8
leadership summit: semi-live blogging (day 2)
day two has begun and i will once again be semi-live blogging from the leadership summit. i’ll try and answer any questions that you leave in the comments throughout the day and keep the conversation going.
an interesting thing… before michael porter’s session hybels got up to speak about a book revealing the findings of a church wide study about older Christians and whether or not they were growing in their church (willow creek). he talked up and down about how ground-breaking this study was and the findings in the study. it revealed that older christians were not growing at willow creek because they were not being taught to feed themselves. they haven’t been taught to read their bible, journal, pray, etc, etc, etc… and i had to ask myself, ‘this is groundbreaking?’ yet i think a lot of people in attendence (based upon their reactions) thought the same thing: ‘this is ground breaking stuff!’ i’m just a little confused by it and wonder: if willow creek calls it ground breaking, is it really ground breaking? can’t we say of something they’re just finding out: ‘duh!’ and not be deemed hyper-critical? i guess i’m just a little confused and didn’t realize that teaching people to be disciples was ground-breaking material.
michael porter could have easily been one of the more controversial figures of the summit if not for the soon-to-come appearance of jimmy carter (saturday), but unfortunately porter will more than likely just slip away by the wayside without many people talking through his material.
porter made some very good points as it revolved around our need to think more strategically about what it is that we are doing. his assertion is that as the church or even as social service agencies we turn the strategy switch off and allow ourselves to run by emotion when we start to serve our community—we disengage from logic and strategy. it’s almost as if when we begin to serve we allow ourselves to be overcome by the overall vision, but not the path or plan on how to accomplish the vision, therefore we find ourselves shooting from the hip and throwing darts in the hopes that we’ll hit the target.
porter contends that the right mindset is to think of what we’re doing as delivering a service to a customer and figuring out how to add value to that customer. we have to begin to see service as a way of delevering these “goods” just like a business does in the marketplace. i’m not sure i completely agree, however he makes a good point when he said (based on his observations and conversations), “the community activities that churches are involved in are more about the congregation than about the recipients.” it seems that we’re selfish in our motives to help the community. based upon how we communicate our service activities it seems they all revolve around how we feel when it’s all said and done and how it has added value to us. we, then, are not truly altrusitic. we have to shift our focus away from how we feel at the end and begin to focus on the acheiving results.
porter said, “the act of giving and charity are laudible, but they are not an end in and of themselves. we have to make sure that we are acheiving results. currently at best you can be ineffective and at worst you can do harm.” we must begin to think in terms of the results that we are acheiving… we need to be strategic. in our approaches.
maybe his most interesting statement was, “non-profits have an obligation to society to use our money well—especially as tax-free organizations because you’re using the tax payers dollars.” this was an interesting twist. as churches, by not paying taxes we are in a sense getting a subsidy from the government to use that money wisely in order to make a difference in society. if we’re not using that money wisely, then we’ve made a bad bargain with society and we aren’t adding value in any way.
we have to begin thinking strategically and wisely so that we can begin to truly make a difference for the Kingdom… otherwise we’ll just continue to throw darts at random in hopes of hitting something.
i was highly impressed with powell’s interview and his capacity for leadership. there was a great wealth of wisdom to be gained from him that transfers beautifully into the church. so, instead of pontificating, i’ll just share his list of leadership ruls.
powell-isms: colin powell’s list of leadership rules
- promote a clash of ideas: promote healthy conflict
- encourage a noisy environment: get people talking, don’t let them be shy
- only people get things done: planning only gets you blue in the face
- maintain an open door policy
- the leaders have the responsibility to put the followers in the right seat to be the most successful.
- probe the organization in order to get the correct feedback, not just attaboys (get outside and inside information)
- reward your best performers and get rid of your non-performers
- part of leadership is pruning the organization
- be prepared to disappoint people and make them angry
- have fun in your command
- fit no stereotypes
- perpetual optimism is a force multiplier: “we’re gonna make it!”
- things always look better in the morning: always be optimistic about what the day will bring
- avoid war if at all possible
- trust the element of instinct
- prepare to be lonely
- all of us have a debt of service that we may never be able to repay
shaow missions: the dark, inner mission and demons that the leader faces and needs to overcome.
we all have shadow missions in our lives, those little secrets or those public affairs that seem to drive our lives and these are the missions that seek to destroy the leader and/or the mission of the church. there are often times that other people see our shadow missions before we do, yet are unwilling to speak the truth in love out of fear yet it needs to be done. we must, as leaders, recognize our own shadow missions first and foremost, but yet be willing to speak the truth in the lives of others in order to spare them from disaster and the mission of the church.
this was a tremendous session… but instead of laying it all out, i’m going to recommend that you read dave ferguson’s comments about it…
8 Responses to “leadership summit: semi-live blogging (day 2)”
Leave a Reply
I love the stuff from Powell. Lots of application to leading a church. Thanks for sharing… I think my favorite for today is “fit no stereotypes” I had some construction workers who are working on our church building ask me “what kind of church is Crossroads?” YUCK! I hate that question because I’ve never found a great response that someone doesn’t have stereotype for. I think next time I’ll answer and say “we really don’t fit any stereotypes.” : )
Porter sounded good too. Nice twist on the non-profit. I also find it intriguing to think of ‘making sure we are achieving results.’ What results should I expect when I give and serve the community? If I am serving out of love are there times when maybe I don’t see the results I was expecting? I wonder what results are ineffective or harmful? Is he talking about like giving money to an alcoholic and enabling them to buy more booze?
i really liked the “fit no stereotypes” stuff as well… it was great. i was blown away by him, his wisdom and knowledge.
i think what porter was saying was to plan strategically and expect some sort of results… have clearly set out goals for what you want to accomplish and set out to acheive it. if you fail, go back to the drawing board and try again… and again, and again. it’s okay to set high goals, just make sure they’re achievable.
the other thing is that i think he was using it in terms of the organization instead of on an individual level… although i’m sure there can be some carry over into the individual realm as well.
That makes sense….
Man, I wish I was there to hear Ortberg. I’m guessing that a leader’s greatest fear is that we’ve run out of coffee on a Sunday morning.
funny story… our coffee maker actually broke at the shorewood campus a couple of weeks ago and it was a frenzied panic to know what to do… we eventually made our way to dunkin’ donuts to pick up a couple of traveler packs of coffee to make due for the rest of the morning…
it’s truly a big fear!
That’s a great story… I wish coffee was my only shadow mission.
Good stuff from Ortberg. He seems to hit me where I’m at most of the time. I will get a copy of his message as I agree that we all have ’shadow missions’ and most of us are either unaware or minimize their potential for destruction.
Did you relate to this one?
yeah, just a little bit.
i’ve seen the shadow mission not only in my own life, but i’ve certainly seen first-hand the destruction of someone else’s shadow mission and the devestating effects that it had on the mission of the church. it makes me wonder what would be different if someone had stood up to it earlier…
Yep, it seems difficult to manage the ’shadow mission’ completely on our own. To have somone alongside, whom you can mutually be watchful of each other, appears to be vital for most of us. I haven’t been able to do much on my own. I need a ‘we’.
There also seems to be illusory forms of accountability (perhaps even blogs). So we settle for them, when the real thing is much more time-consuming and painful.
i would certainly agree! there are so many illusory forms of accountability out there—and yes i would throw out blogs as one—and it is because it’s difficult. it’s really hard to look into someone’s eyes and share your concerns, especially when they haven’t given you permission to do so… and even when we do have permission sometimes it doesn’t get any easier. why is that? i know some of it has to do with fear that you will lose a friend… but why can’t confrontation be a good thing, a loving thing, a nurturing thing, a positive thing?