Leadership is good.

There. I said it. I get nervous when I hear people throwing out the baby of leadership with the bathwater of a bad leader or model of leadership.

So no, I'm not giving an unqualified endorsement of all leadership. I just wanted to get your attention. It's more accurate to say that leadership is necessary for the growth and well-being of any structured or quasi-structured group, and can be, indeed, very good.

That's great that you don't want you or anyone else running roughshod over the community of faith you're a part of. I understand that the CEO megalomaniac at the church you left was not modeling good leadership. I've got no argument with you there. Leadership doesn't have to mean (as it seems to for certain U.S. presidents I know of) being the neighborhood bully, pushing your narrow agenda come hell or high water. Leadership doesn't have to be a matter of one person's ego basking in the glow of a few or thousands of devoted congregants. Toss that model in the garbage can.

But running away from leadership can be just as toxic. Oh, but wait, you say. Consensus-building is much better than leadership. Righty-o, on one level. Building consensus is a part of good leadership. But on another level, if decisions are based solely on gaining everyone's agreement, you get bogged down pretty quickly. Decisions take too long, or don't get made at all. Energy starts to get focused inward on these unmade decisions, and communities of faith start to wither on the vine for lack of energy and motivation to look beyond themselves. That's what happens with limp or non-existent leadership. These, not the CEO style, are the systems I've too long been a part of. No leadership? No thanks.

Good leaders can hold and articulate a vision for the community. Good leaders are gifted at finding a path from current reality towards that vision. They hold a lantern to the path, and listen to the counsel of others who see the way forward when the lamp grows dim. Good leaders earn the trust invested in them by others in a community. Good leaders share power. They are not afraid to bare their weaknesses, and encourage others to use their strengths.

It is only recently that I've begun to recognize myself as a leader. For awhile, I was comfortable with consensus, with staying way in the background of decision-making. But being on a plane that never gets off the runway gets old quick, especially when you've run out of peanut packets, and the tiny bathrooms start to smell. When the smell got really bad, I started to notice something. People wanted my opinion. People listened when I articulated a vision that we shared. People wanted me to lead them out of the stink.

I'll never be wildly charismatic. People don't flock to me by the thousands. But I recognize certain gifts God has entrusted to me. I don't want to back off from them. I've seen how a lack of leadership can cause huge problems in communities of faith. Some of you are similar to me-you might miss your leadership gifts if someone doesn't point them out to you. Some of you have the charisma to be the CEO leading thousands.

Whatever danger you're in-leading weakly, or leading with a heavy hand-if God has given you gifts in leadership, please use them. For Jesus' sake, and for the sake of his kingdom.

I recently read Jim Collins' "Good to Great", which discusses companies in the business world that have gone from mediocrity to greatness. One of the key ingredients is what he calls "Level 5 Leaders" - people who balance extreme humility with an uncompromising sense of purpose and the importance of the task they are doing. Might be worth a read if you're looking for alternatives to the megalomaniacal CEO model (which Collins bashes pretty squarely).
--Adam ( adam at zealforyourhouse dot com ) on 3/30/2004; 6:19:19 PM

I learned the hard way in my summer as a hospital chaplain that not taking my authority (one aspect of leadership) as a chaplain seriously could be as damaging to the people in my care as taking it too seriously. As a woman I have needed to define what my authority and with it my leadership will look like and claim it. Thanks for naming the importance of that process, especially in the face of an obsession with consensus that can paralyze true vision and following God's lead.
--Stacy ( assist-stlukes at ameritech dot net ) on 3/26/2004; 12:36:11 PM

Lamott is right on. I have that tape from emergent. I have to listen to it again.
-- ( pelkeyland at enter dot net ) on 3/5/2004; 3:49:06 PM

Good stuff . . . leadership for me here as part of a denomination has been very much like that of balancing a strong and confident vision of the church so folks think I know what I am doing and where we are headed AND being humble enought to know that in so many ways, I don't ;-), but others might if we find faithful ways of listening.

Peace all - Bruce
--Bruce Reyes-Chow ( brucerc at missionbaycc dot org ) on 3/5/2004; 1:23:27 PM

As we decon/recon leadership, it's easy to throw out leadershp altogether. But as Todd Hunter recently said at the Off the Map Coaching Clinic in Seattle, "the answer to misuse is not disuse." It's great to hear people thinking out loud about what they value in leadership and in a leader; what natural giftings are being found useful these days; and how guidance can be offered in a way that is palatable to an emerging community. If you can find it, give Brian McClaren's "The Missional Pastor: Becoming a design-architect for a new kind of ministry" as spin. (a.k.a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz as a new model for leadership.) It's on a CD from Youth Specialities from the 2003 National Pastors & Emergent Convention. The Anne Lammot CD on "what we don't need from our pastors," from the same convention (?) is also great.

journeying onward,

Rachelle
--Rachelle Mee-Chapman ( rachelle at seattlevineyard dot org ) on 3/5/2004; 1:11:53 PM