the country speaking and consulting at churches or conferences on what an equipping church and leader looks like...the world is going pretty well for me right now. And then Don asks me to read this book. And I'm not feeling well now. And I'm feeling a bit sucker punched. And someone has punched me in the gut because my stomachs hurting, and I was not expecting it, and the airs been knocked out of me, and I can't breathe. And I'm reading this darn book...did I mention that? And I'm feeling that maybe I'm not as emotionally healthy as I thought I was.

I'm not sure why I wanted to blog about this. It has something to do with transformational leadership, I'm sure. There's something shouting out to me. Something gutteral. It seems that it takes an experience to knock the wind out of your guts so that the truth can be clearly heard. The truth is there, but many times it's hidden under false pretenses. In earlier blogs, I wrote about transformational leadership being about "transformation" of the leader and the follower. Is this a part of my transformation? It's 11:43 pm on Sunday evening, March 5, 2006, and I'm feeling right now that this book will present a defining moment that confronts me with the truth. We read that the truth will set you free, but it's going to hurt like heck while it's doing it. Maybe that's why my stomach hurts, or is it my head?

Equipping Leadership Books

MINISTRY OF THE LAITY

Anderson, James D. and Ezra Earl Jones. Ministry of the Laity. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1986.

Ayres, Francis O. The Ministry of the Laity. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962.

Barna, George. Growing True Disciples. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2001.

Blatherwick, Douglas P. A Laymen Speaks. London: The Epworth Press, 1959.

Bolles, Richard N. How to Find Your Mission in Life. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2000.

Bugbee, Bruce. What You Do Best in the Body of Christ. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 1995.

Congar, yves M. J. Lay People in the Church: A Study for a Theology of the Laity. Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1957, 1959.

Dozier, Verna J. and Celia A. Hahn. The Authority of the Laity. Washington: The Alban Institute, 1982.

Eastwood, Cyril. The Priesthood of All Believers. Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1962.

Feucht, Oscar E. Everyone A Minister. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1974.

Gibbs, Mark and T. Ralph Morton. God’s Frozen People. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1964.

Grimes, Howard. The Rebirth of the Laity. New York: Abingdon Press, 1962.

Jenkins, Daniel. The Protestant Ministry. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1958.

Kraemer, Hendrik. A Theology of the Laity. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1958.

Kung, Hans. Why Priests? A Proposal for a New Church Ministry. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1972.

McManuas, Erwin. An Unstoppable Force. Loveland, Colorado: Group Publishing 1973.

McManus, Erwin. Seizing Your Divine Moment. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002.

McNeal, Reggie. A Work of Heart. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000.

Rea, James Edward. The Common Priesthood of the Members of the Mystical Body: An Historical Survey of the Heretical Concepts of the Doctrine as Compared with the True Catholic Concept. Westminster, MD: Newman Bookshop, 1947.

Smart, James D. The Rebirth of Ministry. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960.

The Laymen in Christian History: A Project of the Department of Laity of the World Council of Churches. Edited by Stephen Charles Neill and Hans-Ruedi Weber. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1963.

Tieger, Paul D. and Barbara Barron-Tieger. Do What You Are. Boston. Little, Brown and Company, 2001.

Walker, Daniel D. Enemy in the pews? New York: Harper and Row, 1967.

Weber, Hans-Ruedi. Salty Christians. New York: The Seabury Press, 1966.


TEAM MINISTRY

Barna, George. A Fish Out of Water. Nashville: Integrity Publishing, 2002.

Baron, Renee. What Type Am I? Discover Who You Really Are. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.

Bauknight, Brian Kelley. Body Building. Nashville: Abington Press, 1996.

Buckingham, Marcus and Clifton, Donald O. Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: The Free Press, 2001.

Butler, Ava S. Team Think. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996

Cladis, George. Leading the Team Based Church. San Francisco: Josey-Bass Publishers, 1999.

Cordeiro, Wayne. Doing Church as a Team: Launching effective ministries through teamwork. Honolulu, Hawaii: New Hope Publishers, 1998.

Cordeiro, Wayne. The Dream Releasers. Ventura, California: Regal Books, 2002.

Duck, Jeanie Daniel. The Change Monster : The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change.

Easum, William M. and Bandy, Thomas G. Growing Spiritual Redwoods. Nashville: Abington Press, 1997.

Elliott, Barbara. Street Saints. Templeton Press, 2004.

Galloway, Dale. Building Teams in Ministry. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2000.

Hybles, Bill. The Volunteer Revolution: Unleashing the Power of Everybody.

Katzenbach, Jon R., and Smith, Douglas K. The Wisdom of Teams. New York: McKinsey & Company, Inc., 1993.

Lencioni, Patrick. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable.

Lencioni, Patrick. Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business.

McIntosh, Gary L. The Exodus Principle. Nashville: Broadman and Huffman Publishers, 1995.

Maxwell, John C. The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2002.

Ogden, Greg. Transforming Discipleship. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2003.

Olsen, Charles M. Transforming church Boards into Communities of Spiritual Leaders. The Alban Institute, 1995.

Ortberg, John. Everybody;s Normal Till You Get To Know Them. Michigan: Zondervan, 2003.

Rainer, Thom S. High Expectations. Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishing, 1999.

Wilson, Marlene. How to Mobilize Church Volunteers. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1983.

Yount, Christine. Awesome Volunteers for Children’s Ministry. Loveland, Colorado. Group Publishing, 1998.

THE EQUIPPING CHURCH

Herrington, Jim, Mike Bonem and James H. Furr. Leading Congregational Change.

Herrington, Jim, Mike Bonem and James H. Fur. Leading Congregational Change Workbook.

Lewis, Robert and Wayne Cordeiro. Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Mallory, Sue. The Equipping Church: Serving Together To Transform Lives. Michigan: Leadership Network, Inc., 2001.

Mallory, Sue and Smith, Brad. The Equipping Church Guidebook. Michigan: Leadership Network, Inc., 2001

Malphurs, Aubrey. Advanced Strategic Planning: A New Model for Church and Ministry Leaders. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999.

Minatrea, Milfred. Shaped by God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches.

Neslon, Toler. The Five Star Church. Ventura, California: Regal Publishing, 1999.

Pope, Randy. The Prevailing Church. Chicago: Moody Press, 2002.

Rusaw, Rick, and Swanson, Eric. The Externally Focused Church.

Schwarz, Christian A. Natural Church Development. Carol Stream, Illinois: Church Smart Resources, 1996.

Stanley, Andy. The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry.

Sweet, Leonard. Aqua Church. Loveland, Colorado: Group Publishing, 1999.

Wagner, C. Peter. Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow. Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1979.

Waltz, Mark L. First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences in your Church. Loveland, Colorado: Group Publishing, 2005.

EQUIPPING LEADERSHIP

Anderson, Fil. Running on Empty: Contemplative Spirituality for Overachievers

Blanchard, Ken, and Hodges, Phil. The Servant Leader. Nashville, Tennessee: J. Countryman, 2003.

Becker, Palmer. Called to Equip. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1993.

Belasco, James A. and Stayer, Ralph C. Flight of the Buffalo. New York: Warner Books, 1993.

Belasco, James. Teaching the Elephant to Dance. New York: Penguin Group, 1990

Bonem, Mike and Roger Patterson. Leading from the Second Chair: Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams.

Buchanan, Mark. Your God is Too Safe. Michigan: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2001.

Christensen, Michael J. Equipping the Saints. Nashville: Abington Press, 2000.

Clifford, Paul Roundtree. The Pastoral Calling. Greak Neck, New York: Channel Press, 1961.

Collins, Jim. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't.

DePree, Max. Leadership is an Art. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1989.

Drucker, Peter F. The Effective Executive. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1967.

Godin, Seth. Purple Cow. New York: Portfolio, 2002.

Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls. Nashville: Abington Press, 2002.

Hemphill, Ken. The Antioch Effect. Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994.

Herrington, Jim, Robert Creech and Trisha Taylor. The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation.

Jennings, Ken, and Stahl-Wert, John. The Serving Leader. San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2003.

Jones, Laurie Beth. Jesus CEO. New York: Hyperion, 1995.

Jones, Laurie Beth. Jesus Inc. New York: Crown Business , 2001.

Jones, Laurie Beth. The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life. New York: Hyperion, 1996.

McNeal, Reggie. Revolution in Leadership. Nashville: Abington Press, 1998.

McNeal, Reggie. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church.

McNeal, Reggie. A Work of the Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders.

Niebuhr, H. Richard and Daniel Williams. The Ministry In Historical Perspectives. New York: 1956.

Nouwen, Henri J. M. In the Name of Jesus. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000.

Ogden, Greg. Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time.

Palmer, Parker J. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation.

Sample, Steven B. The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership.

Schwarz, Roger. The Skilled Facilitator.

Stanley, Andy. The Next Generation Leader: Five Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future.

Stone, Douglas, Patton, Bruce, Heen, Sheila, and Fisher, Roger. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most.

Wheatley, Margaret J. Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain time. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2005.

Williams, Mark A. The 10 Lenses: Your Guide to Living & Working in Multicultural World.

THEOLOGY AND RESEARCH

Barna, George. The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 1996.

Bettenson, Henry. Documents of the Christian Church. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Gonzales, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume I. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970.

Gonzales, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume II. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971.

Guthrie, Shirley C. Christian Doctrine. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994.

Pilch, John J., and Bruce J. Malina. Biblical Social Values and their Meaning. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993.

Wayne Cordeiro's book "Dream Releasers"

Wayne Cordeiro, the Senior Pastor of New Hope Fellowship in Hawaii, first caught my attention when I heard him speak at the New Century New Church conference in 2000 in San Antonio, Texas, put on by Leadership Training Network. His words riveted me as he spoke of the need for clergy to see the potential of each and every person that God had placed within their care. His genuine manner and authenticity spoke to me of his great love for people and his desire that they be everything God wanted them to be. While at this conference, I purchased his first book Doing Church as a Team and was blown away as I read about a way of doing church where everyone was involved in making “the church” happen on a weekly or daily basis. I quickly implemented many of the principles of team building found within the pages of this book and was able to practically apply much of what I read. In fact, presently our church uses his model of team building that he wrote about in this book.

This book by Cordeiro, The Dream Releasers, certainly piqued by interest as I read the description of the book above the title: How to help others realize their dreams while achieving your own. This book is especially valid to me for a couple of reasons. One, in my role at Westover Church, I am responsible for creating the entire development process of how people are transformed along their journey of faith. This journey begins at the moment of driving onto our campus, till the moment of returning from a mission trip, and all the elements along the way. As I read this book, I could see how its contents would assist me in achieving the vision of what the life development process at Westover might look like.
Secondly, in my pursuit of this doctorate of ministry degree in transformational leadership I am now regularly reading books that deal with how both we as leaders and the people that we lead are transformed. Cordeiro clearly writes at the beginning of his book “This book is an unabashed, unapologetic invitation to be transformed. It champions a greater-love-has-no-man-than-this kind of commitment. Throughout time, God’s greatest men and women – led by Jesus Himself – all lived out this commitment.”[i] This sounds like something that I definitely want and need to read.

Cordeiro organizes the book into two key components: The power of a dream released, and becoming a dream releaser. His basic premise is that everyone has a dream – believers or non-believers alike. Everyone has been given a dream that has been woven within us at the moment of our creation within our mother’s womb. When fully embodied, Cordeiro writes that “Only God fully comprehends the difference a Dream Releaser can make in the eternal scheme of things.”[ii]

Throughout the book Cordeiro defines a Dream Releaser by telling stories of his past and his church. This helps ground what this person is in a reality that the reader can understand. He also uses powerful imagery and symbolism to describe the “dream” and the releasers of that dream.

I found this book to be similar in writing to the Purpose Drive Life by Rick Warren. However, the difference is that instead of looking at various components of a purposeful life, Cordeiro narrows his focus down to finding your dream and helping others find their dreams. These two key components form the basis of the entire book. As a result, there were times I felt that Cordeiro was repeating himself over and over again, however, the message he was speaking needed to be heard again and again.

A paragraph in the book that I found very interesting was when he writes:

“Our effectiveness in pursuing our dream will, to a large degree, determine our success in reaching our destiny. Without the willingness to chase it to the end, we can get lost, despite having maps in hand. This dream holds the key to our development, our personality and our divine assignment. By reaching our divinely purposed destination, we can change lives, transform churches and give new zeal to old, dusty existences.”[iii]

This was followed up by him writing, “Imagine if all the potential in our churches were released. Can you picture how that would change our world?”[iv] Yes I can picture that. I have pictured this for the last nine years and believe that as leaders, we have a responsibility to live and act in such a way that embodies and pursues the release of these people.

These two paragraphs are why I am pursuing my doctorate in Transformational Leadership. As I reach the destination that God has divinely purposed for me, then I hold the key to assist others in realizing their divine purpose and call. If all leaders would do this, then can you imagine what would happen? The world would be changed.

I believe that my studies are providing me the opportunity to reach toward my “divine purpose,” as Cordeiro writes. This is why my personal mission statement, as I have articulated it for my doctoral studies, is to “Inspire, resource and equip other leaders to reach their full potential in this life for Christ.” This book helps me to do this.

The key that this book holds is this: When you and I as leaders realize we have a dream, decide to pursue this dream and ask God to help us live out this dream, then our lives are changed forever. It’s as if, according to Cordeiro, we have a seed of God’s potential hidden within our lives. Just like one single redwood tree seed has “all the potential to produce, not only a single magnificent redwood, but also an entire forest of redwoods,”[v] so do we. As we live out this dream, then we must share our knowledge with others. When we do, he writes that “A single person’s fulfilled destiny can determine the eternal destination of billions of people.”[vi]

The problem is that we as leaders don’t see this. If we do, so often we choose not to pay attention or we’re not sure what to do with what we see. Why? I believe that many of us as leaders see the overwhelming obstacles that are associated with both pursuing our own dream and helping someone else pursue theirs. These obstacles are just too big for us to navigate over or around, and so we stop “dead in our tracks” and don’t do anything about what we know we should be doing.

I believe that another issue associated with this is that becoming a dream releaser of another is just too difficult. It will require us to step out of our comfort zone and work hard at dealing with messy people and things. This will demand a huge amount of effort and energy on our part, many times, much more than we are willing to give. We would rather go about our day, answering emails, talking to a few people on the phone, accomplishing the items on our “to do lists” so that at the end of the day, we can check off what we’ve accomplished.

Being a dream releaser is much more dynamic and dangerous. It involves transferring the focus from self to others. It requires that our days be flexible so that we can be ready when people might need us. It demands that we take time with people and make the person we’re with at that very moment in our day, the most important person that we could be with at that very moment in our day. Most of us spend time with people and all the while thinking about more important things that we could be accomplishing if we were just finished with this secondary appointment so that we could get to the really important stuff. I have to be honest. I consider myself an equipper of people and this is my reality at times.

When are we going to realize that spending time with people, especially those people that God has put in our sphere of influence, IS the most important thing that we could be doing with our time. When are we, as leaders of staff, going to realize that the most important thing that our staff could be doing is influencing the lives of another person, rather than producing programs or paperwork that shows that they are working. Now we’re getting to the real issues aren’t we?

Before staff can become dream releasers, then leaders must be transformed themselves so that they can allow for the staff to be transformed and hence change the very ways that they lead in the church. Cordeiro is saying that the most important thing that leaders in the church can do is influence people so that they can live a life in pursuit of their dreams. This is transformational leadership.

However, there are some things that get in the way. Cordeiro writes that there are some “dream killers”[vii] that unless we are leaders help “coach” others to both identify and deal with, their dreams will be lost along the way. As leaders, we have a responsibility to deal with these “dream killers” in the lives of the people that we coach. He identifies eight potential “dream killers.” They are:

1. Unproven Character
2. Pride
3. Impatience
4. Ingratitude
5. Incorrect ability
6. Unbelief
7. Unresolved Sin
8. The Inability to Act[viii]

Each of these “dream killers” must be identified, confronted and dealt with before we can achieve the dream that God has put in our hearts as leaders, or help others achieve their dream. As I read these eight “killers” I thought of my own life and how each of these has played a part in trying to destroy my own dream. If we as leaders allow these things to stop us from moving toward our own dream, then we will never be able to coach someone else to move beyond them toward their dream. Cordeiro says that these are the things that stop people from achieving their dreams and these are the things that stop us as leaders from helping someone achieve their dreams.

Therefore, what I conclude from Cordeiro is that I must do two things. First, I must effectively confront the “dream killers” in my own life and move beyond them. Unless I do this, I will never be able to release the dreams of another person. Second, I must become a good steward of the keys that God has given to me to release the dream of someone else. He describes these three keys as:

1. Stewarding Influence
2. Stewarding Authority
3. Stewarding Problems

What he means by these three keys is this.

“The final step in your becoming a Dream Releaser lies in your ability to be trusted. You must become a steward of the keys God commends to you. Your faithfulness with this trust will dictate both the breadth of your mantel and the strength of your legacy. Just as talent can be either invested or consumed, so too keys can either open a door or lock someone out. These keys come with options. They will test your ability to make wise, selfless choices – the greatest test of all.”[ix]

Each of us as leaders has influence, authority and problems that we deal with. As dream releases, we must be trusted to handle our influence, authority and have the courage to tackle the problems in the Kingdom of God with integrity. Once we do so, then we will be dream releasers. Cordeiro ends with this paragraph.

“What the Family of God urgently needs today are individuals who resonate with the heart of the Father, men and women who take great joy when others win. Their joy arrives when they accept the privilege of helping someone open their gifts and see their dreams take flight.

God extends to you His likeness. He extends to you His invitation. Dare we trust Him for His promises? Nudge a dream into flight. A whole generation awaits you.”[x]

[i] Page 21

[ii] Page 18

[iii] Page 33

[iv] Page 33

[v] Page 29-30

[vi] Page 31

[vii] Page 97

[viii] Pages 99-132

[ix] Page 134

[x] Page 179

Reggie McNeil's book "The Present Future"

As I read what Reggie McNeil wrote in his book The Present Future, about the new realities the church is facing I had to admit that I found what he wrote very true. Having served at Westover for five years and having served as a faculty trainer with Leadership Connection (Leadership Training Network) for the last seven years, I have witnessed these realities first hand. Reggie proposes six new realities facing the church:

Reality number one: The collapse of the church culture.
Reality number two: The shift from church growth to kingdom growth.
Reality number three: A new reformation: releasing God’s people.
Reality number four: The return to spiritual formation.
Reality number five: The shift from planning to preparation.
Reality number six: The rise of apostolic leadership.

I have discovered in my own research over the last seven years that the culture of the church is collapsing around her and this transition has pushed the church toward a post-Christian environment. This by necessity requires apostolic leadership to rise in the midst of this transition and assume the leadership position that stands waiting. I share this example because each of Reggie’s new realities are actually not new at all, rather they are simply a return to the values that supported the early church and the environment where the early church found themselves.

The early church found herself in a complete moral collapse of the culture where she existed. The early church was not focused on church growth for the sake of numeric expansion, but rather to expand the kingdom of God and fulfill the call of Jesus to go. The early church by design, clearly involved all God’s people, and these believers were scattered (Diaspora) throughout the Mediterranean world, released to be Christ to the world. They were attentive to their individual spiritual journey as they sought to live as Christ commanded and to know Him as much in His death and resurrection as in his walking around with them. The early church was definitely not focused on the strategic planning process involved in creating a 10 year, 100 year or 1000 year plan, but rather, on the prayer and preparation they felt was absolutely vital to bring about the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Finally, as a result of the call of Christ upon His disciples, true apostolic leadership emerged, effectively propelling the church not only forward, but universally in every direction.

The book is not new, but rather ancient. It is ancient in its scope and it’s content. It’s ancient in the knowledge one reads there and the feeling that you have when you grasp what is really being said. It actually should have been titled The Ancient Present Future, for this would more clearly describe what one reads within its covers. I am consistently amazed that we, as leaders both in the church and the world, run to new books that are regularly published and exclaim that this is “the greatest book that I have ever read” or “you have to read this book, it has blown my mind.” When in all actuality, the contents of the book that we have just read are taken straight from a biblical perspective. This is the case with Reggie’s book.

Now understand that I am not advocating that we should not read contemporary books that take a look at the transitions that the church must take to continue to be effective, but completely opposite. I read these books regularly and have read practical truths that I have applied in my life and ministry within the church. Also know that it is not that I am not fond of this particular book or accusing Reggie of writing an already written book. This is not the case.

I am simply saying that as I read this book, my initial reaction was “this is not new at all, but rather ancient knowledge that was clearly demonstrated within the scriptures by the early church thousands of years ago.” Now having said this let me turn my attention to what I gained from this reminder that Reggie has provided us in a very clear, contemporary perspective.

Since coming to Westover Church some five years ago, I have consistently proclaimed that unless our church fluidly shift with the changing culture by proactively responding and changing the way that church is done, then we will lose our relevancy within our community and be overlooked by those seeking authenticity. In reality number one, Reggie describes this culture and the necessary transitions we must make, and basically says the same things. He lists three ways that the church denies the need for change:

1. Many churches withdraw from the community
2. Attempting to fix the church by flexing political or economic muscle
3. Many churches are obsessed with internal theological-methodological debates[1]

His description of this necessary change becomes more descriptive as he writes on the preceding page:

“The American culture no longer props up the church the way it did, no longer automatically accepts the church as a player at the table in public life, and can be downright hostile to the church’s presence. The collapse I am detailing also involves the realization that values of classic Christianity no longer dominate the way Americans believe or behave.”[2]

This collapse in the culture that the church finds herself immersed, requires a proactive response and necessitates the need for change and positive transitions. Unless churches make this determination to respond, they will experience a slow demise, as Reggie continues to write:

“A lot of religious clubs (currently called churches) will continue to operate just fine – for a while, maybe a long while, depending on how well they build and manage their endowment. It is quite possible that we will have a good number of churches being financed by dead people. As long as mission-less churches maintain financial support, they can remain in their denial and self-delusion that they are the Christian movement in North America.”[3]

I am thirty-seven years old, which places me on the edge between a modern mindset and that of a post modern perspective, so to read what Reggie writes about the need for a church for post modern people, thrills me. This is what I long for at Westover Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. As I have thought about this more intently over the last five years I have determined that when I read about churches focused on the post modern culture, I determine for me that this means…

· Relevancy in methodology and programming
· Authenticity in all things
· Relationally oriented
· Sacred and mysterious
· Holistic approach to discipleship and mission

As churches construct such an approach, they are effectively making the gospel accessible to those people, thirty years and below, who may never connect or engage with a traditionally modern church that is not capable or desirous of changing.

Greg Ogden, in his book The New Reformation describes what the First Reformation did in regards to the Word of God, the New or second reformation is now doing in regards to the Work of God. Reggie picks up on this theme when he basically writes that:

The First Reformation was about: The New Reformation is about:
Freeing the church Freeing God’s people
Decentralized the church Decentralized the ministry
Clergy rebelled against the Pope People rebelled against the clergy
Church closer to home Church closer to the world
Distinguished Christians Distinguishes followers of Jesus
About Church About Mission[4]

His premise, that the more relevant question we should be asking is how do we turn members into missionaries, rather than asking how do we turn members into ministers, I think is a case of semantics. If we take a look at what we mean by the term ministers, from a biblical framework, I think we would find that we mean the same thing with the substitution of the term missionaries. Others have attempted to do the same thing. Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Life suggests that everyone should have a ministry within the church and a mission within the world. This is fine if you are trying to create a formula or check off your spiritual to do list with what you needed to do. However, I would suggest that when you take a holistic approach the term minister or missionary works for all of us. As a minister, I am responsible to live out my God-call and fulfill my priestly responsibilities wherever I am – in the church or the world. The same is true if I were called a missionary – I would still be responsible to live out my God-call wherever I am.

Since 1997 my ministry focus has been on helping the clergy to realize that our primary responsibility as leaders is to equip, release and empower God’s people to be the hands of Christ to the world. So when I read in this book that one of the key new realities is the release of God’s people, I want to cry out “its about time someone wrote about this vital transition that must occur within the church.” For too long clergy have avoided this topic because it would require more from us than from those that are ready to step into their God-called roles. It would require greater change on our part than on the part of the people we would be releasing. Therefore, we do not focus on doing this, but rather we avoid the discussion of this topic and steer beyond its application in our own lives.

Reggie is writing that unless churches release God’s people, then the culture in which we find ourselves will overlook us as irrelevant and people will respond negatively. If we just look culturally, a post-modern individual strongly desires to activate their faith by putting it into practice and living out their call. They do not want to just come and sit, soaking up what the speaker says but never doing anything about it. Rather, they want to practically live out what they learn on Sunday’s, serving beyond their comfort zone and living into their God-given gifts. If the church does not respond proactively to support this mindset, then we will lose an entire generation of people.

I also believe that the last twenty plus years has provided a solid foundation to allow clergy to release people into ministry and leadership within the church. In the eighties, I think we saw a focus on church growth and the questions that most churches were asking was how they might grow larger. As we moved into the nineties, the church transitioned away from growth to focus more clearly on health. The premise became if churches were healthy, then they would naturally grow because of this health. As we have moved into the new millennium, the focus is now on how churches can take their health and distribute it into the world, impacting their communities and changing the world around them. All this to say is that as churches release people, they are allowed to live into their call and change the world in which they live.

Reggie McNeal’s book The Present Future is an engaging book that looks at the necessary realities the church is facing now. The author does an effective job of debunking the realities which exists within the church and shares the new realities that the church must address if it plans to move positively move forward into a hopeful and world changing future.

[1] Page 2

[2] Page 3

[3] Ibid.

[4] Page 43.

Jim Collin's book "Good to Great"

“Good is the enemy of great.” The very first statement of the very first paragraph of chapter one in Jim Collins incredibly thought provoking book Good to Great communicate a primary theme of this book. People get settled in performing at a level that is “good” and thereby never experience a transformation leading to a level of greatness that so few people or organizations attain. It is from this premise that Collins and his research team approached the construction of this work. They asked themselves the question, can a good company become a great company, and if so, how? It is from this question that the author began to assemble the characteristics of “great companies” and identify what organizations have not only attained the title of being “great”, but also remained as such over the years?

As a result, the researchers found a transformative theme that was apparent in all of the “great companies.” Each of the companies experienced a “build up” which led them to a “breakthrough”, within the three broad stages of “disciplined people”, “disciplined thought” and “disciplined action.” If this weren’t enough, Collins and his team break the process down even further and present three concepts that represent each of the three broad stages. In the “disciplined people” stage the concepts of level 5 leadership and “first who…then what” were discussed. In stage two, “disciplined thought”, the concepts of confronting the brutal facts and the Hedgehog concept were presented. Finally, in stage three, “disciplined action”, the authors discussed the concepts of a culture of discipline and technology accelerators.

The concepts that Collins presents are absolutely fascinating, especially when one begins the application process of this information to the church-world. Collins discusses six concepts that are completely transferable to the church. They are:

Level 5 Leadership. The authors discovered that instead of some weighty personality that was high-profile, with celebrity status, all “great companies” were led by people that were “self effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy” with a strong blend of “personal humility and professional will.” This is the concept that intrigued me the most when I read this book. Jesus has called all of us toward level 5 leadership. The problem with many of us is that we allow our pride, power and control, perfection or fame to get in the way and thwart our forward progress.

First Who…Then What. This concept is something I still struggle with. Even though at my very heart I am an equipper and people always come before systems. I discovered that I believed that within the church, you must first set a clear vision and direction and then call people to action to follow the vision. People would naturally emerge in response to the vision. Collins suggests, rather his research shows that “good to great leaders” would first get “the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats–and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage ‘People are your most important asset’ turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asses. The right people are.”

Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith). The author found that every “good to great leader” embraced what came to be known as the “Stockdale Paradox” and that is “You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” When I first read this, I said out loud “praise the Lord.” As level 5 leaders, we must maintain a faith that doesn’t waver or give in at the quick turning of the tide, but rather, we must stand strong while honestly evaluating what we might be doing to contribute to both our success and failure.

The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles). This concept suggests that unless our organizations are not the very best we can be at our “core business” or the foundational components of our organization that set us apart, then we can never become “great companies” standing strong for the long term. This concept represented the intersection of three key questions: What can we be the best in the world at? What drives our economic engine? What are we deeply passionate about? This principle also represented the guiding principle that focused an organization’s efforts toward greatness. I’ve never thought to ask these three questions of the church. I consistently am asking people similar questions that help them to determine their passion and direction, but never the church as an organism.

A Culture of Discipline. This concept took the three stages of “disciplined people, thought and action” and translated them into a culture of discipline that becomes the overarching environment in which the organization finds itself existing. Collins writes that “when you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls.” This becomes a breeding ground for the great performance of your most important aspect: The right people. In the church, I think this concept could become a pretty big mountain to overcome. While we all understand that our job is our ministry, and we serve to please God and develop God’s people, there is a deterrent to performance related issues. We seem to think that because the church is filled with God’s grace, then we can’t effectively hold people accountable for their performance. Therefore a culture of discipline doesn’t exist in most churches, and therefore, according to Collins research, “great performance” never happens.

Technology Accelerators. This concept presented the fact that most “good to great companies” used technology to their benefit. While they weren’t using “technology to ignite transformation,” they did think much differently about technology and were early “pioneers” of technology that truly made a difference in helping to make them great at their core business endeavors.
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop. This concept represents the fact that no great change initiative ever happens “in one fell swoop.” Collins writes that “no single defining action…program…innovation…lucky break…miracle moment” that resulted in personal or organizational transformation. “Rather,” he writes, “the process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel…turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.”

Collins states that his book is written to describe how one might turn a pretty good company or church, for that matter, into “one that produces sustained great results” over the long haul. This book is the description of “timeless principles” that endure throughout the changes in economy or the world. Collins writes that “specific applications will change, but certain immutable laws of organized human performance will endure.”

For me, the part of the book that made the most impact is when Collins writes about “Level 5 Leadership.” The Level 5 Leader represents for Collins and his team the highest level in a hierarchy of key leadership abilities that they discovered in their research. They determined that there were five different levels of leaders, that included: Highly capable individuals (level 1), Contributing team members (level 2), Competent manager (level 3), Effective leader (level 4), Level 5 executive (level 5).

The research discovered that Level 5 leaders had an incredible humility and modesty and yet a very strong resolve and will. They almost never talked about themselves, but rather about how the company could become the greatest that it could be. The most fascinating component of the research focused on what Collins called “the window and the mirror.” Collins writes that “Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside of themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.”

A Level 5 Leader always gave praise and recognition away to others when things went well. They looked, if you will, out the window to find who they could share the praise with, and they did so, never accepting the praise for themselves. However, when things went poorly, a Level 5 Leader would most always look into the mirror and accepted the responsibility for how things turned out negatively. “The comparison leaders,” as Collins called them, “did just the opposite.” When things went poorly, they looked out the window for someone or something to blame for the negative results, and when there were successes, they quickly and easily credited themselves for the positives that occurred.

The reason that this component of the book impacted me so much is that if leaders within the church would apply this very simple formula, then it alone could have the power to transform the very way that ministry happens and people experience leadership. It could change the way that “church” happens, as people are equipped and empowered to be the arms of Christ reaching to the world. This formula, I believe, could be a potentially new leadership paradigm for ministry leaders and transform the way ministry and leadership occurs. So how does this happen? How do we become Level 5 leaders?

Collins writes that there are two types of people. There are those that have the “seed of Level 5” leadership, and those that do not. Those that do not have this seed could “never in a million years bring themselves to subjugate their egoistic needs to the greater ambition of building something larger and more lasting than themselves. For these people, work will always be first and foremost about what they get – fame, fortune, adulation, power, whatever – not what they build, create and contribute.” However, those that have the seed of Level 5 leadership can at any time arise in any given situation. Collins believes that Level 5 Leaders “exist all around us if we just know what to look for.” He states that this is “situations where extraordinary results exist but where no individual steps forth to claim excess credit.” This is where you will find a Level 5 Leader at work.

I believe, based on Collins research, that each of us, as clergy, has been given the seed of “level 5 leadership” by God. This seed is the biblical model and example that Jesus embodied from the scriptures. We all have the potential to be transformative leaders, if we only deny ourselves, take up our cross and learn to follow Christ, all the while supporting and lifting up God’s people.

Bass Responds to the Critique...

Benard M. Bass in his article The Ethics of Transformational Leadership attempts to provide a rebuttal of the critics of his Transformational Leadership model that he outlined in a publication in the 1980’s called Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. He suggests that there is a key difference between Transformational Leaders (TF) and Pseudotransformational Leaders (PT). He writes that leaders are transformational when they “increase awareness of what is right, good, important, and beautiful, when they help to elevate followers' needs for achievement and self-actualization, when they foster in followers higher moral maturity, and when they move followers to go beyond their self-interests for the good of their group, organization, or society.” He counters this with Pseudotransformational leaders who “may also motivate and transform their followers but in doing so they arouse support for special interests at the expense of others rather than what's good for the collectivity. They will foster psychodynamic identification, projection, fantasy, and rationalization as substitutes for achievement and actualization. They will encourage "we-they" competitiveness and the pursuit of the leaders' own self- interests instead of the common good. They are more likely to foment envy, greed, hate, and conflict rather than altruism, harmony, and cooperation.”

He then writes that the attributes that set TF leadership apart from all others are the “Four I’s.” He writes that if a person’s leadership is truly transformational, then their “idealized influence is characterized by high moral and ethical standards. Their inspirational motivation provides followers with challenges and meaning for engaging in shared goals and undertakings. Their intellectual stimulation helps followers to question assumptions and to generate more creative solutions to problems. Their individual consideration treats each follower as an individual and provides coaching, mentoring and growth opportunities.”

Bass then goes about the rebuttal of four key arguments that critics have with the ethics of his TF model of leadership: The ethics of impression management; the ethics of checks and balances; the ethics of organizational development; and the ethics of influencing followers values and self-interests.

Impression Management. Bass admits that in our contemporary society there “a certain level of impression management has become the norm in our society of advertising, publicity agents, public relations consultants and spin doctors seeking visibility and celebrity status,” however, “the truly transformational leader who is seeking the greatest good for the greatest number and is concerned about doing what is right and honest is likely to avoid stretching the truth or going beyond the evidence for he/she wants to set an example to followers about the value of valid and accurate communication in maintaining the mutual trust of the leader and his or her followers.” He suggests that a truly TF leader cannot engage in negative (where the truth is stretched or lies occur) impression management because “trust is the single most important variable moderating the effects of transformational leadership on the performance, attitudes, and satisfaction of the followers.”

Checks and Balances. Bass suggests that there is checks and balances that are in place, simply because you cannot have TF leadership without also having Transactional Leadership (TA). He writes, “when the transformational leader sees himself/herself in a win-lose negotiation he tries to convert it into a win-win joint problem-solving situation. If this is not possible, then he or she can display the transactional skills necessary as an effective negotiator.” This provides the checks and balances that leadership and follower-ship require.

Organizational Development (OD). Bass asserts that OD and TF are compatible because they both seek to recognize problems, envision winning solutions, communicate information about the issue, persuade others about the issue and the possible solutions and create the cultural organizational infrastructure to deal with the issues at hand. However, Bass states that “the transformational leader strives to achieve a true consensus in aligning individual and organization interests.” As a result, what is avoided is a culture where “everyone is a leader but no followers in the interests of true participative democracy.” OD and TF desire to avoid a “leaderless group,” where “members compete with each other for leadership. The structure that emerges is one or more leaders, followers and isolates.”

Followers Values and Self-Interests. Basically, this is what Bass is saying. Leaders, Followers and Organizational Culture have values that influence everything that happens. Critics suggest that followers must change their values to adopt the values of the leader or the organizational culture as set forth by the leader. Regardless, of whether followers, the leader or the culture shifts it’s values to attain congruence. “In any event, values of individuals must change if congruence is to be attained.” The key issue is how are values aligned to attain congruence? A transformational leader as they live into the “Four I’s” are consistenly focused on the needs of the follower and achieving the growth of the individual and the organization.

Bass concludes that “that rather than being unethical, true transformational leaders identify the core values and unifying purposes of the organization and its members, liberate their human potential, and foster plural leadership and effective, satisfied followers.”[i]

[i] The Ethics of Transformational Leadership, Bernard M. Bass; KLSP: Transformational Leadership, Working Papers (Academy of Leadership Press, 1997)

A Critique of Transformational Leadership

Peter Gronn, Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, critiques the Transformational Leadership model as described by Bernard Bass (1985) and discusses the “significance and widespread appeal” of this leadership model. Gronn argues that the excitement over the transformational leader model is both “premature and even misplaced.” He explains his reasoning based on four components that he discusses in the article. One, after nearly twenty years of this model’s development by Bass, there are still “few empirically documented case examples of Transformational leaders.” Two, where there are documented cases, the data is derived “from an extraordinarily narrow methodological base.” Three, proponents of this model can only show a “causal connection between the exercise of Transformational leadership and desired organisational outcomes.” Four, it is unproven that Transformational leadership can be learned by others.

Gronn reports a distinction, of which he is concerned about, in the key differences between Transformational Leadership and Transactional Leadership. Based on his research of Bass, Avolio and Bryman (Transformational Leadership Model proponents) he describes the key differences between the two.

Transactional (TA) leadership “proves instrumental in bringing about” the expected results where the TA leader both “recognises the role the follower must play to attain the outcomes” and “recognises what the follower needs and clarifies how those needs will be fulfilled in exchange for the follower's satisfactory effort and performance.” He writes that TA leaders normally use control to manipulate the follower into doing what they need them to do. They do this by “positive inducement” or “contingent reinforcement” and by “management-by-exception” which basically means that leaders “intervene when something a follower does goes wrong.”

Transformational (TF) leadership on the other hand moves beyond the need to psychologically manipulate a follower based on punishment and reward, but rather, “arouses and elevates supposedly higher needs and stimulates personal growth.” TF leaders “attempt and succeed in raising” followers “to a greater awareness about the issues of consequence. This heightening of awareness requires a leader with vision, self-confidence, and inner strength to argue successfully for what he sees is right or good, not for what is popular or is acceptable according to the established wisdom of the time.” The result are internal changes for the follower and the leader and macro organizational changes across the board, versus more micro organizational changes and simply meeting the needs of an individual.

The rest of the article takes a look at the four key attributes of the Transformational leader model that Avolio and Bass call the “Four I’s.” They are: Inspirational Leadership, that basically describes ones charisma; Individualized Consideration, when the leader treats people as individuals according to what each person needs at any given time; Intellectual Stimulation, refers “to the leader's influence on followers' thinking and imagination;” and Idealized Influence, which describes the a point where followers identify and emulate the “leaders mission and vision.”

Ultimately Gronn’s attempt is to show the shortcomings of Transformational Leadership and argue that the data suggests this model is both unproven and a simple reaction to organizational needs for a “hero type” to come in and save the day.[i]

[i] Gronn, P. (1995). Greatness Re-Visited: The Current Obsession with Transformational Leadership. Leading and Managing 1(1), 14-27.

Transactional vs Transformational

A popular discussion within scholarly circles revolves around defining the clear difference one would find between two types of leaders exhibited in most organizations today: Transactional leaders and Transformational leaders.

In academia, many theories of leadership stress how to be effective within the status quo—or what we would call transactional leadership. A transactional leader is one who can bring about anticipated results and outcomes by both recognizing the role that the “follower” must play in achieving what the leader wants and needs, and recognizing what the “follower” needs and how those needs will be fulfilled according to satisfactory performance and effort. Thus, a transaction is created between the leader and the follower. “If you do this, I will do that.” These leaders can be very influential, but they change very little. To use a popular expression, these people are good at “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic", but they can’t keep the ship from sinking.

A transactional leader will employ two forms of “manipulation” to achieve a successful transaction between themselves and the follower. First, they will demonstrate positive inducement or contingent reinforcement. This means that when a “follower” achieves their goals, based on what the leader desires, then they are praised and rewarded for their effective performance, by the leader. On the other hand, when this is not achieved, the leader will demonstrate management-by-exception, which means that a leader will only intervene when things go awry and the follower doesn’t live up to their desired performance. This management-by-exception usually takes on the form of either a type of feedback that might be typically regarded as negative, or averting reinforcement, which withholds positive inducement or negative inducement, which usually involves the reprimand or disapproval of a leader.

Unfortunately, many organizations are light on transformational leaders, with the vast majority of the leaders inside organizations being transactional. As a result, we see organizations decline as there is an increasing disconnect between “the way things should be done” and “the way we do things here,” along with the inability of the organization to experience change on a cultural level.

Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is about implementing new ideas. These leaders are striving to continually change themselves by learning, improving and growing from their core. They stay flexible and adaptable to improvements, while continually striving to improve those around them and help raise others to a level that they themselves are trying to attain.
A transformational leader attempts and most of the time succeeds in raising “followers” to a greater level of awareness.

According to Bernard Bass, one might say the father of Transformational Leadership Theory, a transformational leader exhibits the “Four I’s: Idealized influence (charisma), Inspirational motivation, Intellectual stimulation, and Individualized consideration. In a macro sense, the transformational leader is truly concerned about the good that can be achieved for the individual, organization and even society as a whole.

When a leader exhibits idealized influence or charisma, followers identify with the leader’s aspirations and want to emulate the leader’s high moral and ethical standards. Inspirational motivation engages the follower in challenges and opportunities that share the planning and achieving of goals. Intellectual stimulation, when exhibited, helps followers to grow and develop at their core by questioning assumptions and generating more creative solutions to problems, while thinking outside of the box. Individual consideration, when exhibited by the leader, treats each individual as unique and provides coaching, mentoring and growth opportunities.

Obviously, this transformational leadership requires someone with vision, self-confidence, inner strength and solid ethics and morals to successfully assert what they see as right or good, not for what might be popular or is acceptable according to the established wisdom of the time or the status quo of the organization. They are concerned with raising the level of “goodness” in themselves, the individual or follower, the organization and the environment around them.
The two theorists most associated with its modern leadership theory are Bernard Bass and James Burns.

In many articles and in his book, Improving Organizational Effectiveness Through Transformational Leadership, Bass talks about the fundamental theoretical qualities that define transformational leadership from it's polar opposite, transactional leadership, and it’s false self Pseudo-transformational leadership. Before Bass, James Burns wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book titled Leadership, in which he described the qualities transformational leaders possess in varied fields and endeavors.

Leadership

Personal thoughts on Leadership...

Let me briefly share an important component of leadership...

First, leadership is about people. Let's be honest. If you find that others aren't following you, or perhaps that people are "left in your wake," then it's probably a good idea that you revisit your leadership style. When we are leading effectively, we are focused on the development of people around us. To be visionary without people, or administrative without the development of your people resources, leads to ineffective leadership. To "do it all by yourself" is not good leadership, because noone is following.

Second, leadership must be transformational. Transformational leadership is about raising the level of awareness of those around you. As a result of your leadership, you and those following you should experience internal change. You all should be growing and developing. Good leadership never leaves people the same as they were before their experience with you. Transformational leadership leaves them better than they were.

Third, leadership is visionary. Because leadership is about people and transformational, then the visionary component of leadership must be about seeing beyond the "here and now" in the lives of people, and helping them to realize what they can be. This is visionary leadership. When we as leaders help people envision where they want to go and then provide them with the transformational tools to get there, then we've effectively helped to raise their awareness.

Equipping Leadership Skills

Many people have the knowledge of what being an equipping leader is all about. They've read Ephesians 4:11-16 and they KNOW all about what is says they should be doing. The problem is that when the rubber meets the road, it's more difficult for them to embody equipping leadership and actualizing the skills necessary to be effective.

In response, there are four key skills with multiple sub-skills that when embodied, assist individuals in becoming equipping leaders. They are...

- Serving

The skill of serving[1] focuses on the care and support of another person. This includes…

1. Personal Posturing – Leaders must upend the pyramid[2], by becoming a servant first, and embodying the leadership of Jesus (Matthew 20:25-28).

2. Care – Leaders must authentically care for, be concerned with, and involve themselves in the lives of followers.

3. Support – Leaders both deflect credit to others and willingly receive the blame for failures[3], while removing all the obstacles for a follower to succeed.[4]

- Facilitation

The skill of facilitation acts as a catalyst for the journey of discovery and purpose for the individual and the team. This includes the skills of…

1. Meeting management – Leaders must create a learning environment that is dedicated to teaching[5] and effective time management for the team.[6]

2. Person development – Leaders must continually provide the space for each follower to become more self- and ministry aware.

- Team Development

The skill of developing teams seeks to collaborate with and empower passionate, gifted, and called people. This includes the skills of…

1. Collaboration – The leader must willingly share resources, knowledge and gifts[7] with their followers.

2. Empowerment – The leader must share authority, power and responsibility[8] with their followers.

3. Discovery – The leader must assist followers in personal discovery (for self-awareness sake) and team discovery (becoming a strength finder and connector[9]).

- Systems Development

The skill of developing systems focuses on creating intentional systems to effectively engage, equip, and esteem others. This includes the skills of…

1. Design – The leader must intentionally design naturally occurring systems (non-random forming[10]) for the team to flourish.

2. Implementation – The leader must create implementation processes for the team to interact with the systems and processes available.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert, The Serving Leader (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.), 100-107.

[2] Ibid., 18.

[3] Jim Collins, Good to Great,

[4] The Serving Leader, 50-60.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Patrick Lencioni, Death By Meeting,

[7] George Cladis, Leading the Team Based Church ( ), 93.

[8] Ibid., 123.

[9] The Serving Leader, 72-84.

[10] Margaret J. Wheatley, Finding Our Way, (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2005), 102-103.