The Other Side of Leadership

It was 1993 and I was staring at a screen, my hands limp on my keyboard. I didn’t know if I had the desire to type anything. Hired as youth pastor at a mid-sized church in New Jersey earlier that year, I quickly discovered that the student ministry was ingrown, stagnant, and very much centered on one adult volunteer. I was discouraged. I couldn’t see a couple of years into the future when the ministry would turn around in exciting ways.

Two years later, I began working with the younger classes, who became the new student leadership as they got older. Under their tenure, many new faces would come through that student ministry and many salvation decisions would be made.

But I didn’t know that, staring my screen in 1993. All I knew was that I was questioning a lot of things, including my calling to that ministry at that time.

I am thankful to the many mentors and peers who offered me words of emotional encouragement during that time in my life. Those words were helpful and welcome. Twenty-two years later, if I could offer the 1993 youth pastor version of me anything, however, it would not be kind words. It would be what has come to me from 25 years of vocational ministry experience and the wisdom of others through conferences, training, and advice: a framework.

In 1993, I began to work out a tangible day-by-day plan. A few years later, I read George Barna’s book, The Power of Vision, and I added many of its insights to my ministry approach. Through the school of hard knocks, I learned and refined it, pitching out the peripherals and embracing the core.

Arriving to that point, when I no longer had the inspiration to outline a lesson plan, looked more like a slow slide than a sudden drop. For those of you who have reached this point before, you know that a myriad of things can lead you to despair and ineffectiveness in ministry. We can slide to convention and predictability, somewhere along the way making the unconscious choice that stability is more important than effectiveness. Maybe your internal or external environment changed, and you fell behind the curve. It could be that you simply experienced the typical lifecycle of an organization where, over time, programs and methods became ends unto themselves and you institutionalized. Lastly, maybe over time you made attempts, got tripped up and then became cynical about your ministry’s ability to ever see the colors and excitement of momentum. I encourage you to read on. Please consider that hammering harder is not the key. You need new tools in your tool belt. In fact, maybe you need a new tool belt!

THE OTHER SIDE OF LEADERSHIP

From a distance, a mountain can be overwhelmingly beautiful, with its ridged skyline and white caps. Scaling it can appear to be as simple as hiking on a smooth slope from base to peak. Only when you are up close, do the details of the terrain show themselves, and the challenges with them. The proverbial distance between observing and experiencing mirrors the gap that lies between unawareness and understanding.

There is a similar gap between attending church and participating in the church body. It is only when one participates in day-to-day ministry that one can fully appreciate the complexity of getting from here to there.

On a climb, inclines change to steep ascents in a few steps. Grassy fields transform into jagged rocks and jagged rocks become ice-covered rock faces. Weather changes and equipment fails, and physical and psychological health become a variable when it may have once been static. As in any situation, the same capacity a team has to help one another is the capacity they have to inhibit one another.

Both the mountain and the ministry environment require wise navigation toward the destination and around limitations and obstacles.

Classic Leadership

There are two sides of the ministry mountain. The side that typically comes to mind and receives the most attention is what I term “classic leadership.” It is classic leadership and it is an important part of leadership. We need compelling vision and a clear strategy to move toward fulfilling the vision. We need the right people in place, and that includes passionate leaders who inflame the hearts and minds of their congregations for a God-sized vision that is greater than any one person. While there is much more to leadership than classic leadership, it is undoable to seek to grow and build an organization or church without classic leadership.

To climb a mountain with a limited understanding of the considerations can prove to be inhibiting and even disastrous - and so it is with leadership. An oversimplified thought process might go something like this: We are experiencing challenges. Let’s push harder or seek to be more convincing. Let’s have an event or sermon series on our challenges.

Convincing people to agree on a destination with facts and logic is just the beginning. You can be absolutely right and pointing in the right direction, and still get tripped up. Organizational learning disabilities, amnesia, corporate dumbness, passive aggressive behavior, and active aggressive behavior are just a few of the more common traps that keep groups from reaching their destination.

The Other Side of Leadership

One the other side of the ministry mountain is the lesser-known side of leadership that involves how we think, how we interact with people, and how we follow through. When operating ideally, these three unseen virtues can be described in the following way:

Thinking Seeking and handling truth accurately and holistically on an individual and corporate level

People leading leaders and followers with fairness, integrity and wisdom to form a unified team working toward a common cause

Ministry leadership requires wisdom in navigating the interwoven complexity of these three parts. There is more to ministry than the basics of what can be seen, and we can shut down progress without even knowing it. Whether we do so wisely or carelessly, the handling of thinking, people and follow-through greatly impact our efforts. These three dynamics make up our active environment as ministry leaders. While one, two, or all of these are commonly ignored, these aspects inhibit movement, cause casualties, and at times end entire ministry efforts. Conversely, to navigate the environment wisely is to avoid the things that can trip you up as it allows your ministry to continue on to effectiveness. Wise navigation is not just avoiding what inhibits. It is also enhancing that which propels ministry forward. Lastly, it is also simply doing the right things which honor God and show care for His people.