Rejection is part of life

"Rejection can be a major hindrance to creating an empowering church culture"

Rejection can be a major hindrance to creating an empowering church culture. Leaders are not immune to this as they are on the front line and so handling rejection comes with the territory. The fear of being rejected can create a very damaging pattern of behavior in our lives. It can cause us to feel that we are not good enough and that we are failures. Jesus, when he sent out the twelve apostles on a mission, wanted to prepare them so that they would deal with rejection in an appropriate way.

Jesus understood what it was like to be rejected “He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him” (John 1:11- Message). Isaiah prophesied about him, “He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by men” (Is. 53:3). Jesus said “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law…” (Mark 8:31)

Sometimes we act in such a way that makes people reject us for the wrong reason. Jesus instructed his disciples on how they were to conduct themselves. He told them “Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting” (Matt. 10:12). They were also to eat everything that was put before them. I am amazed how some people get hurt & rejected for acting in an inappropriate way and then feel they have been hard done to.

To be continued…

Delegate like Jesus - What have we learned?

So this week I have been talking about the importance of delegating like Jesus.

In part one I discussed the need to delegate properly by giving authority as well as a task. “Jesus was a great delegator. The principles we find in the narrative as he sends out the twelve disciples give us a fantastic insight into the skill of effective delegation.”

In part two of the series I looked at what our motivations for delegation can and should be. “When we give people authority, we are affectively empowering them by giving them the right to get on with the task. This should involve them having access to the personnel they need with the appropriate equipment and support from others necessary to get the job done.”

Yesterday in part three, I suggested that there is no short cut when developing people and so delegation must be done effectively. “It takes time and hard work to instruct and train people. Jesus knew when to give some very lengthy and broad reaching instructions and at other times he gave very specific and detailed instructions.”

Delgate like Jesus - part 3

"There is no short cut to developing great people. It takes time and hard work to instruct and train people."

Bill Hybels: “A recruit’s hesitance is often directly related to lack of information. People need to know their exact responsibilities, where they have to show up, who’s going to be there, how much time it’s going to take. They cannot say yes to a bunch of unknowns”

After giving authority Jesus then gave the disciples some specific instructions regarding the scope and sphere of the delegated task. “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel”. Having underlined their role to preach about the kingdom and heal the sick he then gave very specific instructions about the way they were to conduct themselves as they went from village to village. Undefined tasks with little instruction will not help to develop people.

There is no short cut to developing great people. It takes time and hard work to instruct and train people. Jesus knew when to give some very lengthy and broad reaching instructions and at other times he gave very specific and detailed instructions. For example he sent the disciples to rent a room or to get a Donkey.

Learning how to encourage and give appropriate information and feedback without overly interfering is an art often learned the hard way. With a volunteer organisation there are many variables to take into account when delegating that affect how you manage specific volunteers.

To be continued

Delegate Like Jesus - part 2

"When we give people authority, we are affectively empowering them by giving them the right to get on with the task"

Sir Alex Ferguson: “We had a crop of young players developing who were outstanding, and we knew that we would have a secure future with them. It was the fruit of hard work, total dedication, long hours and self-belief”

When we give people authority, we are affectively empowering them by giving them the right to get on with the task. This should involve them having access to the personnel they need with the appropriate equipment and support from others necessary to get the job done.

There can be mixed reasons & motives why we don’t give sufficient authority to a person. Sometimes it’s simply because we have not looked at all different interconnecting facets that are associated with the task. An example of this would be when the delegated person needs to spend money. They have to go back and get the leaders permission for the money because they have not been authorised as a budget holder. Access to recruit sufficient volunteers can also be very frustrating and depowering.

Sometimes leaders lack conviction about the person’s ability to carry out the task. If this has validity then it would be best to be honest with them and make the scope of delegation appropriate to this. As well as giving encouragement that you could well increase the level of authority as the person succeeds. Sometimes the leader wants someone to do the task without giving away any of their own power. This in the end leads to frustration and people feeling that they are just being used.

To be continued

Delegate like Jesus

"authority can be the last thing on our agenda, when we are preparing people for the tasks we want them to do for us"

Bryn Hughes “it’s not sufficient just to create opportunities. Research is quite clear about the reason why delegated tasks can and do go wrong… is that the delegator can be unwilling to delegate sufficient authority along with the task.”

Why and how we delegate tasks is a subject that has been covered countless times in scores of books, seminars and blogs on leadership and management. We will find, unsurprisingly, that Jesus was a great delegator. The principles we find in the narrative as he sends out the twelve disciples give us a fantastic insight into the skill of effective delegation.

First, Jesus gave the disciples authority to drive out evil spirits and heal every kind of disease. It is interesting that authority can be the last thing on our agenda, when we are preparing people for the tasks we want them to do for us. Bryn’s remarks that this that it is one of the main reasons that delegated tasks can and do go wrong.

Secondly, Jesus was very specific in what area he was giving them authority. In a future blog I will discuss how very specific his instructions were on the scope, or arena that the disciples would be able to exercise the authority he was giving them.

With the giving of authority there was also an impartation of faith for the disciples to do the works that Jesus was demonstrating. They seemed to do well on this trip but on another occasion nine of them failed miserably to cast out the demon in a young boy.

To be continued

The joy of allowing failure

"Not enough leaders look at their own responsibility and failure in a person not being successful"

Elbert Hubbard “The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually to be fearing you will make one.”

When looking for workers, one of the things some leaders say is “I don’t want anyone to go through the grief and pain I went through”, forgetting it was the very grief and pain that helped mature and train them for leadership. Or sometimes they say the person is too young, or the person is far too busy… they have just had another child or have started a demanding job. Another big negative is when leaders say “Last time we gave them a job they did not cope” (sounds a little like John Mark) or “They have not been in the church long enough”.

One of the things we must get straight when creating an empowering culture is that, in the main, we must not rule people out before they have had a chance to comment. I remember asking a busy heart consultant who turned up for everything in the church how he managed it (he also had 8 children!) He said, “Busy people will find time if they think it is worth doing.”

I also have noticed that we are very one-dimensional in how we define a job. Churches often act more like multinational companies with standard operating procedures than small-to-medium size volunteer organisations. A church with an empowering culture is as flexible as possible on how a task is delivered. This puts the emphasis on creating a job description that is tailored for the person and takes into account their gifts and the season of life they are in.

What about when a person has failed in a previous job or has let us down? The first thing leaders must ask is, “Did we give them the wrong job or not support them enough?“ Not enough leaders look at their own responsibility and failure in a person not being successful. Often the failure is part of a person’s growth, as they can learn as much from the failure as from the success. This should mean they could be asked again to do another job and not written off.