the reluctant leader

Leadership Lessons from Down Under

Great week here in Manila with the 2 Kevin's. Finally have a moment to update this blog, so here are some observations and lessons from my time in Australia with the Christian Outreach Center leaders:

1. Family/Ministry Balance.
It was refreshing to be around visionary men who were just as eager to tell me about their kids and grandkids as they were to talk about their ministries. I believe doing ministry is exciting and important - but not quite as exciting and important as doing family. Priorities matter.

2. Emerging/Established Leadership Balance.
While most of the COC pastors are older than me, they seemed to intentionally surround themselves with and empower next generation leaders. Most pastors naturally work with people 10 years older and 10 years younger. That means a 50 year-old pastor will usually have staff that is 40-60 years old. It takes deliberate effort for the 50 year old pastor to attract and work with teens, 20's and 30's. These Aussies seemed to pull it off - established leaders leading with emerging leaders - without killing each other.

3. Youth/Adult Balance.
It is rare to see 50 & 60 year old pastors filling their stage with worship leaders and music teams of young people in their 20's. While I might not always like the music style or the hairstyle - I love the results - a flood of young people "owning" the church and the vision. COC head honcho, David McD, said repeatedly, "it is not enough to just have a good youth group. If you want to reach youth, you have to make sure the youth influence and shape the CULTURE of the whole church." I agree with David.

In summary, my Aussie experience inspired me to focus on family, next generation leaders and youth. I hope the Aussies learned something from me.

Special thx to Sean Morris for inviting me to minister to the COC leaders.

New post on my accidental missionary blog, HERE.

 

What is an Every Nation Church?

"What is the key to empowering next generation leaders, and not seeing them eventually run off and do their own thing?"

I have been asked many versions of the above question countless times.

My answer is always something like this: before you empower leaders, you have to establish exactly what you are empowering them to do. In other words you have to be crystal clear about your mission, vision and values. If you are not clear about what you are building or where you are going - when you empower leaders, they will run full speed ahead in the wrong direction.

But, when you are clear about where you are going and what you are building, you can confidently empower next gen leaders, knowing they know what to do and where to go.

While having breakfast with my friend,  Mel Mullen, during the International Apostolic Summit last week, we had an interesting conversation about what kind of church we are trying to lead. We both expressed that we don’t always fit in the standard “Charismatic” box.

If we are not traditional Charismatic churches, then what are we?  In response to Mel's question about what kind of churches Every Nation is planting, here’s what I said:

"We want to plant churches (and campus ministries) in every nation that are Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered and socially responsible, and we want to do it in a way that is culturally relevant."

In my next few reluctant leader blogs, I want to explain what I mean by each of these ideas:

Christ-centered

Spirit-empowered

Socially Responsible

Culturally Relevant

Sometimes It Looks Like Unity, But It's Not

Had a good meeting the last 2 days with some old pastors and some younger campus ministers, and some admin people who are neither young nor old. We were making important decisions about how our churches and campus ministry will work together in the future.

No matter the topic, often these established leader/emerging leader meetings are fraught with misunderstanding and miscommunication. Not this time. 

During our meeting people boldly, passionately and bluntly disagreed - but they always did it respectfully and in a good spirit. Despite the disagreements, we walked out of the room at the end of 2 days in unity. We didn't all agree on everything, but we all left in unity. 

I have been in meetings many times when it looked like unity, but it wasn't. It looked like unity because no one voiced any disagreement. They disagreed. They just didn't say anything. At least not in the meeting. When this happens, we think we have unity. Until the whispers of disunity gradually become a shout.

I have also been in meetings where everyone felt the liberty to boldly and bluntly express their disagreement. Problem was it was done with little humility, respect or love. This obviously destroys unity.

To have real unity, leaders must create an environment - a moment - where people are free to disagree and to express that disagreement. That's the easy part. The hard part is making sure all who express disagreement do so in humility, respect and love - and in the appropriate setting. This is the only way I know to lead toward real unity.

I'm certainly not an expert at this, but I know this is what is required of leadership. And, I thank God for leaders who are bold enough to express their opinions and humble enough to realize that their opinions are sometimes wrong - leaders who know that, despite our disagreements, God expects us to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Eph 4:3)

(New post on my accidental missionary blog with a link to "young Tim" with hair.)
 

For Those Who Hate Decision-Making

Too many leaders don’t like to make tough decisions; they prefer to pass the buck. I’m like that. I’d rather someone else - anyone else - make the difficult and unpopular decisions.

We all have to learn, that once the decision-making authority has been delegated to us, we must make the decision. We can’t just pass the buck back where it came from.    

During a recent meeting with Jerome Ocampo, the JesusRev guy, I realized that either I had not properly empowered some of our leaders, or that those leaders had opted out of leadership for the moment.

Here’s what happened. Jerome asked me if Victory – my local church in Manila – would promote some upcoming JesusRev events. I told him that I do not make those decisions for Victory, that Victory has twelve congregations in Metro Manila and that each pastor is empowered to make decisions for their congregation. And, I told him that we have two national youth organizations that may be willing to promote the events, Every Nation Campus Ministries-Philippines and Every Nation Youth-Philippines, but again, I don’t make those decisions.

Jerome told me that he had already spoken to a couple of these Victory and Every Nation leaders and was told that they would have to talk to me about it.

I thought I had clearly delegated the authority to them, but they told Jerome that they needed my permission. Either I had failed to communicate clearly or someone had decided to pass the buck back to me. Either way, I recognized a leadership development moment. 

Like many, Jerome assumed that in order to get something done, he had to go to the top – that would be me. But, I refused to usurp the decision-making authority I had already delegated. I guess I could have saved Jerome the trouble of tracking down twelve congregational pastors and two national directors by making the decision myself. But in the long run, every time a leader delegates authority, then makes the decision himself, he creates confusion and kills morale.

Here’s the deal: once you delegate, you gotta get your hands off. It's not the end of the world, if a young leader makes a dumb decision. Every emerging leader needs the freedom to make some bad decisions. Every established leader needs to get out of the way long enough to let next generation leaders make some bad decisions.

All next generation leaders need to boldly make the decisions that have been delegated to them. Don’t pass the difficult or unpopular decisions back to the top. Make the decision. If it turns out to be the wrong decision, admit it and learn from it. If it is right, thank God for his wisdom.

So, which was it - did I fail to communicate clearly, or did those I delegated to pass the buck back to me? Probably a bit of both.

Can Established Leaders & Emerging Leaders Work Together?

My old friend, Jerome Ocampo, dropped by my office yesterday. When I first met Jerome in 1984, we were both in our 20's, both trying to plant churches, both broke and clueless.

We both had big vision and little training. We made up for our lack of experience with faith and zeal. Neither of us knew how to plant a church, but that didn't stop us from trying.

Jerome is the founder of the Jesus Revolution Now! movement. No one believes in the next generation more than the JesusRev people. I like the way they talk about bridging the spiritual generation gap in their vision statement: "We are a catalyst for the mobilization of two generations to hunger for revival..."

...the mobilization of two generations...

Can two generations really be mobilized together? Can established leaders and emerging leaders really work together? Can current leaders and next generation leaders really lead together?

Or does there have to be a passing of the baton, so they don't kill each other?

The "pass the baton" concept of leadership transition, where one generation sits and serves - waiting for the "man of God" to transfer his mantle or die - is not what we are after. Since most visionary leaders are never quite ready to retire to South Florida to eat Jello and play shuffle board, they are never quite ready to pass the baton - until one month after their funeral.

I have seen situations where the next generation leader is in his 40's, and he's still considered a "young leader" not quite ready for the big game. He is still waiting for his turn. Problem is that by the time he finally gets the baton, he will have to run with a walker.

Most next generation leaders get tired of waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Eventually they leave, so they can lead. Sad. Two generations should be mobilized together.

Established leaders and emerging leaders are supposed to walk together. Work together. Lead together. Do life together. Change the world together. Cross the finish line together.

I know that leading together is the hard way. But the option - losing the next generation - is even harder.

A few years ago I wrote in my Evangelicals Today column about two generations crossing the finish line together. If you want a good picture of two generations running together, check out this 2 minute video. The vid will make more sense after reading my ET column at the above link.

(I fly to Nash in 12 hours. Better go pack & sleep. Will see some of you soon.)    

Leading WITH the Next Generation

A few blogs ago - seems like a month ago - I summarized the 2007 Every Nation World Conference in 5 statements:
    1. We are called to the ends of the earth.
    2. We need the power & presence of the Holy Spirit.
    3. We must remember the poor.
    4. We must empower the next generation.
    5. "All we need is love."

Here are my quick thoughts on point #4...

We must empower the next generation.

There seems to be an endless debate on the culture clash between established leaders and emerging leaders, especially in the church world. (If this "emerging leader" phrase is new to you, think "spiritual generation gap" - to the 10th power.)   

Some of the stuff I read makes the situation look pretty hopeless. But when I read the Bible, which says there is nothing new under the sun, I find hope that 2 generations can work and lead together.

Paul & Timothy. Elijah & Elisha. Moses & Joshua.

And there was King Saul and David, at least for a couple of chapters. I know we don't usually hold King Saul up as a model leader, but when in terms of empowering next generation leaders there is much to  learn from him. (See 1 Samuel 17:38-40) 

Saul gave David his armor to fight Goliath. David's generation had their own way of fighting giants - sticks, stones and slings. That was OK with Saul. So, with a stick in one hand and a sling in the other, David planted a stone in Goliath's head.

Here are some leadership lessons established and emerging leaders must learn if we hope to slay the modern giants that mock our God:

- Like Saul who thought he was helping and protecting David, established leaders often force our armor on the next generation.

- Like most emerging leaders, David was not comfortable fighting in Saul's armor.

- Unlike many established leaders, Saul actually LISTENED TO the next generation's complaints and EMPOWERED David to choose a style he was comfortable with.

- Unlike many emerging leaders, David RESPECTFULLY declined Saul's armor. David did not sarcastically blog about and trash the armor. He simply said HE was not comfortable in it. 

My generation knows how to teach and lead the next generation. If we are serious about reaching the ends of the earth, we can learn much from Saul & David about how to LISTEN TO and LEAD WITH the next generation.

The fact is, emerging leaders will be established leaders sooner than later, and they will have to figure out how to LEAD WITH the next group of emerging leaders, who will probably think the old way of doing church is irrelevant and outdated.

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This blog made me laugh.
This site really made me laugh.

Ideas From the Edge

In my last reluctant leader blog I promised one more Ed quote. (That would be Dr Dr Ed Stetzer, church planting guru extraordinaire.)

Here it is:

“Good ideas don’t come from the center, but from the periphery. Good leaders listen to and pull ideas from the periphery to the center. If the center becomes adversarial with the edge, good ideas are lost and good people on the periphery are eventually lost.”

This edge/center principle equally applies whether you are leading a business, a church, a small group, a department of volunteers (ushers, kids church, worship team) or a church movement.   

Here are some creative leaders - idea generators - who are or were on the periphery.

-    Jack Hayford was the creative radical of the Foursquare denomination 25 years ago. He was the edge. Now Pastor Jack, King’s College and Church on the Way are the center of the Foursquare movement.
-    Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven model was not exactly the center for traditional Southern Baptists 15 years ago. Now his ideas are gradually being pulled from the edge closer to the center.
-    Ed Young Jr and Andy Stanley are more recent versions of Baptist leaders on the edge whose methods will eventually become the center.
-    Gary Lamb and a host of other untucked blogging Baptist church planters are still periphery guys, but as their numerical success becomes known, everyone will try untucking their shirts and writing blogs as the latest can’t-lose church growth strategy.

Here are a couple examples from my own church, Victory Christian Fellowship in Metro Manila, Philippines.

-    When Luther Mancao started preaching (and doing) that “cell church” stuff in 1990, it fell on deaf ears (mine). But as he kept giving me books and teaching and demonstrating small group discipleship, his ideas eventually found their way from the edge to the center.
-    When Ferdie Cabiling returned from South America four years ago with this crazy idea for Victory Weekends, it was definitely an idea from the edge. Now it is as center as can be.
-    Joey Bonifacio has ideas from the edge on a daily basis. That’s one reason our church keeps on growing. 

The list could go on and on, but since this blog is not sponsored by Eveready, it will not.

So what’s the point?

To me, the point is that I need to listen to and try to understand those creative and radical people who live and work on the periphery of my staff, my church and my movement. Many of these ideas from the edge are a hundred times better then anything we are currently doing.

Then again, some creative ideas are just plain nuts, but we’ll never really know until we listen.

(Speaking of nuts, check out my latest blog “American Athletic Superiority” on my accidental missionary multiply site.)     

Learning From the Best

I love to learn. And that's a good thing, because there is so much I don't know. I was fortunate today to be able to learn from one of the best. When it comes to church planting in North America, the best would be Dr Dr Ed Stetzer. (Is it Dr Dr or is it double doctor?)

Last week Ed was speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention. Tomorrow he is speaking to Mark Driscoll and those Acts 29 dudes. (You have to use words like "dude" when referring to certain movements.)

I guess it was appropriate that Ed squeezed Every Nation in his busy schedule, right between the traditional Southern Baptists and the radical Resurgents.

I learned a lot today. Now the hard part - doing something about what I learned. Of course these days most leaders simply substitute blogging for doing. But since I'm old school, I will attempt to blog and do.

As soon as I met Ed this morning, he mentioned my "accidental missionary" blog where I called people who read his books "church geeks." I had to immediately clarify that I was not calling Ed a geek and that I was actually using the G-word in the most positive way possible.

That clarified, Kevin York, David Houston and I got down to the business of picking Ed's enormous brain about everything related to being the best church-planting movement possible. Here are some classic Ed quotes that helped me in my quest to become a better church planter and an official church geek.

"People and leaders come and go, but values never change."
Glad to know that people coming and going is normal. Also, I'm glad to announce that - like 'em or not - our values are here to stay.

"Most pastors tend to be less psychologically healthy than the population as a whole, and most mega-church pastors are even less healthy."
I can't tell you how much that statement encouraged me, and, I guess it also explains me. And Joey. And Ferdie. And other close friends and associates of mine. 

"The demons that drive you, are the same demons that eventually drag you down."
That also explains a lot - not just about church leaders, but also about leaders in business, sports, government and every other field where driven people temporarily thrive then dive. The trick, I guess, is to tame those demons after they have driven us to success, but before they drag us down and destroy what we built. If anyone knows exactly where that line is, please post it. (Or call our toll-free hot-line: 1-800-DYSFUNCTION.)

"They're idiots."
This not what Ed said under his breath about me, Kevin and David as he left our meeting; it was a candid response to a question about certain self-proclaimed "church experts" who seem to be more passionate about being cool, controversial and fashionable than reaching the lost. I completely agree with Ed's double doctor professional assessment.

"The church is not the center of God's plan, Jesus is, but the church is central to His plan."
I love the Church and the church, and so does God.

One more Ed quote coming in a future blog.

All for now.

PS: It was a joy to work with a man who modeled a balanced mix of spiritual depth, knowledge, humility and humor.

 

Leadership is...Getting Out of the Way

I recently realized that at some point in my life - and I'm not exactly sure when - but a major shift happened in the way I approach ministry, leadership and maybe life in general. 

I used to be obsessed with trying to learn to be a good leader.

Since I am not a "natural" leader, I knew I had to somehow obtain those elusive leadership skills. So, I read leadership books. I took seminary classes. I studies church, political and business leaders. I sought mentors. All of this helped, I think. But it seems like I still had to learn most of my lasting leadership lessons the hard way - by taking a risk, falling flat on my face, getting up and trying again.   

As time went on, leadership books and seminary classes gradually started to bore me. I was no longer pumped about being a better leader. I am not sure whether that is good or bad, but that is the truth.

I got bored with Kouzes & Posner, Noel Tichy, Jim Collins, Robert Clinton, Aubry Malphurs, Patrick Lencioni, Hanz Finzel, John Maxwell and all the other leadership gurus and their books. I just couldn't take another paragraph about leadership.

Again, I don't know when or why it happened, but my new obsession became, not how to be a better leader, but how to help those around me become better leaders.

Once I got bored with leadership books and my obsession changed, it didn't take long for me to realize that in order to help others become better leaders, I would sometimes have to get out of their way so they could actually lead - so they could take a risk, so they could fall flat on their faces, so they could start over and try again, and again, and again.

To become better leaders people need the freedom to succeed and fail without our interference or intervention. With all due respect to the leadership books and seminary classes, I think I really learned leadership through trial and error and trying again.

I remember a t-shirt I had back when No Fear was a cool new brand. It said something like this: "Lead, Follow, or Get the #&$%@* Out of the Way!"

I think those No Fear people were on to something with that "get out of the way" line. For several years I have been trying the "stay out of the way" leadership development strategy, in order to help those around me become the best leaders they can be.

That seemed to be what Jesus was hinting at when He told his disciples that it was better for them that He go away. They had a hard time with that plan, but it worked out OK, their countless leadership mistakes notwithstanding.

All that to say, Leadership is...Getting Out of the Way.