Posts Tagged ‘David Watson’
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.
leadership
I’m fairly packed out this last week before Christmas. With prepping for things this weekend and other random Christmas odds and ends. But I read a post by David Watson that really summed up well my suspicion about spiritual leadership.
I’ve found myself to be a student of leadership and have read a fair amount of books and have always had an ear for bits of wisdom from good leaders. But I have to say that I get tired of the alpha-male type leadership paradigm. And feel like there’s something wrong with Christian leadership borrowing too much from the secular landscape. At the risk of raising the argument that “all truth is God’s truth”… let me say that I mostly buy into that.
But there is always something counter-intuitive when you try to understand any topic in light of the Gospel. It’s safe to say that it’s never… I mean NEVER the way everyone else understands it. And maybe why the Gospel is still so revolutionary.
Here’s David Watson’s post on leadership – original post here:
I have been thinking a lot about leadership the past few months. What makes a leader? We are created in the image of God, and there is an inherent leadership quality that is a part of creation. Some people are born leaders. We see them all the time. Yet, many of these natural leaders never become spiritual leaders.
no movement in north america
I’ve been reading a few blogs that are thoroughly convicting. There are common themes among the radical apostolic types. It’s this radical recommitment to the simple ways of Jesus. We talk, but we don’t do. And the world knows it. And I’m finding more and more that the linchpin in all this should be discipleship. Following Jesus with reckless abandon. It’s not church methodology… finding a model that you just reproduce… but a simple heart to do what Jesus wants no matter the cost.
David Watson who has been a part of a mind-blowing church planting movement in India says this… wrote this about why there are no real church planting movements in North America:
In the last 15 years, over 40,000 churches sprang up in an area in North India known as the ‘graveyard of missions and missionaries.’ Some of these churches are tenth generation church plants and studies show that the tenth generation is as mature and Biblically sound as the first. While persecution in this area is high, so is the faith of the church. They walk and talk with God. They see miracles everyday. They share their faith. They plant more churches. They pray for the sick. They take care of the widows and orphans. Although many are illiterate, they study the Bible inductively. They believe we have a choice – we read or listen to God’s Word, believe, and obey Him or we don’t. There is no middle ground.
People ask, “Why don’t we see church planting movements in the United States?” It is because we read God’s Word, but are not obedient. We amass knowledge about God, but we don’t do anything with our knowledge. We say we read God’s Word inductively but we usually stop before we get to the hard part: obedience. Until we read God’s Word and obey it, we will not see church planting movements in the United States.
