Leadership Courage Series # 25 For a number of months we’ve been looking at Christian leadership from what I hope are refreshing and resourceful perspectives. The genesis of this entire series is A Failure of Nerve by the late Edwin Friedman. I am again indebted to him for sparking today’s thoughts with his charge to […]
The Unreasonableness of Being Reasonable (part one) Read More »
Leadership Courage Series # 24 Here’s a final look at the 80/20 Rule and its connection to the culture of cowardice in the North American Church. And, it may be hard to hear. Could it be that a distorted substitute for biblical grace has taken the Church? Consider how little the Church asks of Christians…
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Leadership Courage Series # 23 We’re looking at another characteristic of the culture of cowardice that’s become normative in North American Christianity: the 80/20 Rule is flourishing! As senior pastor, elder, or lay leader, what can you do to Undermine the 80/20 Rule in your congregation? One: Think like a people-developer, not a gatherer of
Undermine the 80/20 Rule (part two) Read More »
Leadership Courage Series # 22 Why is it that 20% of the people in our churches are doing all the giving, all the serving, all the ministry? What if we who lead have actually established the culture that reinforces 80/20? What are we communicating such that the vast majority of church dwellers feel great about
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For the last eleven segments in a Leadership Courage Series that’s now twenty installments in length we’ve been investigating the challenge facing pastors today to stand with courage and clarity in a religious context that, for decades — maybe centuries — has become less and less courageous and clear. In this spiritual vacuum the greater
The Adventurous Life #2 Read More »
Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part ten) Where and when did the role of Pastor become so closely associated with the characteristics of terrible leadership: anemic, people-pleasing, comfort-oriented, weakness-honoring, safety-bound, consensus-collecting, approval-seeking, distress-abating caretaking? How did we get from the decisive, principle-inspired boldness of Jesus with the money-changers [Mt 21], Paul and the riot
Leadership Courage Series #19: Read More »
Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part nine) Examining courageous leadership, a fifth principal is: Don’t “push on the rope”: the unmotivated are invulnerable to insight. Watching ministers lead for more than thirty years, it’s breathtaking how diligently and fruitlessly so many of us labor to lead those who are least-motivated to follow. No wonder
Leadership Courage Series #18: Read More »
Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part eight) We’re investigating a fifth leadership concept: Don’t “push on the rope”: the unmotivated are invulnerable to insight. This perspective is of central importance to pastors who are committed to lead their congregations through change. Maybe it’s because the religious culture’s assumption is that the shepherd’s role is
Leadership Courage Series #17: Read More »
Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part seven) What kind of pastor will lead the Church in our day to salt and light the world? Pastor, what can you do to arouse your church from its slumber and stand in the storm of insolence and juvenility that such a stirring will provoke? For several weeks,
Leadership Courage Series #16: Read More »
Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice (part five) If the Church in North America is to become fully alive, awake, and influential, her pastors must become what they were always intended by God to be. Courageous leaders. What does it mean to live and lead courageously, particularly amidst a culture of cowardice? Here’s a quick
Leadership Courage Series #14: Read More »