An organization will rise as high as the leadership directs it; conversely, the same organization can be led down the path of failure if the organizational leadership fails to navigate the difficult path of leadership successfully. In the early 1980s, the Chrysler Corporation was on the verge of bankruptcy when Lee Iacocca stepped in to lead the company to profitability. The church faces a leadership crisis of its own. Over 4,000 churches are closing their doors each year in the United States (Wellman, 2013). In Henry and Richard Blackaby’s book entitled, Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda, the authors identify why there is a leadership crisis and what can be done to correct the problem. In the opening chapter of the book entitled, “The Leader’s Challenge,” the authors show an understanding of the challenges leaders face along with laying out the case for the need to address the issue. Christians who are leading secular businesses face the challenge of trying to be faithful to their convictions while their leadership team’s goal may be to simply make money at any cost. Church leaders face the challenge of trying to lead everyone to the same purpose and goals for the church. One of the challenges spoken of in chapter one is technology. Paradoxically, technology enhances our lives but also adds a new set of challenges for leadership. The speed at which technology changes makes keeping current difficult. What is new today is old tomorrow. The amount
Although Leading with Soul by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal was written in 1995, it is a classic best seller leadership book that is constantly praised for its innovative ways it encourages those to lead. It is such a classic that it has since been rewritten to reflect the current times and issues leaders face today, such as economic hardships. This book was definitely written ahead of its time in the ways that Bolman and Deal takes spiritual approaches to help those ranging from CEO’s to a regular employee find their path in life. Leading with Soul is an innovative way to inspire those to lead; it strikes down the conventional ways that leadership is discussed. Typically when one reads leadership books one finds chapters on principles, theories and skills however this focuses on leadership being an “uncommon journey of the spirit.”
Based on my analysis, I explain that AMC leaders who happen to be Christian leaders should understand what is leadership before getting into overarching goals from a Christian perspective and how should they should be handled properly. AMC leaders should explore the Christian principles by laying a strategic plan that is easy to understand and use it effortlessly and efficiently. However, when a leader keeps his maintenance of Christian’s core values and beliefs, he should be comprehensive and concise on where he leads his followers in his organization. “In regard to maintaining core values and beliefs, a common theme was that focusing on what you believe to be the ‘right thing to do’ gives a sense of personal integrity, self-worth, and even accomplishment—no matter what the final outcome” (Shaw, 2012, pg.59). Therefore, from a Christian perspective, a leader should seek and serve God and those he shows the way strategically in his organization.
The purpose of this paper is to summarize Module 5 of the AOL program, specifically group 226, through the evaluation of a contemporary Christian leader. In this paper I will discuss the contemporary Christian leader I have selected, analyze their effectiveness in business performance, and discuss how they have inspired me. I will also talk about what I have learned from this module that most benefited me. My hope is that through this paper, my readers will have a broadened scope of Christianity in our contemporary world.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding why organizations fail and spirituality in the workplace. While many organizations make the claim that God is a stakeholder, these words are of non-effect unless the leader first partakes in whatever is necessary to ensure the followers share the vision and are led by example.
Robert Banks and Bernice M. Ledbetter believe the subject of leadership to be one worth exploring, and they do so in their book much to our profit. In this short book, Banks and Ledbetter begin by presenting the overall question they want to answer: Do Christians' core convictions shape their views and practices of leadership or are they affected by wider cultural assumptions? [1]The book begins by exploring the many reasons for the increased interest in leadership today. The authors offer a plethora
One of the most shocking statistics noted in Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good by Amy Sherman is that if one attends church on a weekly basis, they spend 5 percent at most of their waking hours at church. The other 95 percent are spent out in the world. This illustrates the importance of why this book matters. Sherman starts off by setting the tone for readers – she gives a background as to why she found it necessary that she write this book – and how she read a book by Michael Lindsey in which he discussed research of prominent evangelical business leaders and how their faith impacts their behaviors and decisions at work. A few stood out, while the rest stated they kept a Christian plaque in their office or wore a cross around their neck. They did not fulfill their religious identity in conjunction with their careers. There was a complete disconnect between the two sectors of their lives, and Sherman recognized that. Kingdom Calling is a guidebook for anyone who has ever been concerned about living a divided life – especially for pastors and religious leaders, but for lay people and congregation members as well. In Kingdom Calling, Sherman sets up a three-part framework on how to grow and empower a congregation, a specific group in the church, or a single member.
Steering Through Chaos serves as a personal mentoring experience where leaders can experience the challenges and victories of organizational change vicariously through Pastor Scott Wilson's narrative of church growth. The underlying premise of the book is that great leaders do not lead through change, instead, they steer their organizations into the change process. This exercise rests on the leader's proficiency in discerning phases of organizational development and managing the potential energy of present growth to catapult the organization into another growth cycle. One's aptitude for predicting and implementing growth renewal is contingent on the leader's ability to continually increase their capacity for leadership, impart the vision and core values of the organization to a guiding coalition, and minimize the frustration of
Visioneering is a vital part of success to every leader who assumes influence to a church. Researchers such as Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development (FASICLD) and National Church Life Survey has been conducting surveys of church growth and leadership development to churches which in this research will be tackled the integral part of a leader’s vision as significant factor of a successful leadership in evangelical churches. This study investigates the effect of framing urgent need for vision in successful leading evangelical churches. We will be tracing the outcome of a leader who is a vision driven in relationship to a significant growth in churches in terms to its numerical goal, future direction, and mission. How does visioneering affects an evangelical church to fulfill what was commissioned to them? This review will exclude steps on how to be successful visionary leaders. This will not also explore leadership principles that will apply in creating visions which are most effective and relevant to every evangelical church. The intentions of this research will focus on visioneering as fundamental factor of leadership success.
In this leadership study case we see the 42 year old first-time pastor Karl facing a new organizational culture at 150 year old Whitney Avenue Congregational Church compared with his previous experience at Community Fellowship church where he tried to initiate some changes hopping that will make a difference in the congregation. After a couple of years teaching at a religious school, he went to seminary and completed all his coursework for Doctorate in Ministry. Now he was for the first time in a full time position as a pastor. Even he was a pastor for ten months at Whitney; he was still considered a newcomer by the “power holders”, which were a few old parishioners of the
Steinke addressed four core issues that leadership need to be addressed on a regular basis that includes: “1) Goals/missions; 2) Strength and Resources; 3) Anxiety and how to manage it's; and 4) Wholesomeness and to maintain it; and 5) Goals and applicable actions”. In this situation, the author feels that the church of attendance is at a stagnant state and that strongly relates to the core issues of anxiety and how to manage it along with wholeness and how to maintain it from dying. Here, the anxiety lies in watching the church membership rapidly decrease due to church leadership holding onto traditions and the refusal to make changes in the worship service and ministry leadership. In addition, wholesome and how to maintain its goal has deteriorated because the main system of leadership is unhealthy, in that, leadership is not open to understanding and with its form of spiritual dictatorship refuse to address concerns of its disease state of death. In addition, Peter L. Steinke stated that if congregation leader “struggle ineffective with one or more of the four core conditions, this can put the congregations in receipt of at-risk conditions for congregations”. Here, this author feels the main system should address its core issue by seeking god for wisdom and discernment to break this process of unhealthiness within that impacting its
In their book, Churches, Cultures and Leadership, Mark Lau Branson and Juan F. Martinez point out the perspective of “Practical Theology.” (Part 1, 39) They also explain the purpose of “Interpretive Leadership.” (133) Their stories helped me understand how the circumstances challenge church leaders. (Introduction, 19)
A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four
So the challenge for churches is how to pull together seven to 10 leaders with a shared passion for connecting people to Jesus in the same community. Once again the relational models for starting new churches meet the need.
“There is much that can be learned about leadership from Scripture” (Smith, 1992, p. 39). The Bible provides us with what God not only desires His man of God to be, but requires His under shepherd to meet His character traits.
If the leader is willing to be transparent and realize their own shortcomings and struggles, it will enable the leader to lead from a place of more passion, emotion, and persuasiveness. This type of honesty can attract many hurting, sad, and brokenhearted people to our churches from dysfunctional backgrounds that will sit under compassionate and relevant leadership. The book further explains that the leader should careful not to let selfishness, self-deception, and wrong motives come alive in leadership as product of the dark side. The fall of many leaders are directly attributable to these components. If this dark side arises, the leader is admonished to open and honestly deal with it before God. This will empower the leader for greater effectiveness. Some leaders may be