Issues in Church Leadership: Three Articles and One Podcast

Is There a "Leadership Code"?

James MacGregor Burns wrote, “Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.” So to better understand leadership, Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, and Kate Sweetman set out to discover if there is a “leadership code” —a set of leadership characteristics that are transferable from one context to another.

Perhaps you have heard someone say, “Leadership is leadership.” The authors would agree. After interviewing leadership experts, reviewing works about leadership from multiple generations, and processing their own observations, they concluded that 60-70% of all leadership is transferable. In other words, up to 70% of what makes a leader effective in one environment is transferable to another environment. Some know this intuitively and hire proven leaders for the “transferable 70%” of the job and train for the 30% of the job that is industry or discipline specific.

So what characteristics make up the “leadership code”? The authors articulate five essential qualities in all leaders, regardless of the context.... Keep reading

Creating an Incredible Team Culture—An Interview with Chris Rivers [Podcast]

How do you make sure your team stays aligned with your mission and vision?

Chris Rivers’ job at NewSpring Church in South Carolina was to teach new staff NewSpring’s culture.

The challenge was they were adding up to ten new staff per WEEK. Chris explains how they did it, and what you need to do to keep your team aligned, whether you’re adding staff, adding volunteers or simply trying to align your existing team. Keep reading

7 Steps to Conflict Resolution

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. These dear friends had labored with us in Bible study, outreach, prayer, and church planting. They had financially supported our collegiate ministry for years, and they had commended our work to others. And now this couple was maligning us with accusations not based in fact—at least insofar as I understood the facts—and picked up from people they had recently met. We never had a chance to defend ourselves.

Things escalated, and people chose sides. A few tried unsuccessfully to mediate the conflict. In the eyes of the primary couple, everything we did was now tainted with suspicion. In our eyes, they couldn’t do much that was right, either. My heart knew little but fear, anger, and self-justifying self-protection.

What can you do in such situations? When two or more sinful people draw near to each other, disagreements will surface. From time to time, these disagreements can lead to hurt feelings, tension, backbiting, and all-out opposition. If you’re not prepared, these situations will blindside you, and your heart’s vileness will only fuel the eruption.

But the Lord gave us detailed advice on how to handle explosive disagreements; it’s found in Philippians 4:2-9. Keep reading

7 Ways to Respond to an Overly-Negative, Complaining Bully

How’s that for a title?

After I finished talking to a group of pastors recently, a pastor approached me and asked a question. He asked, “What do you do when there is one person who is always trying to disrupt what you are doing? He is never satisfied with anything I do and he incites people against me. I know he’s going to complain about something every time I see him or his name comes up in my inbox. Honesty, I think he’s the one obstacle in us being all we could be as a church. He’s like an 8th grade bully who never grew out of it.”

Wow!

That’s a paraphrase– but it’s a true story.

And you’re shocked. You’ve never heard anything like it before – right?

It’s certainly never happened to you. Correct?

Of course it has!

In my experience, most churches have one of these type people – – or more.

They remind me of reading 1 Samuel 17 and the introduction of the giant Goliath. The people are intimidating, disruptive, and, if we’re honest, frightening at times.

I need to say that I don’t believe these type people are as big an obstacle as we make them out to be in our mind. We allow them to intimidate us that way. And, they usually know it which is often part of their objective.

Thankfully, the ruddy shepherd boy David was willing to call the bluff.

But, how should we respond? Keep reading

Photo credit: Pixabay, public domain