Posts Tagged ‘leading’
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.
