ric...………………………………………………………………………………...6Introduction
As I began my reading David S. Dockery 's Christian Leadership Essentials: A Handbook for Managing Christian Organizations, (Broadman and Holman Academic), I must say that I stepped into it with a great deal of skepticism as to its relevance in my life. I work for a church. I do not run a Christian organization. So, I was not really believing there to be a lot of relevant material in a book about boards and fundraising. While there were some sections that did not grab my attention, I was surprised to find some very insightful tidbits throughout this book. I will now highlight four such lessons and how to apply them.
Lesson #1
I do not have to look very far to find my first lesson. David
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Sloan starts off strong saying, "leaders and leadership are determined by the number of followers but by the changes affected the time for the good of God 's word." This is such a good reminder to those who struggle in small churches while idolizing the "celebrity pastor of the week." We all struggle with wanting bigger ministries and more influence. We feel that we are not truly leaders unless we are leading a crowd. But, refreshingly, according to Sloan, this is not the …show more content…
He is quick to point out that:
"the vast majority Christian entities are the offspring of dynamic founder’s personalities, passions, and dedication focus energy and enlist followers. ... Organizations usually prosper in addressing a specific mission as their leaders remain active, effective, and focused. I contrast with these leaders leave, die, retire, or most significantly fail, the organizations ability to sustain its mission can falter."
This is unfortunately also true in today 's modern church. While not at the level of most secular organizations, many churches have risen to great heights under a dynamic pastor, only to fall when the pastor leaves or makes a moral mistake.
This leads Gyerston to recap Ackerman 's 8 laws for organizations as living systems make. These laws can help me to develop an organization that can far outlast my influence. That should be the goal of any ministry to far outlast its leader. Lesson
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon explained there is nothing new under the sun, so it should not surprise anyone that many times that which appears to be new was conceived earlier. As the body of knowledge enlarges in a particular discipline, that expansion sometimes bumps into something previously revealed. Great men and women from times past have provided a very rich source of material for the development of theology of leadership. These individuals applied godly principles to form deep, yet practical theologies, sometimes even during the darkest periods of human history. Two of these individuals were Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mother Teresa, whose theologies of leadership contributed greatly to shaping the concept of God-centered leadership. Their efforts resonate throughout the church today, and impact church leaders around the world.
Gary Collins, a Christian counselor, helps individuals to comprehend their full potential using a God-centered way of coaching. He believes that, through coaching, an individual builds up a vision for their life and a desire for a good future. The book aids coaches to acquire skills that they require to help others, to emerge winners during difficult and challenging moments in their life. The book is also designed to develop Christian coaches’ in questioning, listening and responding. These can help Christian coaches to assess themselves and build up a strategy for their work. Collins rewrote the second edition in order to simplify his coaching methods. The second publication develops his practical skills as a new head in the world that is changing quickly, which includes how to use diverse situations, insights based on the Bible and customized forms among others.
Transformational leadership also integrates well with a biblical worldview because both advocate valuing followers as well as leaders, the importance of ethical behavior, the need to forgive and learn from mistakes, and the value of a high moral example. Kouzes and Posner advocate leaders having a “moral authority to lead” (2007, p. 41), practicing personal accountability and working to improve all aspects of their follower’s lives. This others-centered leadership approach fits well in the Christ centered atmosphere of a Christian school.
Although written for church leadership, everyday church members would also benefit from understanding the concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders. Ms. Dawn's work is predominantly scholarly, and she cites several other works at great length.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In the book The New Guidebook for Pastors, James W. Bryant and Mac Brunson do a magnificent job of identifying and explaining the practical nuts and bolts that make a successful pastorate and a fruitful church.
Jim Collins’s book, “Good-To-Great”, is about how to structure and manage a good organization into one that produces sustained lasting and profitable results. (Collins: pg. 14) This paper focuses on the concepts from Collins text that any church leader can acquire and apply to a local church context. There are six key concepts processed through three broad stares: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Although this book references businesses, its concepts may also apply to churches. The concepts is Level 5 are, The leadership, first who-then what, confronts the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith), the hedgehog concept, a culture of discipline, technology accelerators, the flywheel and the doom loop, and from
The context from which I bear the most knowledge is a congregational setting that would argue that it is a mystical community, but in its history it was viscerally the model was one of the Church as Institution. At the time of this independent church’s founding it was a part of a Pentecostal denomination which attempted to provide institutional means of governance for the individual churches it represented. Since it is a fairly young denomination, it might be fair to note that it gathered its model from the institutionality of the Catholic Church as a means of governance. The denomination had a head bishop who was elected from a pool of other bishops; these would be the equivalent of the Cardinals in the Vatican. Beneath the bishops were superintendents who managed and trained pastors as they planted congregations. As this particular congregation grew the founding pastor recognized the need to dissociate from the main denomination and enter into ministry as a non-denominational church. In essence this gave more autonomy to the congregation and ultimately to the pastor. This particular minister was often considered a benevolent dictator, which would be the type of leader needed for that time as everyone looked to him for spiritual answers. Historically in the denomination, since many of the congregants were poor and uneducated, the senior pastor was often the most educated person in the church. In those cases theological training often came after placement if it were available. Currently the church has a pastor that has roots in the Pentecostal denomination, but is ordained as an Anglican priest. The autonomy is still present, but there have been many desires to focus the church in more of a model of the church as sacram...
In today’s society, Effective leaders are essential to an organization and exceptional leadership techniques impact the success of reaching goals. Most important leaders often viewed and analyzed as a key component of an organization improperly trained leader can cause both moral and costly negative consequences. Even though unprepared leaders lead in our community today, Billy Graham’s leadership style and communication skills affected the United States because he exhibits characteristic of a leader. There were several obstacles as a leader that Billy Graham endured as a visionary, and his leadership effectiveness and traits observed throughout his ministry.
Satterlee Anita. (2013), Organizational Management and Leadership: A Christian Perspective. 2Ed. Synergistics International Inc. Raleigh, NC
On the other hand, in the book, Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Sanders talks about Christians having reservation to aspire to leadership. Many Christians are not convinced that it is biblical sound to desire a leadership role in the church. They questioned whether their ambitions are noble or honorable. An ambition that is centered on God is noble but those that uplift one’s own desire should be questioned. Although Sanders talks about ambition, he describes the shortage of leader in the church. He speaks about Christian’s talents and how it is imperative for them to glorify God with their talents. Spiritual leaders are regarded as gifted/talented people; however, the talents do not make them leaders. The talents may accent their leadership but God is the one that makes spiritual leaders. Spiritual leadership combines talents and spiritual gifts. Every spiritual leader should be led by the Holy Spirit. Without Him, it is impossible to be a spiritual
The book called Spiritual Leadership, by Henry and Richard Blackaby is about the being a leader. That the leader has a challenges that we have to face every day. It is also about being learn how to help other and lead them to the Lord.
“Today, God is creating wave after wave of people receptive to the Gospel; more people are receptive to the Good News. However, churches are missing the spiritual waves because they haven’t been taught the needed skills to bring revival, health, and explosive growth.” We need to ask “What is keeping our church from growing?” not “What will make our church grow?” Some places to start questioning would be - first review the pastor of the church; are they being the example? Then to the church leader(s), staff and volunteers; are they qualified? Followed by the programs of the church; are they supporting your mission statement? There are many more question to be asked and answered. However, I believe through the lectures, training and guidance given from pastoral leadership 201 I will be able to answer this question:
Church leaders face two kinds of futures: the future we "take" and the future we "make." The future we "take" consists of those events and conditions over which we have little or no control, such as a downturn in the local economy and its eventual impact on church stewardship patterns or demographic change in the church’s neighborhood. In this "take" situation, all we can do is try to anticipate and hedge against what is happening. But there is also the future we "make."
Young, D. S. (1999). Servant Leadership for Church Renewal: Sheperds By the Living Springs. Scottdale: Herald Press.
In my opinion Christian and secular leadership vary greatly. Although they share the same basic principles of what a leader should be, Christian leaders take leadership a step further. First off, Christian leaders are called to lead by Him. This means He has chosen these individuals as His people to take on the responsibility of leading in a Christian manner. Christian leaders lead in a way that exemplifies Christ. They are caring, passionate, and invested in the organization in a way that differs from a secular leader. Some companies or organizations treat there employees poorly and only value them for what they can do for the company. On the other hand an organization lead by a Christian cares about the individual