Converting Leadership

I don't much enjoy reposting material, but this struck me this morning...honestly it hit home.

What sort of leadership leads communities into genuine transformation? One book which got me thinking this month was "A New And Right Spirit: Creating An Authentic Church In A Consumer Culture" by Rick Barger. In the book Rick has a lot to say about adaptive leadership, which he contrasts with technical leadership.

Today I would like to draw your attention to a few comments, not from the book itself, but an associated article on adaptive leadership at transformingchurch.com. Rick writes:

Conversion, not information, is the cause of transformation. In the use of conversion here, I am not talking about the naïve miraculous one-time conversion experience. I am talking about a process that begins by acting converted. The Jesus formula for transformation is certainly not information based. Jesus did not put his disciples into classrooms or simply provide the right information as to what a disciple is. If that is all it takes to convert people to the God-life, then God could have sent a fax rather than a person.

Adaptive Leadership is a converting leadership that brings about transformation. The unconverted church asks the wrong questions. Why can’t we get our youth more involved? How can we increase our worship attendance? Why don’t people give more? What new program do we need? Congregations that behave like Jesus and thus are converting congregations ask different questions: What is God doing in the world and how can we get in on it? What does God need for us to do? How can we make God proud? When congregations seek to join God conversion happens and transformation happens.

The place to begin, however, is with the leader. Does the leader reflect in his or her life that the leader’s home is clearly in the sacred story of the church? Does the sacred story and total devotion to and dependence upon God emanate from the leader in lifestyle choices; in radical generosity and leading in giving; in presence and courage in the midst of conflict; in informed and disciplined theological and biblical ways of thinking, analyzing, and deciding; and, in an always-hopeful, tomb-is-empty attitude? Do Jesus’ seemingly impossible words about loving enemies, unlimited forgiveness, and not losing one’s life in trying to gain the whole world seem to be less impossible in the presence of the leader? If so, then you may have a converting leader.

I found this very timely as I am currently in the process of reworking the introduction to Christianity course for our church. The current course is very technical, very much of an information download. Yet for all this I do not think it leaves people which much of an appreciation for the biblical story and how our life stories fit into it. So I am working towards shifting the focus, from a systematic theology focus to a chronological storytelling focus. I want to spend more time exploring how we live the story, how we breath the story, how the ancient story becomes our story.

I am encouraged by the leadership of Jesus in this. For him, leadership was not about being efficient, leadership was about being authentic.

I guess this hit home, because I have seen and I have tried to be an "effective leader." But the key is in the authenticity. This has been forming in the attic of my head, I just had not found any words. My experience tells me that people respond when I am authentic with them.

So I guess the question I am asking is what is your experience with authenticity?

Connecting

This morning I read Seth Godin's post and it struck a cord with me...

...What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people. Taking them somewhere they'd like to go. Connecting them to one another...

...It's enough if the tribe you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you. It's enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience and puts the status quo under stress. And it's enough if the leadership you provide makes a difference...

As leader we must be challenging the status quo, but it must be done in a way you respect where your group is coming from (their tradition.) It also seems to me that so often we shun being "commited to each other" in our culture (i.e. divorce rates.) Do you find that true? In what ways would you be willing to say you are connected to your "tribe" and what does that look like?

Go down the list of online success stories. The big winners are organizations that give tribes of people a platform to connect.

Go down the list of fashion businesses or business to business organizations. Same thing. Charities, too. Churches, certainly.

It's so tempting to believe that we are merely broadcasters, putting together a play list and hurtling it out to the rest of the world. Louder is better. But we're not. Now we're leaders.

People want to connect. They want you to do the connecting.

So, who do you need to connect. Yesterday K mentioned that she was excited about fall and Halloween. Why, because there was going to be a great opportunity for connection. Chances to connect our tribe with the "unconnected." It will give us a platform to listen to others stories and to tell our story. And who (deep down) doesn't what to be connected? (The Cheers theme song just started playing in the back of my head.

I suck at goodbyes...

...and I should know this. After leaving all of my friends a few short months ago in Corpus, I had already forgotten how much I suck at good byes. (And this comes on an evening we are preparing for a day of doctors appointments. Kind of an emotional day.)

Tonight I had to say goodbye to the first person to hire me after my unfortunate demise in Corpus. She did much to restore my faith in people... in leadership. She helped me see that true leaders deal with honesty, integrity, transparency and love.

She cared for my wife and loved my son. I will be eternally grateful for the role Beth played in my recovery, my life, my work and my family.

So, all our best to "Aunt Juvie" as I am sure that is what Jack will call her. I hope paths paths cross again soon and I pray the move is uneventful and she finds a new community quickly.

Lincoln's Birthday

Today's is Lincoln's birthday...I wonder if our country would exist without this man...

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.... "--Second Inaugural Address

Blink

I have been reading on a book called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It has been very interesting so far. He talked about this thing called thin slicing that basically pointed to the fact that we could make very good, sound judgments about people based on nothing but what we observe in people. The thing that makes this tricky (because this happens on an unconscious level) is that our conscience catches up and interrupts out "gut feeling" with "facts."

It is just interesting to think that we can make good (i.e. accurate) judgments about people and then convince ourself contrary to our initial "feelings." I need to learn to trust my initial feelings.

My Leadership Model