Charlie Wear’s Notes

Today, by Rob Bell…

I serendipitously arrived at an essay by Jay Gary, a PhD candidate in the Regent University program in Organizational Leadership. One of the paragraphs jumped out at me:

Rost claims management is built around authority relationships, while leadership is built around influence relationships. Management concerns managers and subordinates, while leadership deals with leaders and followers. Management exists to produce and sell goods, while "leaders and followers intend real change that reflect their mutual purposes" (p. 102). While Rost is not universally accepted in the field, he helped me realize that leadership was about influence relationships, not merely positional power. Unlike command and control relationships, influence is non-coercive and multidirectional. Leaders and followers influence each other mutually. Leaders persuade followers. In turn, followers persuade leaders. Depending on the situation, they may change places. Teams may even practice self-organizing leadership.

So here’s my question for today: Is it possible to be a good (maybe great) leader and a bad (maybe awful) manager? When I think about some of the experiences I have had in leadership and management in the last 6-7 years and apply this paradigm, so much begins to make sense. Leaders "influence." Ah, yes that explains it. Managers "get the job done." Leaders are declaring: "Let’s move forward." Managers are organizing the parade.

The combination of great leader and great manager in one person, I think, is pretty rare.

When I was learning how to drive a car in the dark ages of 1963 I was taught to take my foot off the accelerator when I applied the brakes. Frequently this was accompanied by pressing down on the clutch while the vehicle’s transmission was shifted. If I wanted to turn up the air conditioning I needed to roll down the windows a little more and push the wind-wing out a little.

So much of organizational leadership revolves around the use of the brake and the accelerator. When senior leaders are "feeling" flush (with money, trusted leaders or managers) they might become more permission-granting, allowing the vehicle to speed up. Of course, speeding sometimes leads to accidents, and especially after an accident it is hard for an organization to "drive" without pressing the brake at the same time as the accelerator. Lots of controls are put in place. Purchase orders, requisitions, and multiple committee meetings are the rule of the day.

The best organizational practices are those that allow the organization to "make good time" with the judicious use of brakes and downshifting when necessary. In my opinion, our American economy suffers from the brake and accelerator syndrome as applied by the Federal Reserve. What Americans don’t realize, I suppose, is that the Federal Reserve intended to burst the real estate bubble. The only way for this to be accomplished was for thousands of Americans to lose their homes, because the brakes had to be applied.

I found my easter sermon here today, thanks to Sheryl Bane at Peanut Butter and Jelly Boats.

On the eve of publication of Doug Pagitt’s new book, A Christianity Worth Believing, Doug and Bob Hyatt sat down at the National Pastors’ Convention for a chat about how Doug thinks of his critics, about pressure from the left and right, that infamous interview with Way of the Master, and what’s next- a career in politics?

They started off talking about tattoos (part of the conversation we’ll save you from…)  but a sun/moon/stars/Psalms tattoo led us to talking about Scriptural cosmology and how some people see/deal with Scripture… and that’s where we jump into the conversation…

 

 A Christianity Worth Believing -- Interview with Doug Pagitt: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Are people really struggling to make connections? Is "authentic" community as big a deal as church leaders make it out to be? My friend Scott Bane is talking about these issues on his blog. These days I have some extra time to think about these quandaries. Just about a year ago I was up to my neck in thinking about how a new church would deal with some of these issues. Now I am observing from 2000 miles away what is happening in that same new church on these same issues.

I think it is basic to say that most people fulfill their need for community in their families. If this is true, then the need for community increases proportionately when family ties are weakened or broken. Likewise, where families are strong, these church-generated "community connections" are less important. For me the most valuable connections have been those I have made "on mission." This is because I am more of a human "doing" than a human "being."

Ah well, it’s Friday and another weekend is just around the corner. Time to spend with the family!

The time changed yesterday and I didn’t even notice it. I used to have alarm clocks, clock radios and such and with every time change I had to figure out how to change the clock. Now, I use my cell phone as my alarm clock, my computer and the satellite TV automatically change time. I suppose when I get in my truck this morning to head for work I will find that the clock needs to be set.

This is just another example of how much my life has changed since I stopped attending "regular" church services. In my days of "church" attendance time changes were important. They meant I had to get up "earlier" or that I got to sleep in "later."

The other time change that seems to be slipping by unnoticed is the difference between the way I live my life now and the way I lived my life ten years ago. Now there is something to contemplate for sure. I’ll have to do it later though because it is time to get ready for work.

One of my favorite mentors used to say something like, "It’s time to get born again, again!" There is something powerful about that idea. The idea that we can choose to turn our lives around, to surrender once again to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives, to make a commitment and a decision to once again, follow him.

This is a good time of year to think about these things, with Easter just around the corner. Jesus made the ultimate surrender when he laid his life down. His resurrection can be a sign of the power and hope that can come when we "give it all up."

I like Eugene Peterson’s take on a portion of the message to the church at Laodicea as found in Revelation 3:19:

"The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!

About face! Yeah, just another way of saying, Repent! Spring is just around the corner. Resurrection is just a repentance away. I think I’ll give it a go and be born again, again!

Ed Stetzer brings it at the Southern Baptist Convention and gives an excellent example of contextualization, preaching with all of the fire and passion that is expected from a Baptist preacher. His message? Get missional. This is really, really good.