Last week while spending time at the North American Christian Convention I was able to make my way into a session on Spiritual Formation led by Dr. Neal Windham of Lincoln Christian College. A few of the statements that Dr. Windham made led me down a particular path of thought that juxtaposed our current emphasis on leadership with our lack of emphasis on spiritual formation as necessity.

I have had the opportunity throughout the past couple of years to spend some time at various conferences throughout the country focused specifically on being the church and bettering yourself as a leader. However, I have never found it odd that spiritual formation was never mentioned in the same breath as leadership until Dr. Windham said this:

Ministries can become small, shallow and confused when we neglect the doxological life.

In other words, leadership is important, vision is important, but without a leader who walks with God they are worthless.

It seems as if in our conferences and even in many of our churches we almost assume that spiritual formation is happening even though we do not have the necessary means of measuring or examining the inner life in accountable relationships. Leadership, it seems is all we’re focused on learning about and growing into.

There must be a radical transformation among the people and specifically the leadership of God’s church… yet, in our conventions and conferences the emphasis sits squarely upon the idea of leadership. It is great leaders we bring in to teach us and speak about leadership issues but we rarely, if ever, bring in a great person on spiritual formation to speak to the masses. I do wonder how many leaders, when looking underneath the mask, truly struggle and are unaware with what spiritual formation truly is and how to go about it.

As a church we need to recover a new attentiveness to the Other, a new understanding and emphasis on formation by the work of the Spirit not only in our people but perhaps more especially in our leaders.

I believe the emphasis on leadership has been extremely effective without it I’m not sure we’d see some of the amazing ministries that are on the landscape today. As a result, I’m not advocating we reduce the notion of leadership or reduce our emphasis on it. Rather, I believe what we need is to elevate the role of spiritual formation in our conversation and practice to the level or above where we currently hold leadership. It will be then and only then that the church will begin to move forward into a new realm of revival.

Leadership and spiritual formation is not an either/or issue… it’s both/and.

The past few days I’ve been at the North American Christian Convention, the annual gathering of my tribe, participating in a couple of workshops and many great and exciting conversations about San Francisco! One of the sessions that I made my way into was a leadership lecture given by Bill Hybels of Willow Creek. I’ve long been intrigued by Hybels relationship with the Christian Church, especially after hiring Gene Appel and Mike Breaux both of whom hail from the brotherhood. Admittedly, Hybels doesn’t know much about us… but I think we have more in common than he realizes.

Hybels talk was entitled The Four Things I Would Tell Leaders on My Deathbed. And here are some notes I jotted down.

1) Vision –> Keep the Vision CLEAR!
There is some misunderstanding about the phrase “Where there is no vision the people perish”. The word perish actually refers not to a physical death, but a real atrophy of the church. The atrophy comes from people not doing anything, not exercising their spiritual gifts, because there is no direction and they are not sure how to proceed. There needs to be a clear vision in leadership and when there is, the local church will flourish as people jump on mission to make a difference not only in the church but in the surrounding community.

We’ve got to GET IT; COMMUNICATE IT; and DO IT!

2) Engagement –> Get the People Engaged!

Church should be an all-skate event. Everyone is involved and serving according to their gifting!

The 5 ways to get business leaders and high-capacity leaders involved
a) The Pastor must be TOTALLY committed to the future of that particular congregation. Not someone looking to move on in a couple of years— this is what short circuits many local congregations, perpetual turnover in leadership.

b) No small dreams! Low risk and tiny vision will never captivate the attention of business leaders and high capacity leaders who are continually risking a lot day-in and day-out in their jobs.

c) Personal Asks—repeatedly. You must be willing to sit down one on one with leaders and make the BIG ask. This is typically the only way they will get involved. They already have a lot on their plate and a sign-up sheet doesn’t communicate importance… a personal ask and a challenge does!

d) Feedback is the breakfast of champions! Leaders want feedback. They want to hear your thoughts, encouragements, challenges, etc.

e) A regular reminder that what is being done really matters! This goes hand in hand with feedback, but we must encourage leaders that what they are trading their lives for in pursuit of mission is totally worth it! They need to be reminded that they aren’t crazy, especially if they’re taking major risks for the Kingdom. There are people all around them that are probably telling them otherwise… therefore it’s our responsibility to make sure they know they matter and are making a difference!

3) Make your gatherings MEMORABLE!

In the book of Acts as it related to their gatherings, everyone had a sense of awe and a sense that the supernatural was taking place in their midst! People want more than a show. People want to be changed! They want to be different than when they came. We must be creating a place and space for God’s Spirit to truly work in different, mysterious and miraculous ways.

4) PACE –> Pace yourself for the long haul.

As pastors we must run for a marathon, not a mad dash. If we are not careful, when we attain a certain speed our soul will begin to wilt. It’s at these times that we must recognize that we need to reduce speed in order to restore our soul. We need to find the balance and run at an optimal level as opposed to a constant fluctuation of imbalance.

Ever wonder the main reasons for why pastors get fired? Me too! Thank to the Baptist Press, they’ve given us a new report on the forced termination of pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention.

10. conflict with other staff
9. sexual misconduct
8. administrative incompetence
7. week leadership style
6. decline in attendance
5. conflict pre-dating the pastor’s arrival
4. too-strong leadership style
3. poor people skills
2. church’s resistance to change
1. control issues (the same #1 reason every year since 1996)

I found it really interesting that of the top 10, five had to do with issues surrounding the pastors leadership style or approach. It makes me wonder if the church could reduce some of the pain of termination and overall terminations by simply added 2 components—better leadership training of pastors; and equipping churches with simple human resource tools in the interviewing process.