The Power of No

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Rupert Loyd


The board meeting was scheduled for that night and the chair was pulling hair and grinding teeth in frustration. “There is no use in putting together an agenda, it never works.” Agenda madness had struck again.

He had done everything right. The meeting had been on everyone’s calendar for a month. Two weeks before hand, everyone was e-mailed a reminder about the meeting. An agenda had been sent out one week before the meeting. The bulletin from the Sunday before the meeting contained an announcement of place and time. 

Yet the morning saw three “special requests” to appear at the board tonight and two “emergency items” needing to be handled. All the preparation had been for nothing.

The chair’s observation was spot on: agendas don’t work.

People work.

The goal of any chair of a committee, board, or council is to maximize the value of the time that people spend together in the meeting. The agenda is the foundation for saying no.

Over the years, I’ve discovered three questions that must be asked of each and every issue when planning what items should appear before a committee, board, or council:

  • Is there an item that can quickly be disposed of by delegating it to a smaller group with power to act or recommend? Ruthlessly applying the Biblical principle of “High Accountability/Low Control” streamlines meetings, empowers people and efficiently get things done.
  • Is the issue one of policy, personnel, finance, or something else? Categorizing the issues helps to place them in proper perspective and can point out possible interactions and consequences between issue decisions.
  •  Is there an issue with a hard deadline for a response? You would think this would be a “no-brainer” yet there are far too many times when a meeting goes “extra innings” because an issue with a hard deadline was scheduled to be discussed last.

Asking and answering these three questions of each issue while putting together the agenda, gives the chair the foundation and confidence to say what often needs to be said to last minute requests.

No.

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Millennial Leadership in the missio Dei

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Joshua Henry

One of the best ministry books in 2011 came from my friend and professor, Dr. Bob Whitesel. His book Organix: Signs of Leadership in a Changing Church (Abingdon, 2011), emphasizes an organic and millennial approach to church leadership that encourages the next generation to partner in the missio Dei, or mission of God to reconnect his wayward children with the Loving Creator.

Dr. Whitesel describes modern leadership as being associated with an authoritative command, control mentality that dominated the period between the Enlightenment (ca. 1650) through the Industrial Revolution (ca. 1800). Because of this vast timeframe, previous generations including the Builders, Baby Boomers, and Gen. X, have operated within the constructs of modern leadership.

Instead of a power driven focus coinciding with modernity, Dr. Whitesel recognizes a new, millennial approach to leadership that has surfaced with the turn of the twenty-first century. As the name states, the millennial approach to leadership has become very prevalent among those born between 1984-2002, respectively known as the Millennial Generation. The millennial attitude for leadership concentrates on Christ, community, collaboration and creativity among other organic conditions for church growth.

In addition, the title’s spelling of “Organix” is essentially an acronym where each letter represents a different attribute many millennial leaders have. For instance, Dr. Whitesel explains how the “O” signifies the importance millennial leaders’ places on others. Likewise, “N” stands for networks, both physically and through the advent of social media used in connecting people to each other and Christ.

Because the missio Dei, transcends geographical and generational boundaries, it is imperative that current church leaders, both young and old, learn how to minister more effectively in the current cultural context of the millennial generation.

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Seeds of Disaster

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Rupert Loyd

Sometimes the seeds for leadership disasters are sown at the very beginning of a leader’s tenure. (The following names and places are changed).

Rev. Jack, in the market for a new church, found a new pastoring opportunity. Although the church had grown over the last few years, it was now seeing decline in attendance and finances as the year-long pastoral search process took its toll. People were becoming fearful about the future.

During the week-long interviewing process, people spoke to Jack about the previous pastor, characterizing him as a “program guy” and someone who started a lot things in the church but “always seemed to be asking people to become more and more involved.” The congregation was tired. They wanted someone who would focus on Sunday sermons, visit the sick and administer the sacraments. They especially wanted a strong preacher.

This was music to Jack because he strongly believed in the “primacy of the pulpit,” the idea that preaching is the defining function of the pastor and the center of church ministry. He told the church he understood the problem, laid out his plan on how to fix it, and the church hired him and heaved a collective sigh of relief.

Jack made several mistakes in this scenario.

  • First, Jack did not understand the nature of ministry.

Ephesians 4.11-13 was a good preaching text, not something around which to organize church ministry. The gifting of God’s people and the development of a discipleship culture were not even on his radar screen. His idea of “equipping people for ministry” was to tell them what they needed to do.

  • Second, he clung to a notion of “heroic leadership.”

Jack saw himself as the “hero,” riding in to save the day. He would save the church by  preaching really well and the church would grow. Jack believed that church ministry revolved around preaching, which fit well into his “heroic” notions about leadership. For Jack, leadership was about the leader getting others to do what he thought best.

  • Finally, when Jack spoke forcefully to the people about “their problem and his solution” he lowered the collective urgency so necessary for change.

What he communicated was, “Hire me and your problem will be solved.” He stole responsibility from the people to do the work necessary for real change. He did not realize that lasting solutions must be crafted by leaders and followers together.

Jack left the church 18 months later, complaining about the “spectator mentality” of the congregation.

What was sown, was reaped.

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