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.

Why Church leaders stop growth

"When I speak about creating empowering cultures, I realise that the big hindrance is over-protective church leaders"

Edgar H. Schein: “If one wants to distinguish leadership and management, one can argue that leadership creates and changes culture, while management and administration act within a culture."

Jesus was creating an empowering culture, firstly by teaching his disciples how to do the works of the kingdom and then empowering, with great delegation skills, his disciples to have a go and therefore multiplying their effectiveness.

As I mentioned in a previous blog these guys were not the finished article. Jesus was well aware of their lack of perfection but empowered them to have a go anyway. He knew that part of the process of them growing was the very act of them engaging in works of service.

I am amazed at how conservative we are when it comes to engaging people in leadership roles. Somehow we think that if we teach people enough they will become the mature person we need for the particular leadership task. As maturity comes with “doing” as well as “hearing” we can’t help but wonder why only 20% of our people do 80% of the jobs and why there is a chronic leadership shortage in the church.

As I travel and speak about creating empowering cultures within churches, I realise that one of the big hindrances is over-protective church leaders. I sometimes ask them to go through the membership list of the church looking for potential small group leaders etc. I then listen as they make excuses why each person could not do the job, marginalising them before even asking them to do the task.

To be continued…

Pray in great people

"Many leaders moan that there is not enough of the right type of people to build with - never mind building great people"

Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Being motivated for growth and caring for the multitudes as Jesus did leaves us with a human resource problem. For any church leader facing such a situation, Jesus’ advice to pray for more workers is gold. I love the prayer and I have seen God answer me on many occasions. Faith rises up as I meditate on the fact that this is the Lord’s prayer - one that he was asking us to pray, knowing he will answer, as he is the Lord of the harvest.

It’s interesting that for me this could be seen as a little detour as I work through the subject of Jesus calling and building great people. The next part of the narrative shows us how to delegate and change the way we work. But before we get there, we need to lift our heads to see that this whole thing is God’s idea. For many leaders, their moan is that there is not enough or enough of the right type of people to build with - never mind building great people.

We at Christ Church Manchester are building a church in a poor and relatively un-churched part of Manchester. Generally people don’t just go on the internet to find the church’s website. Instead, virtually every person comes to the meetings through a personal invite. This could be through a chance encounter or because of a long-term relationship.

Growth happens through this prayer of faith. We pray this way without moaning and feeling sorry for ourselves, but with a grateful heart. We can do this because asking the Lord of the harvest to send workers into needy places is a massively fulfilling endeavour. It is through God answering these prayers we see his kingdom come, society change and the community of King Jesus grow.

To be continued…

Change a winning formula

"The task of leadership is to make the status quo more dangerous than launching into the unknown"

Sir John Harvey Jones once said, “The task of leadership is to make the status quo more dangerous than launching into the unknown.”

After a relatively short period of time building this leadership community and modelling his ministry to them, Jesus was going to gather his disciples and launch them out into the unknown. This was going to be a massive and scary challenge for them.

In Luke 9 we can see that Jesus was moving the disciples from the comfort zone of accompanying him as he enjoyed amazing success, to finding their own faith in God for healing, finance, as well as coping with rejection and hostility.

When things are going well and we are living with the pleasure of achieving some success, it is very hard to change things to achieve greater levels of success. This was going to be one of the pivotal moments in the way Jesus developed great people. It was going to need something to happen that would motivate him to make this adjustment and launch the disciples into the unknown.

For Jesus this motivation came as he saw in his mind all the towns and villages he could not reach if he carried on the same way he was working. He was “moved with compassion for the harassed and helpless people” who had no one to care for them.

To be continued…

Finding and building great people: Part 2

"It seems to me that maturity does not come with preparation only, but in harness with works of service."

John Maxwell says, “Those who believe in our abilities do more than stimulate us, they create an atmosphere in which it becomes easier for us to succeed. He goes on to say, “They must create a climate in which potential leaders will thrive

Jesus was not scared to speak out the futures of his disciples, even before they were trained and mature. Jesus was -
•    Believing them into greatness
•    Having faith for their future.

He was not put off when they blew it. There were times when the disciples showed amazing disregard for each other as they jostled for position. Peters amazing denial of his relationship with Jesus and then the rest of the disciples running away was finally eclipsed by one of them conspiring to destroy him.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he explains that the role of the apostles, prophets etc was to prepare Gods people for works of service. It seems to me that maturity does not come with preparation only, but in harness with works of service. So much training and discipling can be cerebral, merely imparting information with no outlet. A good example of this would be preaching classes that teach the theory, without any opportunity for sustained practical experience.

To be continued…

Finding and building great people

"Look for the gold, not the dirt: the good, not the bad. The more positive qualities you look for, the more you are going to find"

Dale Carnegie was a master at identifying potential leaders. Once asked by a reporter how he had managed to hire 43 millionaires, Carnegie responded that the men had not been millionaires when they started working for him. They had become millionaires as a result.”

He went on to say, “Men are developed the same way gold is mined. Several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold. But you don’t go into a mine looking for dirt, he added. You go looking for gold.

That’s exactly the way to develop positive people. Look for the gold, not the dirt: the good, not the bad. The more positive qualities you look for, the more you are going to find.

Matthew Henry one of the great English commentators of the bible says: “The instruments Christ chose to employ in setting up his kingdom, were the weak and foolish things of the world; not called from the great Sanhedrim, or the schools of the rabbis, but picked up from among the tarpaulins by the seaside”.

When Jesus challenged Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:16) to give up their livelihoods and follow him he also had in his mind the works of service they were going to do. Jesus called them to be fishers of men, later on identifying and naming them as Apostles.  To be continued……..