Pilgrimage

I’ve been reading Secrets of the Secret Place by Bob Sorge as part of my morning devotions.  Sorge really gives some excellent insight into the devotional life…hence the post on Thomas a’ Kempis who’s writings are classic for Christian devotion.

I am coming to believe that our sanctification and ability to wage spiritual warfare are completely tied to our devotional life.  This is why it is often the most challenging aspect of a believer’s life.  Show me a believer who is struggling with habitual sin and I will show you someone who has a poor devotional life.  As one who is in ministry and has seen the effect of “busy-ness” on the home of the pastor, I can testify to the challenges of maintaining a healthy relationship with the Lord.

My heart breaks for men of God who do not make time to spend large amounts of time with God.  Good men who desire to be faithful to God’s word can easily get caught in the trap of serving others before or instead of serving God.  Parishioners in the congregation should rejoice if they can pay their pastor to spend his entire work-week in God’s presence.  People are looking for a word from God, and the only way a man of God can deliver it is by spending time with the Lord. Continue reading

Conflict can be defined as a “circumstance in which two (or more) persons have incompatible needs, desires, or goals” (Shaffer 2005, 281). This is an issue from which the church is not immune. In addition to preaching, teaching and counseling, pastors often serve as initiators, moderators and terminators of church conflict. It is not surprising that there are many Christian books and journal articles to help ministers successfully navigate conflict. Crisis and conflict have been part of the social fabric of the local church since its genesis in scripture. It has been said that conflict is inevitable; therefore, professional ministers and local lay leaders have an obligation to clearly understand conflict origins, conflict management, and how to bring healing once conflict has ended. Continue reading

The socio-economic and cultural changes in post-modern society have presented an unprecedented challenge to traditional evangelical churches. While Catholics and high-church protestant denominations have experienced serious decline in the last several decades, this has only been a relatively recent phenomenon to plague some evangelical churches. Pastors, church boards and congregations are grappling with the theology of the institutional church and its relevance in addressing the myriad questions of secular society. As evangelicals seek to change the methodology without watering down the message of the Gospel, many churches are experiencing positive transformation while others are simply maintaining the status quo or dying off. Often, the success or failure of a congregation seeking change rests in the theory of change embraced by the local church. Continue reading

The last two weeks I was at school for my January intensives.  On Monday (Jan. 12th), we had a class on sanctification and discipleship.  The overarching theme of the class was that whatever your view on sanctification (Wesleyan, Reformed, Pentecostal, Keswick, Augustinian) it should impact your methodology of discipleship.  It really struck a chord with me.  Often, we spiritualize the work of sanctification to such an extent that we fail to build ministries in such a way that they are informed from our theological presuppositions.  Make no mistake, sanctification is a spiritual work of the Holy Ghost.  It is, however, also mediated through Christ’s Body -the church. 

Unfortunately, so much of church discipleship is prepackaged hullabaloo.  It is a dumbed-down articulation of God’s word so that it can be marketed for any theological persuasion.  While I understand that the markets are driven by the consumers, it seems that the local church should be the genesis of Christian formation…not some big-wig in a city high-rise office looking at the bottom line.

We must be convinced that the local church is the cistern wherein the water of the Spirit washes clean the saints of God.  In our post-modern age, where one of the biggest internal threats in the church is not schism but lethargy with regard to the doctrines of faith, biblically informed practical discipleship is essential.  The rift between our culture and the scriptures is ever-widening.  There is an urgency for God’s word to be taught in power and revelation.  Men’s hearts need conviction.  We need a revival of His Spirit.

“O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” Habakkuk 3:2

Integrity in Deed

The following series was written as a paper for SBTS on my personal leadership philosophy.

A third component that is necessary for a holistic philosophy of leadership is integrity in deed. As with the other elements of my leadership philosophy, submission to God and humility of heart, integrity in deed challenges one to congruence in the personal and professional spheres of life. “Ordinary discourse about integrity involves two fundamental intuitions: First, that integrity is primarily a formal relation one has to oneself, or between parts or aspects of one’s self; and second, that integrity is connected in an important way to acting morally, in other words, there are some substantive or normative constraints on what it is to act with integrity” (Cox, La Caze and Levine 2005). Christian leadership requires personal integrity to be judged by the scriptures. A professional minister’s integrity is rightly judged by his or her adherence to the biblical precepts.

In the Old Testament, God appeared to Solomon to instruct him to maintain “integrity of heart.” God states:
As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel’” (I Kings 9: 4-5).

While David did not always act perfect in response to the mandates of God, he was open and repentant about his failures. He also sought to please the Lord throughout his reign over Israel. Men and women of integrity are responsible to seek and do the will of God. In doing so, personal relationships are valued and God is glorified. God understood that David’s desire to walk in integrity had a direct correlation to David’s love for Him. Knowing this, God blessed David’s lineage. Proverbs 20:7 speaks of blessing to one’s posterity when one walks in integrity: “A righteous man who walks in his integrity; how blessed are his sons after him.” Leaders must be concerned for long-term organizational and ministerial success, even beyond one’s tenure in leadership.

In the New Testament, Jesus sought to capture the essence of integrity in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ teachings on moral living, marriage, prayer, and fasting call believers to bring harmony between their thought-life and personal deeds. Regarding adultery He states, “You have heard that is was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28). Jesus knew the seedbed of sin is in one’s thoughts. Sanctified thoughts begin to yield sanctified actions. Jesus’ intent was to help those he taught understand that integrity is essential to the community of faith and must be consistently resident in the life of believers.

In secular literature, Jim Collins found that many CEO’s lacked the integrity needed to secure their company’s future success. He states, “…concerned more with their own reputation for personal greatness, [these leaders] often failed to set the company up for success in the next generation. After all, what better testament to your own personal greatness than that the place falls apart after you leave?” (Collins 2001, 26). These leaders were so concerned about their own well-being and public standing that they were willing to risk their personal integrity in order to maintain a positive public persona. Collins goes further, “In over three quarters of the comparison companies, we found executives who set their successors up for failure or chose weak successors, or both” (26). Leaders with a high level of integrity provided a consistent frame of reference for employees, constituents, and family members.
Kouses and Posner found that character, honesty, and integrity are essential qualities in leadership.

They state:
It’s clear that if people anywhere are to willingly follow someone—whether it be into battle or into the boardroom, the front office or the front lines—they first want to know that the person is truthful, ethical, and principled. When people talk to us about qualities they admire in leaders, they often use “integrity” and “character” as synonymous with honesty. No matter what the setting, everyone wants to be fully confident in their leaders, and to be fully confident they have to believe that their leaders are people of strong character and solid integrity (27).

Integrity in word and deed provides a consistent compass that guides leaders in difficult times. “There is an ethical dimension to leadership that neither leaders nor constituents should take lightly” (393).

Integrity also attracts the best people to an organization. Aspiring leaders want to learn from the best. They desire to discover principles from people who strive for harmony in their public and private lives. Collins suggests that some of the “best and brightest” in the business world look for opportunities to work with individuals who seek to take organizations from “good to great.” He indicates that since these people joined an organization because of the leadership’s character and integrity, they are much more willing to work through organizational change. “The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great” (42). The agility provided to an organization through employees who are accepting of change allows it to meet societal and economic transitions rapidly. Leadership sets the tone for this paradigm through concern for personal character and integrity.
Conclusions

These three components of my leadership philosophy are practically applied in the manner in which I relate to God and others. Submission to Christ, humility of heart, and integrity in deed are a means for God’s grace to be manifest in my life. It is through these virtues that God is glorified and His kingdom is advanced. The times when these virtues have been least present in my life are times when God has not been a priority. These components of Christian leadership are not something that I can learn on my own or achieve through a traditional didactic approach. Submission, humility, and integrity are qualities that can only be manifested in their purest form through diligent, consistent relationship with Christ.

Humility of Heart

After submission to Christ, the second component of my leadership philosophy is humility of heart. This component is one that I strive for, yet never fully apprehend. Duane Elmer discusses humility in Cross-Cultural Servanthood: “A proper perspective of the holy God we serve brings a proper perspective of self—defined by lowliness of mind, gentleness of spirit and meekness of attitude. These stand in contrast to a haughty, self important spirit” (Elmer 2006, 29). He goes on to say:
Humility unites us while pride divides us. The pride of Lucifer broke the unity of heaven and the harmony between God and his creation. Pride continues to break unity between us and God, and between believers. We can’t follow Christ as humble servants and participate in quarrelsome relationships. The humble servant strives to reconcile people in God-glorifying unity (31).

Elmer rightly suggests that prideful ambition destroys Christian unity. Unity is the seed of greatness in the Church body. In the upper room on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the Church as they were in unity together. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus indicated that there were great blessings for those who sought peace and unity.

Marshall Goldsmith suggests that there are twenty habits that prevent one from realizing his or her full potential. The need to win it all, the need to show the world how smart we are, not listening to others, and failing to express gratitude are a few habits on his list (Goldsmith 2007, 40-41). Each of the habits Goldsmith shares has, at its core, pride. Pride can be defined as an “inordinate love of one’s own excellence” (Livingstone 2006). Goldsmith goes on to say that the higher one climbs the corporate ladder, the more challenges become behavioral rather than logistical. He shares the example of Jack Welsh who became the CEO at General Electric. Welsh had a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, but the board of directors was hesitant to appoint him as CEO because of “his brashness, his blunt language, [and] his unwillingness to suffer fools. The issues holding him back were strictly behavioral” (43).

In ministry, Christian leaders have to quickly face behavioral challenges. Leadership that does not recognize the influence and negative effects of pride becomes self-serving. The scriptures speak plainly with regards to maintaining a humble spirit before the Lord. The Preacher proclaims, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate” (Pr. 8:13). He later says, “When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom” (Pr. 11:2), and also, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling (Pr. 16:18). The Preacher of Proverbs articulates pride as an impediment to spiritual growth and godly leadership.

The secular marketplace has also found prideful ambition an impediment to organizational change. In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, Jim Collins shares several examples of successful companies that were propelled to the top by CEO’s that were larger than life only to have a significant fall once these men left their positions. His research suggests that “superstars” at the helm of businesses negatively impact the organization. Conversely, Collins shares several illustrations of humble individuals leading companies from the brink of extinction to marketplace excellence. What Collins terms a “level 5 leader” is one who “channels their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious—but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves” (Collins 2001, 21). Too often, humility and self-abasement are confused. As Collins shares, Level 5 leaders, while humble in their approach, are aggressive to reach goals for things larger than themselves.

Kouzes and Posner speak of the necessity of working toward purposes that are beyond one’s self. They suggest that one should seek to release the “human potential in others, [balance] the needs of the individual and the community, [defend] the fundamental values of the community, and [instill] in individuals a sense of initiative and responsibility.” They further state:
Attending to these goals will always direct your eyes to higher purposes. As you work to become all you can be, you can start to let go of your petty self-interests. As you give back some of what you’ve been given, you can reconstruct your community. As you serve the values of freedom, justice, equality, caring, and dignity, you can constantly renew the foundations of democracy. As each of us takes individual responsibility for creating the world of our dreams, we can all participate in leading (393).

Clearly, the notion of humble service is a virtuous attribute in the professional community. While virtuous, it is essential in Christian ministry.
Leadership that reflects the humility of Christ is not void of conflict. The temporary instability experienced by diverse ideas is often helpful as long as it is resolved in the spirit of Christian unity. Kenneth Gangel addresses this concept in Feeding and Leading. “Leadership style affects every aspect of administrative behavior and certainly looms large in the area of human relations. Conflict often starts here because autocracy can produce resentment…” (Gangel 1989, 207). Ted Engstrom and Edward Dayton concur in an article written for the Christian Leadership Letter titled “The Wrongness of Being Right.”

Being right can be a losing proposition. If you are right all the time, you will intimidate people, and make it harder for them to remember the facts or attempt to share them with you. “No sense telling old So-and-So. He has his mind made up before you begin.” People don’t really believe old So-and-So is right all the time. They just believe that is what he thinks about himself. People in this situation easily become isolated (Engstrom and Dayton 1980).

“The goal is not absence of conflict; disequilibrium in the organization often leads to creative results. How we resolve the conflict demonstrates whether we are advancing the cause of Christ or our own personal careers and goals” (Gangel 1989, 207).

John the Beloved shares the stark contrast between goals that are egocentric and goals that seek good beyond oneself. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is of the world” (I Jn 2:16). The negative effects of pride are contrasted with humility gained through pleasing the Father. Leadership that is focused on pleasing the Father yields internal character. This internal character is generated through a humble spirit that seeks the well-being of others. Those enslaved by the “pride of life” find little use for an omniscient God. Conversely, those of a humble spirit seek answers beyond themselves. They are eager to seek God through prayer, ask questions of peers and subordinates, and implement solutions where others receive credit. They become almost eclectic in their approach to problem-solving: they seek the best solution, no matter who is the originator of the idea.

“Christian leadership is different from other kinds of leadership because no Christian leader can assume the position of being ‘number one,’ that is, the leader” (Lawrence 1987). In secular organizations those at the higher levels of corporate structures are often seen as models of leadership. They are studied in academia and their companies are researched as products of their leadership expertise. In contrast, biblical leadership is ultimately concerned with ascribing worth, value, and honor to God. Goals are focused on these ideals. Vocational pursuits of the Christian leader are a means to accomplish a divine purpose as ordered by the Lord. Rather than authoritarian structures based on concerns of profit and loss, Christian leadership encourages pastors, teachers, parishioners, and students to introspectively examine and define core thoughts about themselves and God; then define a philosophy around that framework.

Submission to Christ

In developing a personal philosophy of leadership, submission to Christ is the initial and primary component. Christ consistently sought to submit His will to that of the Father. Even in death He prayed to be delivered from His torturous destiny, yet instinctively submitted Himself to God’s chosen plan for redemption. “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will’” (Matt 26:39, NASB). In His words, in His prayers, and in His actions, Christ not only exemplified genuine submission to the will of God, but also chose it to be His first priority in His earthly ministry.

Jesus is the sole prototype for leadership development. His methodology and practical applications are affirmed–often unwittingly–by leadership theorists in almost all professional industries. James Kouzes and Barry Posner articulate Messianic virtues in The Leadership Challenge. They state: “The climb to the top is arduous and long. People become exhausted, frustrated, and disenchanted. They’re too often tempted to give up. Leaders encourage the heart of their constituents to carry on. Genuine acts of caring uplift the spirits and draw people forward” (Kouzes and Posner 2002, 19). In a strikingly similar statement, John records Jesus as stating: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (16:33; NKJ). Close to two millennia before Kouzes’ and Posner’s text became a blockbuster in the business world, Jesus encouraged the heart of His disciples by letting them know the journey ahead would be long and hard, but He would be with them.

The writers of the New Testament continued to emphasize Jesus’ conviction that godly submission is essential to the Christian faith. The apostle Paul encourages submission to God, submission to governmental leaders, and submission within the family in his letters to Rome, Ephesus, and Colossae. Peter also encourages Christian leaders to live in submission to the Lord and others. He states: “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5, KJV). The early church leaders understood that God’s mechanism to produce and reproduce leaders was keenly designed in humanity’s willingness to submit to the Father and to one another. This is a basic, yet essential building block of God’s kingdom on earth.
Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and Ken McElrath elaborate on this notion in The Ascent of a Leader. They state:
When we reflect on the nature of our Creator, we gain a sense of these deeper needs of our heart. The degree to which we entrust ourselves to the Supreme Being demonstrates the level at which we have understood the character of that being. Each of us must ask, “Is God good or capricious…?”…If we trust that God is good by nature, we will honor God’s authority and power in our lives (68).

By honoring God’s authority and power in one’s life, there is a realization that egocentric behaviors fail to further the divine plan. Individualism submits its will to kingdom prerogatives. Goals and aspirations find their focus in the common good. With this principle in mind, as I seek to establish God’s headship in my personal and professional life, ministerial opportunities are an occasion to further submit to the will of God and advance His Kingdom. Personal goals are measured by my desire and willingness to submit to God’s kingdom plan.

Zenger and Folkman share five fatal flaws that “must be fixed” in order for a leader to realize his or her full potential. They articulate lack of accountability as one of the key detriments to exemplary leadership (164). According to the authors, the extraordinary leader consistently seeks to put greater emphasis on group needs and affirmation than on personal needs and affirmation. Those in leadership who are regularly seeking to gain personal credit for jobs well done and abscond responsibility when work goes awry consistently fail in leading organizational change. Their unwillingness to submit themselves to the counsel and leadership of others brings failure both organizationally and personally. Conversely, one who eagerly seeks to listen to others and implement suggestions for improvement is an organizational asset. Herein lies the goal of this component of my leadership philosophy–to bring blessing to the kingdom of God, my family, and the ministries in which I labor.

The initial leadership paradigm instituted by God first requires submission to Him and His divine purposes. Personal leadership philosophies that begin here establish a bedrock principle, which guides through the myriad challenges of professional and ministerial leadership. My personal practice is to seek submission to Christ through prayer, fasting, and meditation on His Word. These disciplines are the essential elements of all the other components of my philosophy. One’s response to Christ and His calling are to first submit one’s will to His will, and then follow as He leads. Richard Foster in his classical work, The Celebration of Discipline says the spiritual disciplines (which include fasting, prayer, and meditation) liberate one from the “stifling slavery to self-interest and fear.” These are the antithesis of submission to Christ (Foster 1998, 2).