Where do I fit?

"Leaders must learn how to deal with the ambitions of our spouses and friends as they try and promote us."

The question “Where do I fit?” can often be one of the first things that enter a leaders mind when major transition is proposed. Interestingly, and sometimes less factored in to the process of change, are the way friends and relations also want to know the answer to that question on your behalf. "The mother of Zebedee’s sons" was brave enough to ask Jesus, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom."

This lady can get a lot of cheap jibes from preachers as she battles for her boys, yet she could have had some justification for her request. Jesus had made some leadership calls that gave Peter, James and John extra exposure to his ministry. They could have well told their mum about the special things that they had been chosen to witness leaving her, and them, with the idea that they were going to have a special place with Jesus in his future kingdom.

As a leader we must learn how to deal with these drives, and also the ambitions of our spouses and friends as they try and promote us. They can encourage those notions of importance, which can consume our thinking time and engage our emotions. Jesus response to these requests was interesting and will be covered in my next post.

The next blog: Over optimistic loyalty – Foolish bravery

Leaders Protecting the Status Quo

"I have heard leaders use the notion of a church member’s interests to safeguard their own position. "

The more I look at the way the apostles reacted (inappropriately - badly) to major change, the more optimistic I am about myself, and those I am training as leaders, in the churches in Manchester to succeed. Having had the tragic argument of who was the greatest exposed by Jesus, the apostles changed tack and complained to Jesus … “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” Luke 9:49

The desire to protect the status quo in a time of change is a very strong instinct. Sometimes, like the apostles, we can use what seems a very noble thing to protect ourselves. I have heard leaders use the notion of a church member’s interests to safeguard their own position. They argue that the proposed change would not go down well with a certain group of people, when it is really the leader who has the problem with the impending changes.

Leaders can also get very defensive in times of change and uncertainty. The Apostles reaction to the Samaritans villagers who did not welcome them was way over the top “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” (Luke 9:54). Before we look at Jesus response to their call for total destruction there are still other ways the apostles reacted to change. The next blog highlights the theme: Where do we fit?

Leaders lobbying for position and power

"There is something unseemly about leaders who try and influence things for their own good"

Having dealt decisively with Peter who arrogantly rebuked him (Matt 16:22), Jesus then had to cope with his team of leaders lobbying for the eminent position of “who was the greatest”. (Mark 9:33)

If you look up “leaders” in a thesaurus it shows words and phrases like best, cream of the crop, privileged and influential. It appears that all these factors were at play as the apostles began vying with each other for prominence in the new order. There is something unseemly about leaders who try and influence things for their own good, yet it even happened to those who Jesus specifically appointed to be key leaders.

Even though the apostles behaved in this way, it does not exonerate any of us for using major change to heighten our own prominence, especially at the expense of others. The Apostles were duly embarrassed and appropriately quiet as Jesus exposed their disagreeable argument about who was the greatest for what it was. In a future blog we will begin working through how Jesus dealt with the apostle’s different reactions. However in my next post I will outline another one of their responses: Protecting the Status Quo.

Outrageous response to major change

"Church leaders so quickly and easily describe certain types of reaction to change as immature or even rebellious"

Our reaction to major change and disruption is a constant source of amazement and occasional amusement to me. I am intrigued to see the way church leaders so quickly and easily describe certain types of reaction as immature or even rebellious. This can make those leaders (myself included) reluctant to put further investment into the person’s training, resulting in us capping their leadership growth and inadvertently further reducing the pool of able leaders.

I want to work through the Gospel narrative and see how Jesus’ senior leadership reacted to him introducing major change. The most important thing we must bear in mind is that Jesus never gave up on them. The first reaction I want to mention is the potentially stalling statement made by Peter.

Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. Peter’s outrageous response was to rebuke Jesus saying,  “Never, Lord!”…. “This shall never happen to you!” Matt 16:22

The NIV commentary succinctly sums this up, “Peter’s strong will and warm heart linked to his ignorance produced a shocking bit of arrogance.” We will look at the different ways Jesus handled their reactive statements in future blogs.

Next blog -  who is the greatest!?!

Communication that covers all the bases

"We don’t give enough time and attention to addressing how people will cope with their emotional response to the change"

After preparing the ground with some introductory and low-key statements about the future, Jesus began to be much more open and explicit in drawing the apostles into the discussion. “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matt. 16:21 (Mark 9:30 Mark 10:32)

As the time for transition approached Jesus’ communication was more intentional and specific. He not only addressed the details but also began to prepare the apostles regarding their own emotional reactions “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Mark 14:26-27

So often in communicating major transition we don’t give enough time and attention to addressing how people will cope with their emotional response to the change. This is particularly a challenge to leaders who outline the future in a one-off, “Great state of the church” address, filling it out with big ideas and little detail. Jesus was much more intentional and regular with the way he gave his disciples information, over a period of time covering all the bases.

In the next blog I will look at outrageous responses to major change.