Leaders need time to think for themselves

"leaders have taken these strategies and put them into practice without thinking through how they may work in a different context"

William Deresiewiez…. true leadership means being able to think for yourself and act on your convictions.

Reading a William Deresiewiez lecture, delivered at West Point, reminded me of something that had bugged me for a long time. That is, how many church leaders are looking for the perfect “off the peg idea”, on how to structure their church for growth, and then implementing these new ideas without thinking through all the ramifications and concepts behind the strategy. Over the years this had led to numerous examples where churches have been subjected to whole scale change with such notions as cell church, house church, attractional church, missional church, church with congregations, church with sites etc. 

It would be a very cheap to make some cynical remark about these different approaches as they have often come out of many years of success. My concern has not been these various church structures, but the way leaders sometimes have naively taken these strategies and then put them into practice without thinking through how they may work in a different context. The outcome often fails to live up to expectations and can leave people cynical about their leaders and their church. As the proverb says “hope deferred makes the heart grow sick”

To be continued…

Leaders need time to think for themselves

William Deresiewiez…. true leadership means being able to think for yourself and act on your convictions.