Posts Tagged ‘Church planting’
managing vs. leading
I might as well just feed David Watson stuff into this blog and then call it a day. I was asked by a few of my ardent subscribers [2?] to write more on leadership and everytime I read Watson’s blog on leadership it just encapsulates exactly what I’d want to say. So why not just copy it?
The big thrust is this – management over leadership. As I reflect on reading many leadership books, listening to countless diatribes on leadership, I find that most of them have to do with managing. Managing resources and people to get the objectified yet “spiritualized” goal of either church planting or church growth.
And I realize the questions that divides the two is this: are we developing people or developing the organization? And I haven’t found many who’s heart is to truly develop people at the expense of the organization. Because the truth is that there will be plenty of moments where we must choose one over the other. They are not one in the same. But that already begs a lot of different questions that this posting wasn’t meant for in the first place.
Another way of communicating this:
Manager –>> Uses People [incl. other Resources] –>> Develop/Build Churches
OR
Leader –>> Uses Churches [Structure/Money/Vision] –>> Develop/Build People
Is the goal church or people? That’s a big difference. David Watson fleshes this out more… I’ve had a few people read this and immediately realize that they’ve been managers and not leaders all along. Take a read:
As I begin this new series on Leadership, I want to orient us towards a biblical understanding of leadership. Most of us have spent a lifetime studying leadership. We have read all the secular and religious leadership and management books we can get our hands on. We have attended the conferences and seminars, and some of us have led conferences or seminars on leadership. Many of us have degrees that include elements of management and/or leadership. Our ministries are about developing leaders, and we are serious about our coaching and mentoring skills.
With all this information, why is it that there is a dearth of good leaders, much less, great leaders, in the in the world – whether we are looking at government, business, non-profits, or ministry. Understand, I am not talking about management, I’m talking about leadership. For many, there is little difference between management and leadership. Both involve people. Both are about reaching objectives. But the focus is very different. Management requires some leadership skills, and leadership certainly requires some management skills.
missional vs. attractional
I hesitate to write those two words because those are specific to church people… and not just any church people, but church leaders describing organizational process. In anycase, if you fit into that category… then here’s an interesting article with Neil Cole and Ed Young, two leaders who sit on the opposite extreme of the missional/attractional spectrum.
The article says, “The contrasts between Young and Cole are striking: extrovert and introvert, megachurch and microchurch, centralized and decentralized. But what’s surprising is what these two leaders share in common.” When I read the interview… I can’t think of one thing that the two guys have in common. As a house church guy, I find Young’s answers ridiculous especially as they compare and contrast them in the interview. I’m not a big fan of blogging about church methodology, but thought this article was interesting.
Coming and Going
Two leaders. One mission. Two very different strategies.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Observing Neil Cole and Ed Young Jr. is a study in contrasts. The soft-spoken Cole quietly entered the vacant sanctuary where we were meeting. He lingered in the back for a while before anyone realized he had arrived. By contrast, Young burst into the room with a shout—every head turned. The sanctuary was immediately electrified.
Their contrasting personalities are paired with very different approaches to ministry. Ed Young Jr. is senior pastor of Fellowship Church, a seeker-driven congregation that began in Dallas in 1990. After surpassing 20,000 in weekly attendance, Fellowship Church is still growing with a highly structured multi-site model that uses video broadcasts of Young’s sermons. The megachurch now has four locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and recently launched its fifth campus in Miami, Florida.
Neil Cole is a pastor and the director of Church Multiplication Associates (CMA), a “growing family of organic church networks.” Cole advocates a decentralized, micro-church strategy to reach the growing number of people who will never be attracted to a worship service. CMA began in 1990, the same year as Young’s Fellowship Church. In that time, Cole’s network has launched hundreds of churches in homes and coffeeshops across forty states and thirty countries.
